Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Boekelo, finally settled in...
Since the last update, we flew over the atlantic landing in Amsterdam. Customs etc went smoothly. We did however have a few delays before leaving the airport.
First of which involved Chrissy. After the baggage carousel stopped she was missing her bag. Or so she thought, so we had to walk around, find someone who could speak english and help us file a missing bag claim. After finding this person, he was very helpful. Seems the blue bag Chrissy was looking for during the last 40mins was actually green, and conveniently sitting waiting for her in the baggage claim.
So on we went to grab some coffee...Sinead was next, unfortunately with less stellar results. Seems she left her wallet on the plane, or it fell out somewhere in transit. So we stopped at the lost and found and reported her claim.
So off we go in the rental cars to the horse hotel, where we'd meet up with Tiana and Fin. We arrived at around 11am, and had to kill 4 hrs until our horses and Nat arrived. This time was occupied by about every childhood game you've ever played. Anything from rock paper scissors to Will hiding in the bushes.
Our horses finally arrived, we took them on a short walk then back on the truck for the 2 hr drive on to Boekelo. I was impressed how well all of the horses looked after the journey. We got lost once in the process, but arrived to what might be the best event I've ever seen. At least in hospitality. We had a bunch of help unloading everything, and by the time we took them all for a walk tea, coffee and cookies were handed out! Then more organizing and off to the bar on site. They are expecting 40,000 people this weekend, and with 3 acres of tents I'm sure there will be tons to do. Incidentally the tent stabling is basically a temporary structure with 108 stalls under 1 roof with 6m aisles.
After a few drinks with the organizers we headed off to dinner, and now bed.
Tomorrow we'll take them for a hack, serious work waiting until Tuesday.
Until then...
-D
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
First of which involved Chrissy. After the baggage carousel stopped she was missing her bag. Or so she thought, so we had to walk around, find someone who could speak english and help us file a missing bag claim. After finding this person, he was very helpful. Seems the blue bag Chrissy was looking for during the last 40mins was actually green, and conveniently sitting waiting for her in the baggage claim.
So on we went to grab some coffee...Sinead was next, unfortunately with less stellar results. Seems she left her wallet on the plane, or it fell out somewhere in transit. So we stopped at the lost and found and reported her claim.
So off we go in the rental cars to the horse hotel, where we'd meet up with Tiana and Fin. We arrived at around 11am, and had to kill 4 hrs until our horses and Nat arrived. This time was occupied by about every childhood game you've ever played. Anything from rock paper scissors to Will hiding in the bushes.
Our horses finally arrived, we took them on a short walk then back on the truck for the 2 hr drive on to Boekelo. I was impressed how well all of the horses looked after the journey. We got lost once in the process, but arrived to what might be the best event I've ever seen. At least in hospitality. We had a bunch of help unloading everything, and by the time we took them all for a walk tea, coffee and cookies were handed out! Then more organizing and off to the bar on site. They are expecting 40,000 people this weekend, and with 3 acres of tents I'm sure there will be tons to do. Incidentally the tent stabling is basically a temporary structure with 108 stalls under 1 roof with 6m aisles.
After a few drinks with the organizers we headed off to dinner, and now bed.
Tomorrow we'll take them for a hack, serious work waiting until Tuesday.
Until then...
-D
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Our new favorite event...tea, coffee and cookies delivered while hand grazing
Lost in Holland...already, Sara is asking for directions while we get the single finger salute from another car...
Saturday, October 9, 2010
And the horses are off!
-D
Doug Payne
DPEquestrian LLC
PO Box 179
Pottersville, NJ 07979
908.399.9112
DPEquestrian.com
Friday, October 8, 2010
Packing Packing Packing...
Thanks for all the well wishes...world domination will come in time :)...all of Skinny's supplies are packed in our new trunks, thanks again to Colleen at Georgetown Stable Outfitters. If anyone is looking for travel trunks, I can't say enough about these.
