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!