January 30

This morning I left well before dawn for a whirlwind trip to watch a big show in Wellington. I left my house at four in the morning to catch my six o'clock flight to Charlotte and then made a connection on to West Palm Beach. I was in a bit of a time crunch because my flight was scheduled to land in Florida a little after 11 and I still had to pick up a rental car and drive to the show grounds in time to see the Grand Pirx which started at One. We were a little late leaving Charlotte because the airlines now make you pay to check luggage so everyone tries to stuff as much as they can in a carry on and then there is just not enough room for it all on the plane. Though we did not land until almost noon I was still able to pick up my rental car, upgraded to a convertible which was on special since there was rain in the forecast, and make a mad dash for Wellington. When I got in my fancy Sebring it was in the mid-seventies but by the time I got to the show grounds a mere twenty minutes away the temperature had already dropped ten degrees and the wind had picked up, it seemed that Ohio weather had stowed away in my suitcase! I parked and as I was getting out of my car I saw Gretchen Singleton getting out of hers accross the way; Cleveland, Cleveland everywhere. I made it to the Jockey Club entrance where Betsy Juliano, who had graciously invited me to join her table in the premier seating area, met me and gave me my ticket. I quickly exchanged it for the ubiquitous wristband and got to my seat just as Patty Becker was entering the arena. Patty was not entered in the CDI five star herself but had a agreed to do a test ride which helped to warm up the judges and test the accuracy and speed of the scoreboard. She did well in front of an intimidating panel of five international judges and received a score in the low sixties. A waiter came around and offered drinks and I asked for a hot chocolate as the temperature had continued to drop and we were all putting all of our layers on at once, so much for my warm and sunny get away. Also sitting at Betsy's table that afternoon were Kathy Connelly, Ryan Yap (who has fabulous hair), Tom Poulin, Kathy's Barn manager Nancy and her husband, and Terri Gallo (choreographer of many top musical freestyles). The show continued with Michael Barisone riding Neruda who turned in a lovely performance and scored a 68. Then we all leaned forward to watch Anky Van Grunsven enter on Painted Black. It was so exciting to have a chance to watch such a dominant force in dressage ride up close and personal. Anky's ride had some wonderful moments and the horse was often quite brilliant but she went off course twice, unheard of for her but there was a lot of that with the new FEI tests, and she scored a very low for her 67. There were other great rides in the Grand Prix by Jane Hannigan on Maxymillian her mount from the world cup who is very handsome and moves like a cat, Ashley Holzer on Pop Art, Edward Gal, Lars Petersen, and Hans-Peter Minderhoud on the expressive Exquis Escapado. Steffan Peters had a beautiful ride on Ravel, earning a 75 and winning the class. His ride was rhythmic and elastic and exciting, a real pleasure to watch. During the performance there was a veritable who's who of the dressage world milling around in the VIP tent. Lars Peterson was with his entourage, with Melissa Taylor sitting behind us. At another table there was a very drunk spectator, four bloody Marys at least, who had started to list sideways halfway through the class and nearly risked setting her collegen injected lips on fire on by tilting towards a portable heater. Gary Rockwell was sitting with Lisa Wilcox while Susan Dutta and crew were at another table. The Smiths who sponsor George Williams also had a table in the tent and it was good to see them again. After the competition I went back to Betsy's farm and had a chance to catch up with some other friends, Julie and Gail and also tour all of the improvements that Betsy has made to the property, including a nearly complete covered arena which looks great and matches all of the other buildings on the farm. Then I changed into even warmer clothes and headed back to the show grounds for an evening affair including dinner and three hour symposium with Anky. Two riders at a time entered the main arena and Anky gave them instruction and also took questions from the audience. The riders were all very accomplished themselves and included Ashley Holzer, Mikala Gundersun and Pan Am gold medalist Lauren Samis on Sagacious. Though this demo rider format did not lend itself to in-depth instruction, Anky came back again and again to the need for clear and simple aids and the importance of the horse responding each time your aid comes on. She showcased her sense of humor by making fun of herself for her less than stellar performance earlier that day and when she had trouble remembering one of the demonstration rider's name she said that she was "so blond today".