We'll go for a walk at 7 then all of the horses leave at 8:30 tomorrow bound for JFK in NYC chauffeured by my Dad. We, simultaneously, head off to Newark for our flight out. We'll arrive in time to meet the horses at Cargo in Amsterdam...until then I need to get back to packing my clothes...competing without them might be difficult.
We'll go for a walk at 7 then all of the horses leave at 8:30 tomorrow bound for JFK in NYC chauffeured by my Dad. We, simultaneously, head off to Newark for our flight out. We'll arrive in time to meet the horses at Cargo in Amsterdam...until then I need to get back to packing my clothes...competing without them might be difficult.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Boekelo...Training Camp...Packing...
I'm late in getting this blog out the door. So being that it's 11:22 pm I'm going to be brief, but will give all an extensive report while flying to Holland on Saturday!
So long story short all of this seems to be happening at the speed of light, and of course knowing me I'm trying to cram as much in before leaving. I'm sitting here still not even close to being packed. Megan has RO in good shape...if only I had a groom for me :).
Mark Phillips the US Team coach has been in town since Tuesday night. Will Faudree, Sinead Halpin and I have all had lessons wed, today and will again tomorrow. It's a great opportunity to get the final touches on before we officially embark on our journey.
Running Order has been great, I'm very excited and a bit nervous about the trip. It's a great honor to be sent by your country to head overseas to compete. Funny, if you told me a year ago that I'd be going I'd say you were a smoking something pretty damn potent. At that point Running Order still only had 3 intermediates under his belt and Fair Hill CCI** was a week away!
So here we are...He has now 4 Advanced under his belt including 2 CIC's. He's handled all very well, and continues to get stronger every day. With any luck we have a good shot at Boekelo. I can't wait for a year or two down the road, while his flat work is good now. It will be great in a year's time.
Being that it's just the 3 of us here getting lessons, I asked Mark if I could bring Tali over for some help. To say he's excited about him would be an understatement. Mark has helped tremendously in the past few days. He also told me that Tali should be my backup horse for London 2012. While a tall order, there is no rush. That said I wouldn't be all that surprised if Mark is right in 2 years time.
So our schedule until the next update is as follows: Training Sessions tomorrow. Saturday, my Dad is shipping all of the horses to JFK with Nat (Will's Groom). Nat will be traveling with the horses...the rest of us as well as Sara Ike will be flying out of Newark mid day. We'll get to Holland before the horses...head over to Cargo and meet them as they arrive. Then off to Boekelo!
So long story short all of this seems to be happening at the speed of light, and of course knowing me I'm trying to cram as much in before leaving. I'm sitting here still not even close to being packed. Megan has RO in good shape...if only I had a groom for me :).
Mark Phillips the US Team coach has been in town since Tuesday night. Will Faudree, Sinead Halpin and I have all had lessons wed, today and will again tomorrow. It's a great opportunity to get the final touches on before we officially embark on our journey.
Running Order has been great, I'm very excited and a bit nervous about the trip. It's a great honor to be sent by your country to head overseas to compete. Funny, if you told me a year ago that I'd be going I'd say you were a smoking something pretty damn potent. At that point Running Order still only had 3 intermediates under his belt and Fair Hill CCI** was a week away!
So here we are...He has now 4 Advanced under his belt including 2 CIC's. He's handled all very well, and continues to get stronger every day. With any luck we have a good shot at Boekelo. I can't wait for a year or two down the road, while his flat work is good now. It will be great in a year's time.
Being that it's just the 3 of us here getting lessons, I asked Mark if I could bring Tali over for some help. To say he's excited about him would be an understatement. Mark has helped tremendously in the past few days. He also told me that Tali should be my backup horse for London 2012. While a tall order, there is no rush. That said I wouldn't be all that surprised if Mark is right in 2 years time.
So our schedule until the next update is as follows: Training Sessions tomorrow. Saturday, my Dad is shipping all of the horses to JFK with Nat (Will's Groom). Nat will be traveling with the horses...the rest of us as well as Sara Ike will be flying out of Newark mid day. We'll get to Holland before the horses...head over to Cargo and meet them as they arrive. Then off to Boekelo!
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