At this very moment, the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Gay Games is going on in Koln, Germany. Thousands of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered athletes are enjoying themselves before tomorrow when the competitions begin. I have always wished that I could be present to help with this event in some way, whether as a judge or some other official, but my own athletic world always conflicted time wise, thus there was never the chance.

But this year, my best friend, Josh Judge, is swimming for the United States and has 2 competitions tomorrow. I can honestly say that no one, whether in the Gay Games or actual Olympic Games has put more energy, focus and determination to, after only 2 years of training, represent his country and go for the Gold! I applaud Josh and all his team-mates and wish them the best of luck in the coming days. I have also asked for him to chronicle his experience and send me some pictures as well and I will put them up as they come.

GO Josh and GO Team USA!

RD

Hickstead is truly a big deal this week on many different levels. For Canada, it is the final qualifier for those trying to earn a spot on the Dressage Team for the World Equestrian Team. Evi Strasser is actually competing there and as she now has 3 of 4 qualifying scores necessary to complete the selection criteria for Canada, I want to send out a. big “GOOD LUCK” to her and Quantum Tyme. All of the other short-listed riders are enjoying some well deserved down-time before we ramp it up again so our Team peaks perfectly in Lexington.

Hickstead is holding both a 3* and 5* CDI simultaneously and besides a huge amount of prize money for those stars coming for the Masters, it is also a qualifier for the British Team. I’ll be watching for the score of Liebling and Carl Hester who need a good showing here as they were not able to use Hartbury after the horse suffered a small cut on his tongue and was eliminated from the Grand Prix there.

Hickstead is also a great jumping competition which many countries are using to help select their WEG Teams. All in all, it is going to be an exciting week of equestrian sport!

And next week the United States will hold its first of 2 weekends of final selection trials for its WEG Dressage Team in Gladstone, New Jersey. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Steffen Peters and Ravel will be awarded an automatic bye and be named directly to the team as well he should be. But more than a dozen other combinations will compete for the other 3 spots on the Team. It is a little wierd for me to think that this will be the first time in decades that I will not be present for the trials, but as the Canadian Coach/ Technical Advisor, I feel that it would not be in good taste to be there. Still, I would be lying if I said I didn’t wish I could be in Gladstone to watch my friends and some of my students trying out. I wish everyone good luck!

Cheers!

RD

OK, So we closed on our house today - the one we sold that is. And we were out on the hunt for the smaller and simpler replacement this morning as well. I know we will find exactly what we need because we have the very best realtor in town, my boyfriend, Robert Ross. In the meantime we are staying in a wonderful friend’s place in Bedford Mews, the same sub-division where we lived 14 years ago. Sweet! Most of the time we’ll spend in our place down in South Beach though, since I really don’t have horses or training to do in Wellington until after the World Equestrian Games this fall.

I am hoping to have a few really nice horses to train for people this year again like I did last year when I finished 3 to Grand Prix. I love doing this but also am still hoping to also find a great young horse for myself. I made the huge mistake of writing something to that effect on Facebook and received literally hundreds of messages in 24 hours from dealers and people all around the world wanting to sell me their horse. Now I’m sure there may have been some nice ones among the masses, but it was just overwhelming and I know that I am looking for a needle in the haystack. I just don’t have the time or energy to inspect the haystack, that’s all. And especially since spending the last 2 months watching absolutely amazing horses in the biggest shows in the world, it is even more clear that I will have to be very patient and hope that a great youngster comes along for me at some point.

I also know that I’m not going to be bored over the next months leading up to the WEG’s, what with the ongoing training of the Canadian Team as well as conducting clinics for their young riders and developing combinations. And I want to remind everyone that there’s going to be a fantastic “Send-off To Kentucky” benefit for the Canadian Team on September 12th at the farm of the Vander Ploeg’s outside of Toronto. It’s going to be a wonderful event so I hope everyone will come out and have a great time and support our Team!

Cheers!

RD

OK, so I wrote the above on my Facebook page and my “good friend”, Matt Johnson wrote back, “I’ll get out my violin …. and whack you with it! LOL”. Very funny, Mister! But you won’t think it’s so funny when we pull up our U-haul full of our belongings like the Clampet family from Beverly Hillbillies!

