Report from Aachen

Sunday, July 16th Update

Here is the latest installment from Lendon:

Hi y'all, It is 1:45PM (7:45 AM your time). I am back at the hotel waiting for the bus to take us all to Dusseldorf where we will spend the night before our flight back tomorrow. Today has been great. The Feldmans, Budds, Jessie, and I drove out of Aachen, directly into Holland. For the 10 minutes we were in Holland (no border crossing) we noted that there had more tree-lined roads and wonderful gardens in front of every little house. Next we crossed into Belgium - wouldn't have known it if we hadn't seen the little sign. It took us quite a while to find the show grounds -- we asked several people. Finally the last guy answered first in German, then in Dutch, and finally in excellent English. For a CDI it was very well hidden. And for a CDI in Europe, it was not what you would expect. Now I don't understand why we have such a hard time holding them. All you need is a parking lot (preferably with a castle in the background. The entire show area was 100m X 60m. The riders entered the arena from E. The judges' booths were literally against the railings (If the horse halted at C the judge had to stand up and peer over the stand to see if the horse was square.) People were standing right next to the arena. The bleachers were about 10 feet front the ring. All along the MBF long side was a row of tents with restaurants and that was only about 15 feet from the arena. There was a row of flags on tall flagpoles right at the C end of the arena. All of this was set up on a parking lot. They put down plastic and then stone dust for the arena. The tent stabling was just on the other side of a tall hedge. warm up was in a field. Due to weeks of rain everything was drenched -- standing water and solid MUD. Since the warm-up was impossible and there were many scratches, they allowed a group of riders to warm up in the arena for about 15 minutes. Then each rider was given several minutes before his ride in the arena. There were pumps siphoning water away from the outside of the arena and in one area there was a siphoning hose under it. Everyone seemed to be willing to deal with these very adverse conditions. There was a church right there as well as some other ones at town. Now I know church services in Lanaken are at 9:15. Right in the middle of one ride the bells started tolling. Then all morning one steeple clock would ring every 15 minutes -- I kept thinking the rider was off course. Now remember, the weather was atrocious and it was the last day and I'm sure anyone not in the finals left. But we have more spectators at one of our shows! Once again all the people working and coaching were men. Now to the competitors. The ponies were wonderful. They were fairly elegant with three good gaits and very well trained. Some looked to be Welsh, New Forest, Arab and even Connemara. The riders have to be between 12 and 16. these riders looked to be at about the maximum age and outgrowing their ponies. The FEI Pony Individual Test has shoulder-in, 1/2 passes, extensions, rein back, walk-pirouettes, simple changes. One of the movements was turn right down the center line at canter. At L 10 meter circle, at X simple change, at I 10m circle left, at G simple change.the winner of the Junior Consolation Class was Greek. We left in time to get back to Aachen in more pouring rain and the place was packed. Barely an empty seat and a lot of standing room only people. We saw Isabel Werth win the Kur. It was a lovely ride with music carefully composed for her ride -- simple designs but considerable difficulty. Gigolo certainly knows his job at age 17 and does it so willingly. Time to go for the bus. Off to Dusseldorf tonight and hop on a plane tomorrow morning. The participants who were competitors at our champs last year, Courtney Budd, Jessie Rizzi and, Liza Sydnor will be giving their impressions. If anyone has any questions, email me at dressage4kids@aol.com. Lendon