As always, we love reader submissions! This was emailed to us from Genie Eardley, with her crew sporting their special Rolex t-shirts. Send your stories to [email protected].
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Hey Eventing Nation! Report from EN fan, aka middle aged eventer-in-training, lawyer Genie Eardley. ( I am on the far right of photo)
I wanted to share this great photo of what turned out to be the HOTTEST t-shirt at Rolex this weekend…
My Husband John (far left of photo) is not really a horse person, but he married me anyway long ago…and so about 8 Rolexes together later, while we were sitting in the hot sun on hard bleachers late on a Friday (before we opted for the tix in the fancy part of the stadium) and he was trying to patiently follow the 15th dressage test of the day, he exclaimed that he might enjoy it more if he knew what the heck “flying lead changes” were. Actually he said, (paraphrasing) “Funny leap thing they do with all four legs in the air”…and my sister (Vicky Winger, brunette in the photo) spent time, as I did, busily explaining what it was, how tough it could be to get just right, etc–so he jokingly said he would do a bumper sticker or t-shirt that read, “I come for the lead changes” mocking our intense love of watching horsey movements in silence, aka dressage.
So, this year, he went all out, and my 13 year old daughter, Ondine (the pretty little girl) who is an aspiring eventer herself (we train with the superb eventer, Phillippa Richards Humphreys of Rogue River Equestrian Center in Rockford, Michigan) and artist, drew a lovely example of a lead change, and John took it to a t-shirt print shop, and VOILA-the lead change t-shirt rage was on….in fact, after posting it on the Internet on the way to Lexington, my sister reports many hits on the website of the Chronicle…and shortly before this photo was taken, a nice lady from Georgia came up and said-“that’s the lead change shirt from the Internet?!” So cool…and took the family photo-(the little boy is Finbarr Rock Eardley, our 6 year old). We wore them pretty much every day, and one person even asked us where he could buy one. Anyway-seemed like a perfect fit for EN! Lead changes bring a family together…
COME FOR THE LEAD CHANGES-GO HOME WITH A SUNBURN AND A NEW SADDLE….that’s for next year!
