Wednesday – Trot Up

     Today we had the trot up and Donnabella passed as did all the other Young Rider horses, though about 10 of the 14 had to represent multiple times, some even 3, 4 or 5 times!  Trot up is not taken as seriously here as in Australia, most riders did not get dressed up, and some didn’t even plait.  I also thought it was a rule that trot ups must be done on a hard surface, but we did it in the warm up arena on a lovely thick surface, and still most horses needed to be represented.  

    After the trot up was the draw for the first two competitions, and we spent half of the day searching for the room, with people telling as all different complex directions, and there is one million doors in this place!  We were first to arrive at the draw, followed by the riders from USA, Canada, NZ and Sweeden, and none of the other riders bothered to come.  They drew names out of a hat, then the rider picked out a number, which would be the order for the competition.  My name was last to draw out for the first competition, the Team Test, so I got 9th, which is quite good I think.  For the 2nd competition, the Individual test, I was the 2nd last rider to be called out, and only had 1st and 4th to choose from, and of course pulled out number 1!  It its not the best draw, but it will be ok, it was annoying though that all the riders that did not come got great positions in the draw.

   The competition venue is right in the centre of Frankfurt, with all the high rise buildings.  The stables are actually in a car park, on the concrete so we have heaps and heaps of straw!  The walkway between the stables and the warm up and main arena is only really meant for people, so the doorway is not very high!  Donnabella’s ears touch the top of the doorway quite easily, and she is only 16.1hh, but there are some crazy people who have taller horses and just lean right forward and somehow just fit under the doorway!  We look around and just think this would never happen in Australia, we definately are better at following the rules!  

    Well anyway, its been a really fun show so far, there were competitons on all day today, and I managed to watch a few things.  We first watched a CDN Grand Prix, and it was interesting to see the nicest horse come last, because it had too many little mistakes.  Others that were not near as nice, with clean tests got really great scores.  Next we saw a junior rider class, there were 7 riders in each of the two rings and they just walked, trotted and cantered on the circle for the judges.  Out of the 14 competitors only 4 rode without fixed draw reins or side reins!  My favourite event of the day was the Indoor Cross Country.  They jumps were about 1.05m and it included 2 showjumps and 11 xc jumps, which is a lot to fit in an arena not much bigger than the size of a dressage arena, and was scored like a showjump round.  It looked great fun, I wish I had Talinga Cavalier here to gallop around the jumps!  Another great event was the jump and drive, where riders did a short showjump course then ran down and hopped on the back of a driving carriage and went through the cones. 

    Tomorrow is the first day of competition, and arena familiarisation is at 6-7am so we will be up very early to get another ride in the Indoor.  I’m guessing i’ll be on about 7pm tomorrow night, as the time draw has not be done yet.  For anyone wanting to watch the results, the link is http://www.escon-marketing.de/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=1222 

    Thankyou everyone for your good luck wishes, i’ll let you know how everything goes tomorrow!

Megan

Main Arena Stables

Even the kid on the pony has to duck!

Kids competiting with Draw Reins!Donnabella after a ride

Stables

Arena Christmas DecorationsDonnabella after a ride