Wooooo boy. Guys. Phew. I'm home from a bit of a bender. I went down to Kentucky again this year with a lovely group of ladies, one of whom grew up down in Louisville and has parents who graciously welcomed us into their home for the weekend. It's apparently become something of a tradition!
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| don't worry. there's a shopping post coming. also. you may or may not know a brontosaurus who got his own pair of PS of Sweden scaly boots. because we are living our best lives here, guys. |
I totally intended to have more updates as the weekend progressed, but y'all know how that goes. The Kentucky Horse Park is tough for me bc it's not a great state for my cell network provider anyway, and when you get all those people packed onto a single cell tower... well... I was basically carrying around an expensive brick instead of an iphone. Sigh.
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| the lunch break in dressage is the perfect time to get up close and personal with the main arena! |
Plus my work laptop shit the bed and died quite unexpectedly. Much to my chagrin. Which was kinda obnoxious for some work stuff I wanted to get done, but honestly was more frustrating bc I wanted to edit media and make my COMPILATION VIDEO from cross country and what not.
Obviously.
So everything has gotten pushed back a couple days. Very sorry, much apologies. :(
But in the mean time, I figured I'd share a bit of a high level overview of my trip!!
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| sometimes walking around the xc course is just as #hardcore as riding it. cough cough. sorta. |
I went down with a lovely group of ladies all from Isabel's barn, same group I went down with in 2016. And we just had a
blast. I don't get to see them as much any more these days bc... well... we're all busy and it's just tough now that we're not all at the same barn. But this was a great reminder that it's worth making the time.
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| pictured: #hardcoreeventing. we're totally doing it right, yes? |
We all flew down together on Thursday night, then had all day Friday for dressage and SHOPPING (full post and pictures coming soon, I promise!! And I bought all manner of things from strap goods to hi-tech stuff to ridiculously impractical stuff. Much exciting!).
Then a big group pizza dinner in downtown Lexington before preparing ourselves for the madness of cross country day.
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| kentucky is full of classy broads, lemme tell ya. from the fully kitted out sidesaddle outriders to.... well, ya know, dem southern belles. lol.... |
Our tailgate spot was really nicely located around the mounds at 15AB, where there was a surprising amount of action throughout the day. Tho naturally as is our wont, we didn't stay put in any one location very long. Preferring instead to walk the whole thing and see as many jumps ridden as possible. And you better believe I have a ton of media from that too.
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| but hey, good times with friends is what it's all about right? |
Actually, hopefully by the time you're reading this my xc video should already be
uploaded to youtube. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Because, uh, yea my computer situation ain't great right now lol. But if you're interested definitely go check that out! I'll be posting it here soon one way or another tho, complete with way more media!
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| ooooh and also kentucky cocktails haha |
Mostly tho, it was just a blast. I love cross country day at any event and Kentucky is its whole entirely separate unique brand of special. So. Much. Fun.
Stadium day was great too. I would have loved to see an American rider take the title (bc it kinda frustrates me that so many folks can just traipse across the pond and beat us at our own home turf....) but all the same it was a thrilling upset finish with Ollie Townend clinching the win after ze terminator Michael Jung had an unlucky rail at the triple bar.
Did you watch the event? Any favorite parts? Did you have a favorite rider that you were rooting for, or see anything that caught your attention? Or do you mostly just care about the shopping??? Lol, regardless, stay tuned for more to come!
We watched the live stream. For once it looked like decent weather! I agree - I just want to see an American win!!! Although Ollie Townend was hysterical in his interview.
ReplyDeleteThe weather was incredible! Just perfect! Warm sun but refreshing breezes and cool nights. And yea hopefully we will get an American winning one of these years again!
DeleteThose cocktails...
ReplyDeleteI'm with Liz... Those cocktails look like the trip highlight
DeleteLol the cocktails were good but a trip highlight they most certainly were not lol. It was such a great weekend (filled with all manner of food and drink too lol) ;)
Deletei was wondering where you were :) Sorry about your computer. And i really didn't watch any of the live stream but read about it each night on my ipad. Looks like the weather was PERFECT. Can't wait to see what you bought and all your media.....
ReplyDeletethose cocktails look like works of art.....wow...
I am seriously so excited to be able to go to KY next year!!
The weather was perfect and meant that I got to take way more pictures of the action this time, vs last time when it was pouring. Also yea. Lots of fun shopping haha
DeleteOkay I must know - was the pizza dinner at the Mellow Mushroom?
ReplyDeleteActually it wasn’t - tho we were right around the corner from mellow mushroom and I heard great things about that place too! We went to pazzos for pizza, as my friend used to work there in college. Was sooo good!!
