Rolex 2017: Dressage 1 & 2

What better way to start off a blog than with my trip to Rolex? Granted, it’s…3 weeks late, but better late than never, right?

Last year, after watching the live feed of Rolex and getting through most of the summer watching the ERM series and Olympics, I decided to cross off one of my bucket list items: going to a top horse event. So, I put away money, I planned, and one dream on my bucket list is now crossed off.

I’m lumping the two dressage days together because it was basically the same thing both days, but they were still exciting. My friend who I really wanted to come with me (she events) couldn’t get the time off of work, so it was just me and myself, which was totally okay.

I flew in Wednesday, got my lodgings at a B & B (worth the ridiculous amount of money btw), and was ready to have a go Thursday morning. It was relatively quiet that day, but I didn’t expect it to get so busy come Friday!

When I arrived, I was pretty sure that I would mostly roam around the grounds, see the sights, watch a little dressage, and do a little shopping. Well, I watched the whole thing. And only did a teensy amount of shopping. But Thursday was a really quiet day, and it was nice to sit and watch all the combinations ride. I was really interested in how each of them rode the pattern and their cues and just watching what they were doing. I’m a huge watcher. Tell it to me once, then let me watch it and I will pick it apart for hours to see everything that’s going on. I did listen to the commentators as well, and that helped a lot as I watched a lot of the riders go.

I didn’t get to see many shops Thursday, so I was excited to return and shop Friday.

Friday was much busier than I expected, though I likely should have considering this is quite a big show. In lieu of that, I shopped a lot on Friday and watched only the second sessions of each block. I mean, what if all the stuff was gone?! I didn’t want to miss any of the good things!

I got to watch the top 3 scores: Kim Severson, Michael Jung and Clark Montgomery. After watching dressage all day Thursday and seeing how the judges had been judging those scores, it was really something to see those top rides. All the top 10 horses were just brilliant. It was really lovely to see.

I suppose there’s really not too much to say – except for the fact that they debuted a new test. I was mostly rooting for two people specifically, and one group: Lillian Heard and Share Option and Madeline Backus and PS Ariana as well as the whole group of rider/horse combinations that were competing in their very first Rolex. I wanted them all to do well. I didn’t expect them to win, but to be competitive enough – top 20 I’d say.

Lillian had really impressed me last year with her stadium round, really trusting Share Option through the last combination that many riders had down. They’d had a clear round and moved up the board, so I was hoping she’d do well this year.

Eventing Nation had done a “Who Jumped it Best” picture contest, and that was the first I’d seen of Madeline. Just the expression on Ariana’s face as she flew over that B element in the water endeared that little powerhouse to me, so I was super excited to see them and root for them at such a big event.

However, it WAS the last dressage test for Arthur. The test was beautiful, and everyone stood up and cheered at the end.

I stayed just as long as it took me to pack up my camera things, and booked it over to the head of the lake for the Smartpak walkthrough with Boyd Martin and Ryan Wood. It was very informative. While I will not be cross country jumping obstacles this large, it was really great to hear how they would ride the lines. For some jumps, it was the same for both horses. For other combinations, there was a plan for two strides, or it’d be different how angled they’d approach it, and all that.

After that I puttered around the course for a bit, looking at jumps and came to one where two girls were standing. We ended up talking for quite a bit, and it was nice because they hadn’t ever evented either. It was refreshing talking to them, and we seemed to hit it off pretty well. So, we agreed to meet up for cross country the next day.

I was absolutely beat by the time I got back to the B&B. I’d done so much walking that my hips were beginning to cramp up and any weight I put on them stung really badly. But, soon I was out like a light because tomorrow – cross country!