August 19, 2006

World Equestrian Games Journals from Aachen
Mack's Musings
By Father Mack (a.k.a.: Father Larry David McCormick)
Photos by Ruth S. McCormick

“Enthusiasm Run Amok?”

Father Mack and Ruth Take a Walk Through Aachen Page 2

When one thinks of businesses and the wonderful world of dressage, one of the first companies to come to mind is Rolex. Yes, anyone who can afford to put a seemingly endless supply of foodstuffs in one end of these “hay burners” and then either pay another person to shovel what comes out the other end /or/ does such shoveling him/herself, such a person may be said to have “disposable income.” Such persons may (when they have cleared the manure from their shoes and the horse spit off of their clothes) give a darn about how they look those few waking hours of any given day that they are NOT on horseback.

Not only the boys and girls at Rolex, but jewelers in general may grasp the fact that “horsy types” have a few Rubles to rub together. Clearly this jewelry store (just around the corner from Aachen’s Dom/cathedral where Charlemagne was crowned as emperor) has laid firm hold upon this concept. [insert photo 1, “1.JewelryStore.JPG”].

Since most of us don’t have the computer equivalent of living-room-wall-sized HD TV’s upon which we read (with ‘bated breath, I hope!) each number of Dressage Daily, permit me to underscore the small print which runs across the top of those photos of show jumpers (what, no dressage competitors?!?) and of the Soers: “All the world in our city.” With perhaps as many as one-half million visitors expected in Aachen over the next two weeks, lots and lots of gold gee-gaws and precious stones could be flying off the shelf.

Okay, okay. I admit it. We are several species down the fiscal food chain when we reach the corner drug store. Please bear with me. Whatever bright light was given the chore of running around the high street of Aachen, grabbing business people by their lapels, and cajoling them to promote the horse competition which is about to begin, that lad or lassie deserves an extra scoop of ice cream for dessert this evening.

Not only did all three of the pharmacies past which we strolled have some mention of the WEG in their windows, this particular store decided that both its German-speaking AND its French-speaking clientele deserved a “heads up” concerning the sport now in town. (Notice in both instances that some apprentice was assigned the task of building full-size – if a bit abbreviated in width – jumps for these window displays! He/She, too, deserves an extra serving of whatever tonight’s pudding may be.)