2007 Rolex FEI World Cup Finals for Dressage and Showjumping

Behind the Media Scene at The World Cup
By Father Mack- (a.k.a.: Father Larry David McCormick) with Photos by Ruth McCormick

Surrounding me in Las Vegas is a bevy of talented and hardworking men and women who try to pass along the atmosphere of this grand horse show. If you are so sophisticated as I am fond of imagining you, you read not only our offerings at Dressage Daily (although I hope you come here first and most frequently!) but you also dangle your literary toes in other publications, both electronic and hard copy. All of us – whether we are Dressage Daily or Eurodressage or the Chronicle of the Horse or Dressage Today – are ourselves beholden to the able horde of folks who manage the media center at events like this.

As this is not your bread and butter, I will not overstay my welcome by enumerating the host of people who make the FEI World Cup Finals a reality. But I will be appreciative if the next time you stumble across an article here or in any of our reputable sister publications you will say a silent word of thanks for people such as Marty Bauman, Jamie Saults, and Meg Schermerhorn of Classic Communications who make the media center in Las Vegas rock and roll with such a steady beat.

Never to be overlooked is the wonderful (and wonderfully patient) Edith De Reys who is the beaming face behind the desk first seen by all of us journalistic types when we arrive at these shows. (Thank you Belgium for letting her travel all over the world to keep bad boys such as myself in line!)

On the scene in Las Vegas year ’round is Mister Tim Keener of Las Vegas Events, he who knows the inside workings of this “sin city.” I suspect that I speak on behalf of both those of us who write about the FEI World Cup Final as well as the organizers of the event when I send a sincere “Atta Boy!” out to Tim. (Now if only you could do something about the volume level inside the Thomas & Mack Center, Tim. These old eardrums of mine swear they are about to burst at times.)

If you have a kind thought (or [dare I type?] energy for a prayer) left over, you can send a considerate note to Mary Phelps and Penny Peck (info@horsesdaily.com) who post our news items from the mothership of Dressage Daily while Lynndee and I are out here living the high life in the desert southwest.