Hola Eventing Nation and welcome to Guadalajara, Mexico for the Pan American Games! I’m not sure who regrets the fact that I never took Spanish classes in school more right now–me or the fine folks of Guadalajara. The good news is that if I find an ancient Roman document here and my life depends on translating it I will be well served by my four years of high school Latin.
Riders always say that traveling abroad to compete poses often frustrating and exhausting challenges unlike anything that competing at home can prepare you for and I’m getting a first hand feel for that this week. Traveling to Fair Hill and getting set up at the media center last weekend took me a four hour drive and a friendly welcome with a sign in sheet. Getting to the media center in Guadalajara took me nearly a day including a two hour drive, a five hour flight, an hour check in at the airport, an hour drive to the hotel, one hour of dinner, three hours of emails, five hours of sleep, and another two hours to get to the media center and clear the accreditation system. Of course, the process for the horses and riders is considerably longer and more complicated.
The best news so far is that I am staying at the Fiesta Americana hotel along with most of the USEF support staff and many other equestrian personnel. Our friends at the USEF have been incredibly kind in helping me to figure out where everything is, how to get there, and everything else in between. Without their hard work and impressive organization the chaos that is the Pan American Games would be overwhelming for me and I am sure the riders as well.
I am very thankful that the eventing competition is being held a week after the Pan American Games started because many of the organizational issues have been sorted out over the past week. A friend of mine who arrived last week summed up the situation in three sentences: Taxis do not always know where they are going regardless of what they say. Police should be avoided at all cost. Rules at the venues change daily. I can verify two of those already, although thankfully I have not met the police.
Speaking of the police, they are everywhere. And the police in Mexico carry army guns. The solution against the gang violence that is plaguing Mexico appears to be to flood Guadalajara with police carrying assault rifles and driving Dodge Chargers. By all accounts this strategy has proved successful and everyone I have spoken with feels pretty safe. I haven’t quite gotten used to seeing men walking around everywhere with M4’s.
Thankfully I have been able to gather a fair amount of information about the eventing venues and competition. There are two eventing venues, both of which are separate from the pure show jumping and dressage venue. The Club Hipica is the main eventing venue with the stabling. Club Hipica will host the jogs, the dressage, and the show jumping. Club Hipica is about 45 minutes away from the hotel, depending on traffic. The cross-country venue is at the Santa Sofia Country Club, which is an hour west of the hotel.
Schedule:
Thursday–First horse inspection at Club Hipica
Friday–Dressage at Hipica
Saturday–Cross-country at Santa Sofia
Sunday–Final horse inspection, show jumping at Hipica
Remember that the Pan American Games competition is in the Olympic format. Up to five pairs compete for each nation. The best three scores count and there are two show jumping rounds. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is likely going to be a duel for gold between the US and Canada. I am working on figuring out if there will be any live online video of the competition, so stay tuned for updates on that.
The internet is questionable at best at the venues so stay tuned if only to see how crazy I am by Sunday. Visionaire and the rest of the EN Team have things on lock down back home in the States and I will be around throughout the rest of the week and weekend with all of your Pan American Games eventing fun and insanity.
The plan is to stay in Guadalajara this afternoon and catch the pure dressage individual freestyle finals tonight. Last, but very much not least, I want to give a big Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mom, Nancy. Like many eventers, I can say with certainty that I wouldn’t be anywhere in this sport without my Mom. Go eventing.
