So far, Blenheim is still on! There is sooooooo much mud here. The lorry park is truly amazing. Every lorry has to be pulled in by a tractor. This place cannot take much more rain. Today, Wednesday, has been the nicest day since we?ve been here. It hasn?t rained (yet) and we?ve seen the sun a few times. The forecast is nice today, rain tomorrow, nice Friday and Saturday, bad again Sunday. Like I said, this place cannot take much more water, so hopefully tomorrow isn?t too bad.
I am sitting in the Rider?s Tent right now. It will have wifi starting tomorrow. It has a pub and a caterer (food is really good) and a big TV. As I sit here writing this, I am trying to listen in on a meeting with a few official types. They are discussing the course and some of the details. They are already talking about which fences might possibly get pulled, getting extra vets etc. I know they?ll do their best to make this competition right. I am #83 Buck is #71. So we?ll go fairly late in the order. Hopefully the conditions improve.
I rode Arthur this morning. He was, again, fantastic! He feels so well and happy here. The field that everyone was allowed to ride in was completely saturated! This is also the field we will need to warm up for xc in. There were two practice dressage arenas in the field. Probably only 20% of entered horses had even been ridden in those arenas so far and the footing was already mucky and terrible. I am going to have to use studs later to ride, because I feel like Arthur doesn?t need to worry about slipping at all! I?m not sure I own studs (cleats for his shoes) big enough for these conditions!!!!
I am looking forward to the riders meeting at 1:30 to hear what has to be said. I also get to walk the course for the first time after that. The first horse inspection is at 3:30 and I will hopefully get a riding lesson with Betina Hoy after that! Fingers crossed!
