DeRosa Daily Equestrian Olympic News
Horsesdaily Veteran Olympic Reporter Diana DeRosa Brings Us Into Her World

On A Personal Note

You continue to email me nice words for Debbie McDonald and I will do another report on that but now I want to mention some of the other emails I’ve been getting.

Barb Young wrote, I hope you're having a wonderful time, and not working too very hard.  I wanted to say I thought you did a great job on your articles on Debbie and Brentina.  I did get to see that go (God bless the Oxygen channel), and it was so sad to watch.  One of newsletters I read reiterated strongly that Brentina wasn't lame, just scared to death, and I was pleased to see you relayed that as well.  I hate what rumors do...and on top of such a disappointing time for Debbie and the team as well.  Keep up the good work.

B. Black corrected I mistake I made (you know a gender thing!) with her nicely put note.  “I enjoyed reading some of your reports from the Olympic Games 2008, but had to laugh when I saw the bit about Australian show jumper Laurie Lever, whom I met many years ago.  There was a direct quote from this rider, and I have to wonder how anyone present at the games could have missed the fact that Laurie (said to be "making her Olympic debut at 60") is in fact a guy!!!  Small point, but worth making, I think! Thank you for correcting me on that.  Accuracy is important – so I never mind getting the facts right.

Camille from New York commented, “Thank you for the updates.  My horse pals are loving it.  How are you doing with adjusting to the culture?  How is the food, lodging  and the different  personalities?”

Well Camille, it feels so much like home here and life also centers around the venue, so not much time to appreciate the world beyond.  Food is excellent, lodging is adequate for my purposes and the people are so nice, friendly and helpful.  No complaints there.

Robin Hirst had this request, ”I just read your article on the Eventing finals. Would you please write about the Japanese dressage team? One of them, the reserve, Kuranojo Saito rode for Japan in 1978 in Eventing. He lived in Middleburg, VA.  While he trained with Don Sachey, I was training with Don at the same time. Juliet Graham who rode for both Canada and the U.S. was also there and we wanted to hear about him and send him our hurrahs that he is out there competing. He is quite a gentleman and very shy. Robin, I have to try and see if I can meet up with Kuranojo Saito.  If I do I will be sure to mention your name.

On another note, someone asked me if the horses of the different teams were stabled together.  Yes they are and the riders have nothing but rave reviews about the stabling.  It seems that all the horses from each of the various countries are stabled together.

I wanted to end tonight’s report by saying I find it interesting to shoot the moon each night.  When we arrived it was partly covered but the last two nights it’s been a full moon.  You can just imagine the jokes that have been going around about how different people react to a full moon.  For me, I just find it fascinating that we can see this round ball in the sky as bright as could be. 

Tonight continues with the second round of the Nation’s Cup and we are in a good position.  At the moment we are tied with Switzerland for first place, but Sweden is only one point behind. 

Well, I really do enjoy getting your emails.  So, write me: dderosa1@optonline.net.