Yes, 10,000 miles. It all starts with 2 1//2 hours in the car to the airport, a 14 hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, a 3 hour layover to stretch my legs and then cross to Atlanta, run to my next flight to the capitol of Florida, Tallahassee.
Tallahassee is home to the once a year event the Red Hills International Horse Trials. Why is it only once a year, well two reasons:
- Red Hills is a greenfield site, EVERYTHING is shipped in for the week, yes I mean everything, toilets, stables, vendor stands, office, stadium seating, the works.
- The whole Tallahassee community gets behind this event, throws in 150% effort for the event, they need a full 12 months to recover, so they can do it all again.
So yes, I am flying for a full 24 hours to come to what I honestly believe is one of the best organized, fun and most beautiful Events in the world.
Red Hills, runs on a combination of private land and a public conservation park, it is tucked up right in the top of Florida, in fact it is only about 10 minutes from the Georgia State border. The landscape and setting for the Event is breathtaking.
Hugh Lochore, the Course Designer, does a fantastic job of opening up the wooded country to make room for galloping, no tricks just a good honest course. Hugh took over as CD from Mark Phillips last year and is planning, this year, to really put his stamp on the course. He has created a completely new water complex, after basically bulldozing the old one. Below is a great photo of the finished complex, just after the new grass was laid.
Red Hills is the first big Event of the year on 11 – 13 March and I expect once again that it will attract many of the top riders, especially as it is just up the road from both Aiken and Ocala. Red Hills also falls in the list of USEF Eventing Training sessions, so expect to see Mark with elite riders out and about.
There are three riders I am really hoping to catch up with personally while in Red Hills. First up is Peter Atkins, I met Peter for the first time at Red Hills last year and even unknowingly met the superstar Henny on XC. I do also hope to catch up with Boyd, I haven’t seen him since he moved to the USA and I am sure there is a beer or two in having a chat with Boyd. Finally, I want to make time to have a beer with Phillip, and see if I can convince him to come home and coach the Aussie Team, instead of the USA! (I don’t think I have much chance on that score)
I hear that many of the EN Team will be in Tallahassee, I am looking forward to meeting both Samantha Clark and the Big Man Himself EN John, will Coren, Annie or anybody else from EN Corporate HQ be making the trip? Time will tell. I know the Ecogold Team will also be heading to Red Hills and a final rumor is that Monty White will be crossing the pond for the weekend, flying in all the way from the UK to come to Red Hills.
Oh, I forgot to mention the Parties! Ask anyone who has been to Red Hills about the parties. To be honest, you could almost come to Red Hills just for the parties! I hope there will be more Bang Bang Shrimp on the menu again!
So, have you entered? Are you coming along to have a great time, enter now, so you don’t miss out, here is the Omnibus listing.
There is also a free Mercedes for 12 month and a cool $10,000 on the line in the Three Star, so if anyone has a 3* horse they could loan me, I might have to chuck in the TDs job for the weekend and have a crack at the Merc and the cash. I’ve always wanted a Merc.
I will be there, just listen out for the Aussie accent, please come and say hello, introduce yourself. I hear we may be having a special EN party, John’s shout? I can’t wait, and yes it is worth every single one of the 10,000 miles each way to go to Red Hills, I do hope to see you there.
ESJ