Kate Miller, acting head groom for Jolie Wentworth and Good Knight (“Ari”), is blogging on behalf of the Kismet Eventing Team as they tackle the Luhmühlen CCI4* in Germany this week. Many thanks to Kate for sending in this blog and to Sherrie Stewart for submitting the wonderful photos to accompany it. Go Jolie and Ari!
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Jolie Wentworth and Good Knight. Photo by Sherry Stewart.
From Kate:
The past few days have seen the locals arrive, and we have gradually increased Ari’s work as the week progressed. We’ve still managed to squeeze in a fair amount of shopping. There are at least four tack shops between the show grounds and our hotel, and, of course, we had to visit them all.
Wednesday finally brought the beginning of the show with the official briefing, ring familiarizations one and two, and the jog. The familiarizations are so sympathetic to the horse: up to two hours in the ring and dressage court, schooling allowed. Horses schooling, horses hacking, horses spooking — it was all fair game, though we did make a startling discovery. Ari does not approve of German Techno. I’m sorry to all those fans of the pounding beat, but there it is — the man does not approve. We then spent the whole of the second familiarization in the ring as well, to give him the most time possible to get used to the atmosphere.
Marilyn Little arrived with her three horses in the middle of the day, so we now have a nice concentration of USA at the end of our aisle. At 5 p.m. the jog began, and it went off without a hitch for any of the American horses, though the skies did start to threaten rain …
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- Jolie Wentworth and Good Knight
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- Ari hanging out in the competition ring
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- Ari getting his trot on in the competition ring
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- Roakie on the Luhmuhlen fence
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- Julian Stiller and Enjoy Me
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- Marilyn Little and RF Demeter
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- Jennie Brannigan and Cambalda
All photos by Sherry Stewart