January 31

This morning I took a walk around the farm with Betsy and her dogs Sara and Simon to take a closer look at all of the improvements. Then around mid-morning I left for the show grounds. There was nothing scheduled for the Dressage show until the afternoon so I had some time to walk around and see the changes that have been made to WEF in the past year. The show grounds have added new footing to some of the arenas, paved pedestrian walk ways, and created a semi-enclosed vendor-row with a wide sidewalk and plenty of seating. I did some widow shopping and then sat in the sun to try to keep warm and watched an hour of the medium level jumpers. I sat high above the jumper ring on some cabana style furniture and watched about 20 really nice rounds. From this vantage point I could watch many riders coming and going and also some of the jumper warm up ring. As for trends this year: The cult of the helmet seems to be out. Very few people walked by with the special helmet bags like last year and I saw very few jumpers keeping their helmets on ages after their rides were over. In fact many were warming up in baseball hats and then putting those hats back on when they were done in he ring. As this weekend was really chilly the only other constant was the sweater - cable knit in various colors- and the jacket/vest - down and puffy in black, white or neutral earth tones. By noon there was activity in the dressage warm up so I moved over there and watched George on Marnix, Jodie Kelly and Katherine Poulin-Neff all get ready for an early round of the GP Special that was not part of the big five star. After their rides Betsy and I decided to have lunch at the show. She felt like Mexican and of course that was there, we could have had Crepes or gourmet sandwiches too - not like a typical hot dog vendor type show, and then we went over to The Paddock Saddlery to say hello to Lisa Gorretta who seemed to be doing a fairly brisk business despite trouble earlier in the day with a dead diesel battery. Gretchen Singelton was there too and we had a little Cleveland Moment. Around three the GP Special for the five star was getting started and after watching a few horses in warm up we sat down in the Jockey Club and watched some really nice rides including a winning performance by Micheal Barisone and a nice performance by Tuny Page on Wild One. Many of the riders who were scheduled to ride in the Freestyle that evening were sitting around watching the afternoon class and I saw Anky with two little kids, presumably hers, and Edward Gal. I also brushed passed Anky's husband and coach Sjef walking into the Jockey club. He has the craziest hair and could probably use a little help with his coiffure from Ryan Yap. At the end of the Special we all ran home to change for the evening presentation of the Freestyles which was to begin at 7 and was suppose to be dressy, but everyone ended up in a winter coat so the effect was lost. Betsy had two tables for the freestyles and I sat at one with Lisa Goretta, Robin who works with Lisa, Julie (Betsy's groom), and Caroline and John Redmond from Cleveland who were also down for the weekend. We sat down just in time for the first rider, Jane Hannigan, to enter the arena. She and Maxymillian performed an exciting freestyle to the DeBeers diamond music. They had a couple of mistakes but it still scored a 71. Then Anky came in and really turned it on, making up for the mistakes of the previous day, she and Painted Black were bold and the performance was seamless. She showed everyone why she is number one scoring a 79 which would be the winning score for the night. There were some other great rides including a very accurate and still exciting performance by Ashley Holzer. Also, a very bold ride by Hans-Peter Minderhoud and a gorgeous ride by Steffan Peters and Ravel. Though he had two mistakes Ravel made everything look easy yet powerful and it was a real inspiration to watch how quietly Steffan piloted him through a very difficult program. After the awards the announcers told us that as a special treat Anky would come back out on a quarter horse and perform reining exercises. I like to watch reining and I love to watch Anky but I think that the two should be separate. As Betsy aptly said "Uh no" and we left before the end of the performance and go into the car - with heated seats! My plane was scheduled to leave early the next morning and while it was hard to say goodbye to Florida so soon it was worth a short visit to see such a great show.