DeleteYumm! I've been there too, but the Mushroom was a place my friends and I visited regularly - lots of good memories there ;)
DeleteSounds like it was a ton of fun - as usual - and I can't wait to see your haul
ReplyDeleteso much fun!!! and i'm pretty excited about some of the new goodies haha, will hopefully get pictures of them on the horse today!
DeleteSounds like a blast!! Those cocktails tho :) I kind of like watching the dressage and showjumping sections more than the xc, the xc really stresses me out for some reason (that reason likely being that I am a big baby).
ReplyDeletei really like the dressage and show jumping too - they're a lot of fun to watch, esp with the dressage headsets. and the tension on stadium day is so thick, it's gripping!
DeleteWho drank the fish bowl pink drink? I'd have to be carried around xc after drinking that. I've been so curious as to what people think since the sponsor change. Did you notice much difference with Land Rover taking the helm?
ReplyDeleteha those cocktails were actually from monday as we toured around downtown louisville before a riverside lunch and then catching our plane. so luckily nobody was expected to still hike all through xc after drinking those! (tho, uh, yea we still tailgated pretttttty hard anyway on saturday.....).
Deletere: the sponsor change, i had only been to one rolex in the past so i'm maybe not the best observer on what differences can truly be attributed to the new headline sponsor. the biggest difference i noted tho was in the portapots. i watched them get cleaned every day, had multiple opportunities to use a freshly cleaned one, never went into one that had no TP, and felt like i spent way less time overall waiting in lines, bc they were everywhere. to me, that's kinda a huge difference maker on the overall experience haha (esp if you're drinking!). so on that alone, it felt like a positive change.
I loved going last year. The shopping was awesome! I was really rooting for first timers Sarah Gumbinar and Polaris. Not to win or anything, but I'd hoped they just didn't finish last - and they didn't! I believe they were 27 out of 32 finishers. What a great run for their first 4 star! I was rooting for Ollie, though I love Roxy, and I was hoping Donner or Z would manage a podium finish. LOVED that Vermiculus was top 5! He's such a cute little pocket rocket. (ps I LOVE pocket rockets lol)
ReplyDeleteI can't WAIT to read about your tack haul! And I have those PS of Sweden boots but in gold. I love them! The shops were just amazing - so many things over there that it was overwhelming for me at first. I hope you got Charlie SO MANY THINGS. He'll be a happy boy LOL.
yea i thought it was interesting this year that there were so few rookie riders! usually there's at least a handful... anyway tho it really seemed like a lot of riders mostly had a good time, with just a couple unfortunate mistakes sprinkled throughout.
Deleteand no worries haha - shopping post coming soon, and there is definitely some ridiculous stuff on the list ;)
Jealous of the shopping! Can't wait to see your haul!
ReplyDeletethe shopping was pretty good this year! i was kinda disappointed that so many of the things on my list to look at were either the same price, or MORE expensive in the trade fair than what i had been able to find online in advance. and like... none of the retailers seemed to care either. oh well. there were a couple exceptions tho, and some pretty good deals to be found for those who would look ;)
DeleteAs much as I wanted MJ or Donner to win, I was thrilled to see yet another 4* winner added to the list for sire Ramiro B. What a legacy!
ReplyDeletemostly i'd just like to see an american top an international list one of these days lol. c'mon guys!!
DeleteThat looks like so much fun!
ReplyDeleteomgosh soooo fun!!
DeleteSo glad you had a fantastic time! I was sad our Canadian riders had a bit of a tough weekend (was obviously cheering for Lisa Marie Fergusson and her half welsh cob, as well as a couple of the ladies we've had clinics with - all such good people!) but overall was pretty impressed with the riding this year! (How on earth did MJ make up that time XC?!)
ReplyDeletedefinitely a lot of good canadians there this year! altho yea, some very unfortunate little spills or mistakes. for instance, i actually got to see holly jacks smither's tumble from more inspiration, and it was just so unfortunate. they dropped into the water at head of the lake a little stilted, and he landed trotting to the next element despite her efforts to push him up. he jumped it, but from a trot it was a HUGE effort that just popped her right out of the saddle. very unfortunate!
Deletebut all in all tho, we really did get to see a lot of fun and inspiring riding, and a lot of pairs really had a great time out there!
How fun!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a great weekend! It was interesting following on from afar, plus it was good to have an Aussie right up there.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read about all the fun things you bought too :)
Glad you had a good time! It was so much fun!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like so much fun! We had a great time when we went in 2015, but XC day was so wet and cold that it made XC miserable to watch.
ReplyDelete