Liberty and I through the last fence at Bromont 3DE
Greetings from America! Since my last post (has it really been two months... oops sorry Allison!) I've been quite busy with settling back into Maryland, competitions, teaching and selling. Plus my season end 3DE, Bromont.
As I'm sure I've described before, Bromont is the most wonderful event and is located in Quebec, Canada. The keen observer will notice that Canada is in fact NOT in America and, despite being on the same bit of land, is a completely different country. Canadians are actually quite similar to Australians in that we know how to spell colour (it DOES have a 'u' in it!), we don't feel like less of a country just because our head lives overseas (God Save the Queen), and we enjoy real cane sugar as a sweetener and not the corn syrup that is so popular, yet so revolting, in America! Now I have my three American pet peeves out of the way I shall continue...!
Back to Bromont. As I'm sure I've also mentioned before Quebec is a French speaking province so it rather feels as tho you're in Europe which is quite nice. It's also much cooler than MD in June and this year we were also treated to a lot of rain and very, very heavy going. Lucky we had so much practice in the rain over winter! This year I was fortunate enough to have a 1 star, 2 star and 3 star horse entered. Plus one of my friends, Leslie Chelstrom, joined us with her lovely 3 star mare for the trip. So off we headed with 3 people, 2 dogs and 4 horses.
Digger the dog is an essential part of the team - seen here with Jordan checking out the drop!
Generally the trip takes about 10-11 hours however this time can greatly increase if you're not a native to either country. So in spite of my best Canadian accent (so they would think I was from their side) we were delayed for a couple of hours to make sure I checked out. It's good to know that I do and that my background check is clean! I really ought to put that on my match.com profile... I digress.
Onto the trot up where I suffered the very unusual luck of having my 1 star horse lodge a rock between her hoof and shoe minutes before I was due to show her! How could that possibly happen! Very kindly the ground jury allowed me to ring the farrier who took the shoe off, took the rock out and I represented her. Unfortunately she still wasn't passable, even with my yellow dress, and had to sit the weekend out. Frustratingly she was very sound by her dressage time on the Friday, but that's the game isn't it.... Thank you very much to long time supporter, and Charmy's owner Beth Sokohl, for being so nice about it. I'm sure she wanted to scream! So I headed to the 2 and 3 star dressage. Liberty was very competitive, Cole was close but could be closer.
Warming up Charmy but to no avail as we didn't get a start
On to the cross country . This year's course was built by Derek De Grazia. His courses tend to be on the big side and that has historically suited my horses and me . We always seem to jump well around them. He asks what seem to be impossible questions that make the rider really think, yet when it comes to riding them, the horses (or at least mine) seem to know exactly what he's asking of them. Basically if you've done your homework and prepared your horse you won't be caught out. And when there's a moment of doubt, if you just kick and go forward you'll probably make it!
Kate and Cole cross country. Footage provided by RNSVIDEOMEDIA .COM Horse Trials and Three Day Eventing in North America
As I said, the footing was really deep. I must say the organisers did everything they possibly could to make it as good as they could. This included building a trench around the property on the Friday afternoon to catch the deluge of overnight rain. But Mother Nature was determined to make us analyse and choose how to best use our horses. I chose to go fast on Liberty as he was sitting in a good spot after the dressage. He did very well by being the 4th fastest horse of the day in a field where no one made time. With Cole I chose to go slower, build on our confidence and relationship and get our qualifier for Rolex Kentucky. Which we did! And I have to say he jumped very well and felt nowhere near as green as he should have.
Cole and I galloping along Photo courtesy HJU and Calina
Both horses pulled up very well and I was able to show off my coral jeans in the Sunday morning trot up. I trotted Liberty first and had the misfortune of going lame myself on the return run down the straight! I self diagnosed myself with a torn tendon near my quadreceps and hobbled away. I have a feeling that at that point the ground jury weren't looking at the horse anymore...... Fortunately Cole is a very genuine and helpful horse and basically presented himself to the ground jury! Then he helped me limp up the runway and back with his kind neck there to balance me! I just thank God that Liberty hadn't noticed my weakness and gone in for the kill!! It wouldn't have surprised me that, had he noticed, I would have had a nice teeth indentation on my arm and he would've been doing laps of Parc Le Bromont at high speed! On to the showjumping. This is a real strong point for me and I always feel confident heading it. Liberty had an uncharacteristic 3 rails and still ended up 5th which is a testament to how thought the cross country was. Cole jumped very well with just one down. There was only one clear of the day in the 3 star so I was quite happy to be sitting on the 2nd best round of the day. Cole ended 11th and we got our qualifier!
As soon as I leave the show jump arena for the last time of the day at Bromont the race begins to see just how quickly we can pack up and head home. It's not as easy as it seems: there are bills to settle up, horses to ice, horses to clay, dogs to find (DIGGER, WHERE ARE YOU!), one more serving of poutine to eat... This year is was a record time of 45 minutes and we were racing home. Unfortunately our desire to take advantage of our record time and my natural inclination for speed got us into trouble only 2 kms from the showgrounds where we met some very delightful French Canadian policemen. They weren't as excited as us with our record attempts, nor were they very supportive. So trailer after trailer passed us while we waited and waited for them to figure out the American license I gave them. Then they had to figure out my Australian passport. Then the health certificates for the horses. Then the dogs. Then they gave up, told me to slow down and wished us well on our way! All DID go well for the next 3 minutes until we stopped to fill up at the servo and Leslie's card was kindly denied by her bank!!!! So we switched to my card, filled up and on we went. Leslie's bank very generously rang her 20 minutes later to advise her that someone in Canada had attempted to use her card to which she politely informed them that it was actually her that had made this attempt. At least it's good to know someone's watching! Although I'm a little disconcerted that my bank made no attempt to ring me and I'd used my card multiple times.....
So onto the border where there was another 1 hour delay when my assumed American accent only raised alarm bells instead of the comfort and unity I'd intended, and I was subject to further backgrounds checks. Which again were clear. Mum would be so proud! And on we went. The rest of the drive involved switching between Leslie and I. I spent most of my drive checking out the Melbourne results and talking to Heath Ryan (like there's any other Heath), Tim Boland and Gordo Bishop. All great conversationalists however for the benefit of still wanting to maintain my relationship with each, I won't say who is the best! We got home just after the sun rose and it was off to bed for the rest of the day. O, for the days when I would get home at that hour and start riding instead of heading for bed..... These days my bed seems to call my name and I enjoy returning home. So just to prove exactly how much MD missed me I was awoken mid afternoon by a tornado zipping past my window! Hello MD!
You know you're home when a tornado whizzes by
The rest of summer for me involves riding sales horses and babies, selling horses, teaching and starting the winter horses back into work. Until next time (which I hope to have in by the correct date!) thank you for reading and I hope I am giving you a perspective of another eventing culture.
Kate
