Many thanks to all the volunteers today who braved the elements all day cheerfully. Buck Davidson told me he had to go to Sports Authority after his first ride to buy a rain coat as it never occurred to him to bring one with him. Guess what colour it was – yes, luckily they stocked red and I’m sure it will be a good investment!
Of course, Buck leads the CCI*** on Ballynoe Castle, but he had to wait until the very end of the division to ride Park Trader, a 9 year old who he rates highly, in fact to quote him directly, “I’d say he’s as good as anything I’ve sat on”, high praise indeed. Buck joked that although he’s disappointed it’s not a dressage test, he’s looking forward to attacking the cross country course, and presumes that the show-jumping will also be up to height and difficult on sunday as is the norm at Galway. Buck talked about Ian’s courses harking back to Ian’s riding days 20 odd years ago, to watch videos back then, and sitting back and kicking on! Those are his words not mine, because I may be fuzzy on details, but Ian told me earlier this afternoon that he was thrilled when Dubarry awarded him the boots for best dressed rider at the trot-up at Rolex in 2007,but they’ve finally given up the ghost and the wellies he was wearing today had a big hole in them!
I was happy to meet Nate Chambers this afternoon, especially after I’d admired his dressage test earlier, and he is relishing the thought of riding the cross- country on his partner of some eleven years now, the unstoppable Rolling Stone.
The rain continued pretty relentlessly all day, as did the dressage and some horses coped better than others.
Martha McDowell and Gaelic Marriage
Poor Debbie Rosen, The Alchemyst especially seemed to be hating the weather, the footing and just about everything today, and she rode tactfully and positively to get the best out of him that she could.
Tamra Smith did very well to keep a lid on Mar de Amor who sits in 7th place. At times in the trot he looked like he was going to get more and more tightly wound, and his knee action became more pronounced but she was able to ride him through it in the canter, and her accuracy and cool head prevailed.
Jordan Lindstedt and Tullibards Hawkwind
Jolie Wentworth and GoodKnight
Smart Move and Lisa Marie Fergusson. In a completely amateur assessment I’d estimate it was about half and half riders who wore helmets versus those who wore top hats, but of those who chose to wear helmets I’d definitely venture to bet Roy Burek of Charles Owen was a happy man today, because they were definitely the most popular brand.
Mara Depuy, last of the single horse riders in the CCI*** made a really nice go of it and I thought she might have been placed higher than 14th.
Merel Blom on her second ride, Rumour Has it. With him in 8th place, and Umberto in 4th, she has two in the top 10 going into the cross country phase.
James Alliston on India McEvoy’s Jumbo’s Jake. I caught up with him after the press conference to chat about his rides today, and see what he’s thinking about for next year.
On our first day at Galway, Lily and I talked to James and his parents, then we bumped into Ian and Jenny, Patricia and Angela out on the cross country, Roy Burek wandering around, Mike Tucker announcing at the trot-up, the list goes on and on, but Lily looked at me, and exclaimed at how many English people there are here, (apologies to Ian and Jenny!), and even more specifically Gloucestershire, it’s practically a reunion!
I felt sorry for Nina Ligon too as Jazz King was another horse who looked like he was hating the conditions and didn’t want to play at all.
Jennifer Wooten-Dafoe and Nabouco de Lessey showing tons of promise, I like the look of this horse a lot.
I missed everything at Galway Downs this morning thanks to a faulty tyre on my rental car, but Mike Huber, a three day eventer with a wealth of experience and now an equally accomplished coach and trainer in Texas saw almost every single one, so he very kindly let us pick his brains after the last horse had gone.
Many thanks to Mike, and everybody who talked to me. I want to thank so many people today, everyone at Galway really, hard to single anybody out, it’s been a great day and everybody’s looking forward to two more exciting days of competition – Go Three Day Eventing!
PS. I was happy to meet Cherie Chauvin’s mum today. Cherie was recently was our EN profile of the week, and I met her at the Hagyard Midsouth Three Day, and this is Muffin who is training to be an event doggie!