Anyway, doing the walk-through in our totally empty home was bitter-sweet this afternoon. I loved the house and we put a great deal into making it exactly what we wanted at the time. But now both Robert and myself desire a more simple life and the freedom to decide that we’d like to take a trip here and there, so having a big home in the Polo Club just isn’t a priority anymore. We love our place in South Beach and would actually like to buy something in Fire Island as well. Both are places where we can simply be with our friends and have a good time with month stress. Now there’s a notion, eh? We are looking for something in Wellington that we can call home again as well, but it will have to be a real bargain if it is big or absolutely turnkey like our condo on the beach was. Heaven knows, nobody in the world is better at searching for the perfect place than my boyfriend, Robert. The biggest problem is getting him off the computer at 3am to stop his search for a few hours of sleep. No wonder why he has become one of the most successful realtors in South Florida after only two years on the job! We will see what comes up tomorrow as the search for our next home in Wellington continues.

Cheers!

RD

So here’s the thing - I concede that if one is in Equestrian Sport, Europe has it all over America and we have a very long way to go before our shows and the sport in general catch up to their standard. But sitting here on Lincoln Road sipping my watermelon mojito with the ocean breezes and the beautiful people strolling by makes me certain why I love living here beyond all other places.

Is America perfect? Of course not. As a matter of fact, I do have one major gripe which I feel obliged to mention since returning home the other day. DRIVING!

Why is it that American’s seem not to have gotten the memo that if one is going to inhabit the furthest left lane on a highway, going faster than a semi or broken-down Beetle is mandatory. I mean really - people will go along with a stream of cars behind them trying to pass, totally oblivious to what in Europe is absolutely know to be the rule of driving. Slower cars move immediately to the right, lest they be rammed off the road by a big Mercedes or BMW. It’s bad enough to come home and feel like going the speed limit is tantamount to driving in reverse, but sitting behind some old man with a hat going 10 miles per hour under the speed limit while firm in the belief that this is one of his God-given rights as a U.S. Citizen puts me pretty much over the edge. I think there should be a national “Driving Etiquette Campaign”, the result of which would be safer, faster transportation and a lot less road rage.

Cheers!

RD

You may not remember this but I have been writing, though both slowly and sporadically since taking on the position of Canadian Coach/ Technical Advisor, a book I lovingly call, “Words That Start With An ‘F’”.  This is most definitely a long-term project ( unless I can find a good ghost writer, that is) but today I thought I would show you an excerpt from the chapter titled, “Fragile”.

When we are young, we really don’t at all get just how fragile life is on many different levels.  We tend to think we are invincible and will live forever, even though I, like so many kids, had grandparents who were already deceased by the time I was born.  I just couldn’t grasp the meaning of this.

What changed everything for me and a generation of guys my age was the advent of AIDS.  Who could have imagined that love and sex could be deadly before we understood exactly what HIV was?  I watched as boys and young men were ravaged by this awful disease with absolutely no way to cure it or ease its symptoms, and these were not wild and promiscuous people most of the time.  They were just friends who were dating and had no clue that unprotected sex could bring them anything worse than something which, at the very worst, could be cured by antibiotics.  Thank GOD modern medicine has produced drugs which are very successful at controlling HIV, but make no mistake - the side effects of the drugs are not fun for people who take them and safe sex is the very best option if you are sexually active.

Life with horses is a true lesson in fragility as well.  How can an animal which is able to access such enormous power, surmount incredible obstacles, and just plain cope with unthinkable hardships under some circumstances,  be so easily susceptible to dying from colic or founder.  On the one hand they are so strong and yet so fragile and indeed helpless in the next instant.  It always make me pause when I think I want another horse (which I really do).

And finally I want to talk for a minute about how emotionally fragile we are and how sometimes others just simply forget that, especially since the Internet became such an easy place for us to write our opinions about anything and anyone.  So many times I try to remind people in and out of the horse world that “Internet graffiti” can do untold harm to others who are mostly just trying to get through life the best way they can, just like we are.  I have heard of too many people recently who actually took their own lives because they just ccouldn’t cope with their lives anymore and felt death would actually be a relief from their personal torment.  We can never know exactly what is going on the minds of others or exactly how fragile they are at any given moment.  What we can and should do is try to put ourselves in their shoes before we write or say something which turned around and said about us would clearly be hurtful to us and cause us emotional pain.

All of life is precious and more fragile every day.  Please take care of yourself, your loved ones (both two and 4 legged), and our planet - physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Thank you very much!

RD

As I sit here, 5 men are packing up our entire house in Palm Beach Polo to be put into storage and hopefully soon unpacked into our new home.  First, so far this is the easiest move I have had since my parents moved us around as kids and I got to sit around and watch it all happen.  You see, for the last decades, moving meant Robert and I boxing everything ourselves and throwing it in our horse trailer or moving van to bring it to and unpack it in our new home.  Finally, this time I put my foot down and said I would move after 12 wonderful years in this house I adore if and only if the only thing I would have to move myself is one bag of clothes and personal items and Simon and his “personal items”, meaning his toys and bones.  We created a huge pile of stuff to give to Good Will and Robert’s Mom already took it in to them.  Other than that, this is working exactly as I hoped and the guys are doing a great job of securing everything perfectly, something Robert and I were never quite able to do without something getting scratched or breaking.

