July 30th - Young Rider Day Off

I had a fairly good sleep last night until I woke up early this morning riding that extended canter in my mind over and over and over again. I do feel better today though, and I thought that yes, I have shown a ton and should not have made that mistake, but also, I have shown a ton and should know that things are never perfect in the dressage ring and things happen! Therefore, I know I will not be able to forget that error, but as much as I can I am directing all my attention to our Freestyle on Sat. I have already been listening to our music a number of times this morning, and am feeling excited to ride it saturday night!

The Juniors are riding their Individual test today. I wish the B.C. girls the best of luck and feel more medals coming on for them!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days. I really wish I could post all of them, but the lack of proper internet connection at the campground limits the uploading capability.

Oslo displaying his Fifth place team ribbon!

Erika, Santana, myself and our Chef D'Equipe, Leslie Steele at the Opening Ceremonies

Our once around before the Team test

The weather this morning was cool this morning and I was wearing a sweater for the first time since we have arrived! Once again though it has started to warm up and should be somewhere in the 30 degree Celsius range again today. We have only had a couple of thunderstorms during the middle of the days, but no one has had the luxury of riding in the rain yet! The best time to ride here is either first thing in the morning, late at night, or while it is raining! The humidity is also a killer here. Even when the sun is not beating down on you, the humidity causes you to be constantly sweating. We have all gotten used to it though, and we don't feel the need to have showers anymore! Just kidding, a nice long shower is a neccessity at the end of the day, but you just need to be prepared to be sweating immediately again after you get out of the shower! With the combination of the humidity and heat, you can't win.

Oslo has really seemed to relax and might even appreciate his stall now that he realizes it is far too hot outside in the afternoon. It does make me sad though to see his dissapointed face everyone time I take hime to the puny grazing area within the FEI Secure Stabiling area. I made sure to take him out as many times at the beginning, once they had just put up the fence, so he could eat the clover. Unfortunately, now the clover is pretty much all eaten (I am pretty sure Oslo got most of it since lots of the horses here don't seem to get grazing time very often or for very long), and Oslo just walks straight to the other side of the fence to hope that one of these times the fence is down and he can reach the luscious clover on the other side. =( The good news is that he now enjoys returning to his stall to chow down on his yummy hay. We have been a bit worried about him getting dehydrated since he hasn't been drinking a lot, but we had the vet check him out and he is not showing any signs of clinicial dehydration. We are constantly monitoring him though and may need to get fluids pumped into him at some point before we ride tomorrow. Esmee's horse had 30 litres of water put into him yesterday since he was being lathargic and the FEI vet suspected he was dehydrated. The FEI vet will not administer fluids unless the horse is displaying dehydration symptons due to the risk associated with the administration from the catheter being in the horse's neck for about 2-4 hours (the time it takes to put 30 litres in a horse).

We are off to cheer on the Juniors and maybe catch come reining as well!

I hope all is well at home with everyone!