Today, I’m honored to introduce our most recent addition to the guest blogger ranks, Sally O’Connor. If you consider yourself an eventing fan and haven’t heard of her, then you probably aren’t much of an Eventing fan as Sally has (and still does) play a wide cast of roles within our sport. She is an FEI judge in both the Eventing and pure Dressage disciplines, and has served on numerous committees both in and out of the FEI over the years. Sally is also a prolific writer, having published such books as Practical Eventing, Common Sense Dressage, The USCTA Book of Eventing, and Bruce Davidson: The World Champion of Eventing. Not that it needs mentioning, but she is also the mother of David O’Connor; we all know that the only thing harder than being an Olympic Gold Medalist is raising one. Anyway, a huge thanks to Sally for writing this, and as always, thank you for reading.
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Those would be the tequila cacti
From Sally:
I had heard that Mexico is a land where time takes on a whole new dimension. I was not fully prepared for the reality.
Three weeks ago I was asked if I could travel to Guadalajara to be one of the course directors of an FEI course for eventing stewards to prepare for the upcoming Pan American Games in October. As I had been on stall rest for six weeks due to a ruptured Achilles tendon I thought why not? It would at least get me out of the house. At the time, I was not even sure where Guadalajara was and had to look at the map.
I flew via Atlanta and had a three hour flight from there to Mexico. Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico and is a sprawling mix of industrial sections, run down shanty town sections and pleasant tree lined upbeat sections with restaurants on every corner. The road system is spaghetti like maze of over passes, underpasses, tunnels, narrow side streets full of traffic. I was met at the airport by a charming young lady who drove me an hour to the hotel. The air conditioning was not working and we had all windows down so that I could appreciate the noise of the traffic. Huge trucks, busses, cars and on the side street small carts vie for space and most people drive with their hand on the horn. My driver drove with one hand on the wheel, the other held her cell phone to her ear, and somehow she managed to shift gears and gesticulate as she explained things to me (reminded me of my daughter-in-law). I white knuckled it all the way to the hotel.
In spite of dire warnings about street gangs and crime, the hotel was in a quiet district and seemed to be safe enough to walk to the five excellent little cafes on the same block. We did see various roads blocks and police cars with flashing lights on our drives to and fro. There were certainly sections of the city you would not want to break down in. We drove by several really depressed areas but they all have little road side stands selling everything under the sun. At one place I spotted a wiry little horse tied out to graze on the rails separating a patch of grass from the railroad tracks.
The venue for the event horses is the Club Ecquestre La Hipica, a riding club about half an hour from the city proper. It has two large arenas, and a roofed arena and an excellent block of roomy stables. Another whole block of stables is under construction. Construction was a prevailing theme. The venue is under construction, the cross country course, located another half hour to forty minute drive away, and is under construction. A definite plus is that La Hipica has a brand new state of the art veterinary clinic that was formally opened while we were there. The horses are sure of the very best of care.
The modern pentathlon horses will also be stabled at La Hipica for their competition. A swimming pool is under construction for those athletes. The dressage horses and jumping horses will be at another Club another half an hour away. The club grounds are compact and there is no room for hacking or galloping. I was assured that a large piece of land directly across the street is to be leased for that purpose.
THE FEI course had 45 stewards and volunteers and an FEI vet course with 45 participants was being held at the same venue. So there were over 90 officials for the 17 competitors entered. We inspected the area for the vet inspection, dressage ring and warm up. The footing in the rings consists of old fashioned woodchips. The main ring was fairly good, well worn down and although dusty was fairly even. The warm up ring had not had as much traffic and many large pieces of bark made for some unevenness. The trot up track looked fairly level if somewhat soft when we looked at it the day before. When we arrived the next day however, the veterinarian had changed the location and it was held in a cramped area with the actual strip having a decided tilt. At the actual Games the original location will be used.
On the evening of the jog, the veterinary clinic was formally opened and celebrations ensued. The chinchillas would have had a good time. Guadalajara is the official home of tequila and mariachis bands.
The cross country course was supposed to be another half hour out of the city. We got into the bus at the hotel early next morning. Getting the course participants into a bus in the morning was akin to herding cats. It all takes time. To top it off the bus driver shut the door, turned to the organizer, and asked for directions as he had no idea where we were headed. Almost an hour later we drew up to an iron gate guarded by security staff who had to have a long conversation over the radio as to who we were and if we were to be allowed in.. He finally lifted the gate and let us in.
Santa Sofia is a deluxe country club with a golf course set in a wide valley surrounded by mountains. It rivals any venue in the world for spectacular views. The cross country course for the test event was run over a thin green strip of freshly laid sod and wound around a huge area of excavated dirt. You could see where there will be two large lakes. When finished it is going to be incredibly beautiful. As of now it is acre after acre of dirt. It is “under construction”.
The horses are going to need to be super fit. The elevation is between 1500- 2000 above sea level. The course has significant terrain. The test event had a long uphill gallop in the second part of the course and horses tired visibly as they galloped up the track. The fairways of the golf course ran parallel part of the way and golfers were out hacking away as the horses ran cross country. This led me to wonder if we would see a first of horse and rider being hit by an errant drive. It would look good on a report form. “Rider suffered concussion from being struck by golf ball”.
The course for the test was pretty much straight forward but with some interesting questions of balance and steering. There was only one fall on course and that came at a curved wall jumped uphill at the top of the long gallop. Generally the fences rode well and John Williams was pleased. Hopefully the turf will settle and take root by the time of the Games. When all the lakes and grass have been added it will look magnificent. As it is it looks like nothing but a large construction area.
The cooling down area was a tent with iced water barrels set around with plans for a much larger area on the boards. The horses were monitored until they recovered then were vanned back to La Hippica. This will be the routine for the Games.
The final jog and jumping took place on Sunday and I missed out on all that as I had to fly home.
This was my first time to Mexico and I would go back. Most conversations took place in Spanglish. One lady on the course spoke German so I got along well with her. Mexicans are much given to kissing. Each time you see someone you get a kiss both hello and goodbye. This tends to slow things down when you have 40 or so people to kiss. IT was amazing and exhausting and the hurdles that have to be jumped are daunting. Their hearts are in the right place if it can just get organized.
– Sally
