Yes, I did take a photo to commemorate the day I received my press pass for Rolex in the mail.
I’m not entirely sure when I first learned about Rolex. It’s one of those things I feel like I always knew about, like horse crazy kids are just born knowing about the Triple Crown and the Olympics and the difference between a horse and a pony — thank you very much. In actuality, I probably learned about Rolex in Horse Illustrated, the magazine I convinced my parents I HAD to subscribe to in 1995 at the ripe age of 9 years old. When other tweenage girls were putting posters from Tiger Beat magazine on their bedroom walls, I was hanging Horse Illustrated posters of each new Rolex victory — David O’Connor and Custom Made in 1995, Stephen Bradley and Dr. Dolittle in 1996, Karen O’Connor and Worth the Trust in 1997 … you get the idea.
To me, Rolex was, quite simply, the be all end all. So when my family moved across the country from San Diego to central Virginia in 1998 — driving the whole way in a gray 1994 Chevrolet conversion van that my parents still own to this day — I was very sure of two things: 1. Our route would take us right by the Kentucky Horse Park and 2. I was going to SEE where Rolex ran. This cross-country drive took place in December in the dead of winter, with nary a fresh flower on a cross-country jump in sight, but it didn’t matter. I’m sure my parents and little sister patiently tolerated little know-it-all me explaining every factoid about Rolex I’d ever read in Horse Illustrated magazine. I had seen the legendary Rolex grounds; my little 12-year-old self could die happy.
I returned to the Kentucky Horse Park once again in 2001 — in that same gray conversion van — to compete in Quiz, which back then was called Knowdown, at the United States Pony Club National Championships. While I was only there to compete in glorified horse jeopardy, I vividly remember wandering around the cross-country course in awe as I watched fellow Pony Clubbers gallop along the same hallowed ground the top riders in the world had tackled mere months earlier at Rolex. I vowed to return to the Kentucky Horse Park to ride my own horse at the USPC National Championships.
There comes a time when you realize you’ll never stand atop the Olympic podium. My dream of riding at the Kentucky Horse Park met the same fate. I grew up. I went to college. I got married. I started a career in journalism. But through it all, my childhood dream of going to Rolex — of watching those same riders from my Horse Illustrated posters gallop across the Kentucky blue grass — never died. When John asked me last year what I wanted to accomplish as an EN writer, my answer was clear: “I want to cover Rolex.” And come Wednesday afternoon when I start snapping photos of the jog, a little girl’s dream of going to Rolex will finally be realized.