So here’s the thing.  We are only about a third of the way done so far and I’m sure this cannot go without a little stress, especially since we still have no idea where we are going to live for sure when in Wellington, but knowing we can simply move down to our condo in Miami for as long as it takes to purchase a new place here is very comforting.  In the meantime, I am also organizing my next couple of months of training the Canadians as we quickly approach the World Equestrian Games in September.  I guess that as long as one goes forward and in the right direction, moving can actually be a good thing!

Cheers!

RD

I am so happy to be home with my boys, Robert and Simon!  I decided I had to go buy Simon a couple of toys and some new bones at Petco, my real home away from home.  Naturally, he loves his toys to death - literally!  Withing 15 minutes he has not only torn the squeaker out of them but all the stuffing as well , until I have no choice but to throw them out.  But just so you know I actually do attempt to buy him toys, I decided a picture was worth a thousand words.

Cheers!

RD

Our Aachen Team Of Ashley Holzer, Bonny Bonnello, Wendy Christoff and Belinda Trussell getting ready for the final parade of nations.

I got home late last night from Europe and sorry but I was just too exhausted to get my laptop hooked back up to post my fianl thoughts of Aachen. So here it goes.

First, as usual, Aachen is hands down the most amazing Equestrian competition on earth if you are into any of the FEI sports.  The feeling just walking around the grounds is like no other and the sport there whether you are an exhibitor or a spectator is simply fantastic!  Kudos to Frank Kemperman and his team for once again bringing us all such an incredible week.

As for the Canadian Team, not only did they end up raising their ranking from 6th to 5th after the Grand Prix special, but I was very pleased that both Ashley Holzer and Belinda Trussell qualified for the final Freestyle.  To be in the top 15 of the world at the world’s strongest show is a feat in itself!  I have to tell you that Ashley as well as 2 other competitors in the show came down with either a virus or food poisoning the evening before and day of the freestyle. As a matter of fact, Anabel Balkenhol was too ill to even ride and poor Ashley did so under such duress that I was amazed she could even compete no less place 13th from the 16 qualified combinations.  She is an amazing horse-person and I cannot tell you how much I admire her sportsmanship and professionalism!  I was equally proud of Belinda Trussell in her Freestyle as she did a wonderful, clean ride to place 12th with over 72%.  All in all, our Canadian Squad achieved a great deal from the European tour and had many personal bests and excellent placements at the shows entered.  Now they will have a well deserved rest, though we still have several combinations in Europe who plan to do more shows during the next months.

Regarding the trial run of several of the new judginging methods  which we on the Dressage Task force created, I am 100% sure that the Supervisory Panel will be of great benefit for the successful futur of the sport.  I also believe that the use of half-points will prove to be a plus, but am not so sure about the use of 7 instead of 5 judges.  In the end, what is most important is that we have extremely well educated judges who exhibit both the knowledge and self-confidence to  stand by their opinions.  I saw so many truly excellent movements through the week by many horses, but it was extremely rare to see 10’s given even when, for instance, Parzival and Adelinde did superb 2 and 1 tempi changes on the diagonals but did not get one “excellent” score for them.  I honestly could not have wanted anything more from this great combination in those exercises but it was not until Katrina Wuest finally gave her a 10 for the 1’s on the centre-line between the pirouettes that she received her due score.  The same goes for her transitions between piaffe and passage but again she did not get a 10 until her final one from the judge at C, Mr. Tornblad.  In the end, my honest opinion is that the horses and riding are by far at an all time high but the standard of judging in total has not improved to the same degree.  There are some very good judges and I believe all are trying to do their best, but seeing up to 8 percentage points difference as well as classes where judges placed the same horse from 3rd to last place just does not cut it.  I do believe that the Supervisory Panel will bring judging to a much better level as the members have more ability to alter poor scoring; however, nothing can take the place of ensuring a very strong eduction and monitoring system for the advancement of judges in the future.  And I am a strong proponent for creating an expedited program for top Olympic riders who retire and have a desire to become O judges. They should be able to take an equivalency exam after a brief training period to get their I  in all countries and then their O certification from the FEI.  This way we will expand and improve our pool of top O judges and see the standard of judging increase as well.

Cheers!

RD