Team Strawson at the WEGs - Day One!

Team Strawson’s Excellent Adventures continue at the WEG 2010…………

Life is what you make of it, and so far we have turned everything into a fun adventure!  It started on our trip down where each stop was an adventure….stopping in old fashioned grocery stores, laughing so hard telling stories, our trip from the hotel to the WEG grounds the first day where we took an unexpected detour through Indiana - so far it has been nonstop fun -  almost……………

As long as you forget sitting in the pouring rain, not being able to get a hot cup of chocolate or tea, the cold, cold breakfast sandwich on an untoasted English muffin (we expected a cozy kiosk with lots of hot drinks since the website told us to get there 2 ½ hours early---not), not being able to leave the stadium area in the morning to see the vendors or find something hot to drink…….if you laugh about these things and turn them into an adventure, then you can have a great time.

And what can be better than watching the top dressage equestrians in the world.  We had a full day of watching the riders complete the Grand Prix, the first half of the team competition.  The first two USA riders, Todd Flettrich and Katherine Bateson-Chandler did a super job.  Todd had one of the best piaffes we saw all day, scoring a 9 from one of the judges.  Katherine did a great job, finishing in 5^th place overall with a lovely, elegant ride.  There were a lot of nice horses and riders, but the two stand outs of the day were the two Dutch riders who were able to ride ‘a heck of a test’.  They rode with accuracy and purpose to get everything out of their horses.  My favorite was Imke Schellekens-Bartels who had the whole package – nice horse, beautiful rider, horse was good in all gaits - she rode with purpose and accuracy while looking elegant - putting everything together.  Of note were her extended canter and canter pirouettes; you just don’t see canter pirouettes like that too often. 

So, all in all it was a great day.  We will be getting an early start again tomorrow (5:30 am) and will make room for a stop at Starbucks this time!