Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Sunday, October 1, 2006 - The Only U.S. Ride Today

I was the only ride today. Denise and Laura went to the barn early, and then Laura took Denise to the Brussels airport. She would return in time for my ride, if all went well. Meanwhile, the rest of us went to the stables, in two shifts, riders first.

I got Rocky braided. I went to the arena to watch a few of the Grade IV riders' freestyles; I was second to last to go. I was encouraged by the few that I saw; I was certain that I would do well in comparison. One of my students from my clinics in Holland, Tine, came to watch my ride.

She came into the barn, and I introduced her to our team. She offered to videotape my ride, and I was happy to accept. Margreet Boumeister, the organizer of the clinics, and Nelleke Deen, another participant, had also planned to come watch me ride, but neither Tine nor I had seen Margreet or Nelleke.

Becca had her reclassification session at 10:15. Missy breezed in just in time to take Becca; she had been ferrying people. She was the only staff person here right now. Becca went in to meet with Dr. Christine Meadon, the head classifier, and Missy was there to witness it.

It was nearly time to get Rocky saddled. I got him ready, and took him to the indoor arena, the designated warm-up for today's competition. I was to ride inside today. They were running two rings today, so that the whole ParaEquestrian part would be finished by lunchtime; there was another competition in the afternoon.

I started with walk pirouettes. Missy joined me in a few minutes. I picked up trot, and rode long lines of leg yield to get him supple and loose. I did not want to do long and low today; it would make him hard to keep up in the test itself. I knew that from hard experience. Whatever he did in warm-up he was likely to repeat in the test, good or bad.

I rode through all our trot work. Missy reminded me to keep him active; she said that he looked good. He felt good. I was happy with the trot segment.

I let him walk, and then went into canter. I rode big circles in canter and then did a few flying changes. He was good. His canter felt uphill and active. Missy said that the changes were good. I rode some of the segments that I planned to use in my freestyle; everything seemed in order. It was not yet time to go. I let Rocky rest for a few minutes, and then went back to trot for our final warm-up. I rode center lines without halts, to make sure that he would not stagger and anticipate the halt. He was on my aids. We were ready to go.

The rider before us finished, and I went around the outside. I did not stop by each judge; I gave my number on the move.

The C judge rang her bell. I signaled for the music, and it started right away. I was using the new entry music, and I had planned it just right for the good halt. The trot work went well. I was happy with the walk. I started the canter; he was obedient but he began to get a little heavy toward the end. I did not try hard to get him back, in the effort to keep things smooth. It was the right choice.

I ended right with the music with a strong finish. I was very happy with the ride. Missy was happy, too. She thought that it was the best freestyle she had seen me ride. I knew that the score to beat was 71%, and I was hopeful.

I did not get off. Laura and Missy put my white polos on, and I took Rocky back to the indoor warm-up to wait for my score. I waited. Eventually, Missy was able to discover that I had gotten 66%, for sixth place. We were both disappointed in the score; it had been a good ride.

I brought Rocky back into his stall. Now it was time to get him settled, and pack up all our stuff. I got Rocky unbraided. Pippin was out in a paddock, and Becca and I traded horses out there, so that Rocky would have at least a little time outside before his long trip to New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

We got our stuff packed. Our driver came; he spoke little English. We helped him load the equipment, and then brought the horses out. This van, like so many of the vans here in Europe, had the arrangement that the first horse loading like a normal van, and the second horse had to go up the ramp and immediately turn sideways into the outside stall. Rocky had the outside stall.

Laura, Bob, and Barb followed the van to Amsterdam. The rest of us got into the second rental car. Missy asked us what we wanted to do. We had not been into any churches on this trip, and there were two interesting churches in Wevelgem, the nearest town. We drove by the first; services were still going on. We parked at the second one, but it was locked up tight. We walked around the town.

It was clear that this town had been badly bombed in the First World War. The old buildings were lovely, and it was easy to see which ones were newer. There was a park. We walked down a path that had beech trees espaliered into a covered arbor. The trees were fifty or more years old, and the branches were interwoven so that they had grown into each other. There was a small pond, with a huge sculpture of an outstretched frog hanging over the surface of the water. My camera had run out of battery! I was hoping that Nora and Becca would share their photos, since I could not take any more.

We wended our way to the airport. We checked into our little hotel and dumped our baggage, and then took the car back to the rental. Missy ended up driving the wrong way down the teeny aisles, which made it quite an adventure. We were successful in the end though.

We stayed in the airport, to meet up for dinner with Hope Hand and one of the British judges, Sarah Cotton. We ate at a small restaurant. Sarah had the same comments about the show, and also about the double bridle issue that we had talked about at the riders' meeting.

We were back at the hotel by 8:30. Becca and I shared a tiny room, so small that there was barely enough room to walk around the less-than-twin-sized beds. There was CNN on the television, which we had not had in Kortrijk, but it was European CNN, which did not give us actual useful information. I did not really need cricket scores. I was more interested in US weather. Too bad for me!

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