Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Tuesday, September 26, 2006 - Schooling Session

By the time I got down to breakfast, Laura, Bob, and Nora had already left for the barn. The rest of us ate and then headed to the barn, too.

I was to ride first, at 8:30. I quickly got him ready and took him into the small indoor. There was still no other place to ride. I began to warm Rocky up. Missy joined me. I picked up trot, and went through our trot movements. Missy reminded me to keep Rocky forward and active and uphill, but did not give me directives for movements. I just did sequences from my tests, and listened to Missy’s corrections. Mostly Missy seemed satisfied with Rocky today.

I did our walk pirouettes. They were better today. I had not thought they were a problem, but apparently they still needed work.

I went into canter, and now Missy wanted much more activity. We obliged her. I rode sequences from tests again, but instead of simple changes I did flying changes. If I rode simple changes too often, Rocky anticipated and tried to do them before I asked. If I did flying changes instead I had better control. Missy agreed with that strategy.

Rocky was working very hard. As he concentrated, his muscles got a little tired, and he began to get croup-high. I did not think that I was going to make improvements to that today. Missy agreed. Rocky had done well, and there was no need to drill him. We let him be done for the day.

Becca rode next, and I missed her ride. I got Rocky settled, and cleaned tack. Laura gave Rocky a bubble bath. I did get to see some of Barb’s ride on Mibis. The ring was quite crowded now. The Brazilian three horses were in there, as well as another horse from a country I did not recognize. The small ring felt very small indeed.

I cringed for Barb. I was glad that I had ridden earlier.

Barb finished, and we all trooped back to the stalls. Laura had gotten permission to turn Pippin and Rocky out in paddocks; we were likely not going to get to turn them out again before we left. I was amazed that we had been able to get them out at all.

I took a tour around the venue, to see what had been done today to get ready for this 4-star competition. One more large dressage arena had been set up outside, minus letters. That was it. There was no further evidence that a big show was to get underway tomorrow. I was amazed.

Denise was able to get us two storage stalls. They were not close to our horses’ stalls, but it was a chance to get some of our stuff out of sight.

We put up stall drapes and got our excess stuff packed into the storage stalls. It looked better in the aisle now. Apparently Norway had the stall next to Pippin. We did not know if there were going to be other countries in this part of the barn; it was actually a private wing.

We finished up this task, and loaded into our two rental cars. We headed into Brugge, and headed to a pleasant café on the town center. The café had a history of itself printed on the placemats; it dated from the 1400’s.

After lunch (it was now three), we split up into two groups. Laura wanted to go back to the barn to wash Pippin and get the horses fed. Bob and Barb went with her. The rest of us spent an hour and a half being tourists, window-shopping and buying gifts for friends and family back home. The most interesting thing was a set of chocolate breasts, available in different sizes ranging from about four inches to life-size. Different colors were available, too.

Back to the hotel we went. Some of us were going out to dinner, but I stayed at the hotel. I had discovered that, since I had not used the PIN on my bank card for a long time, it was no longer valid. I had no easy way to get more money. That was disconcerting.

Laura came to my room after she returned to the barn, to bring me my backpack which had been in her car. She said that the stables were completely chaotic now. Many more countries had arrived and were unloading.

I was very glad to be at the hotel and not at the stable.

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