[drivingpairs] Fw: Texas Tidbits #3

Below is another Texas Tidbits from the McLennans.  Enjoy.

    Helen Roeder
Sunshine Pony Farm,
  El Hasa Sport Ponies and
www.drivingpairs.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jerry McLennan 
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 2:57 PM
Subject: Texas Tidbits #3


Monday, August 1, 2005

Greetings all!

Last Sunday we went to the "Farmers World Championship" in Geldrop, 
Netherlands. It was amazing!! There were probably 80 entries. Some arrived by 
way of a tractor pulling their trailer. I don't know how they got so many rigs 
in such a small place, but there were rigs everywhere - along the road, which 
was barely wide enough for cars to meet and pass each other. No body got upset, 
or in a hurry. It was VERY casual and very cheap to enter 20 Euros and no stall 
or grounds fees. There were 2 dressage rings going at the same time - one judge 
at each ring. He judged you when you got there. We asked one driver when we 
arrived where dressage was, they knew it was across the road, but did not know 
how to get there. We all made it. After dressage they came back across the road 
and did cones. It was in a small arena outside a bar/restaurant type place 
where everyone sat under umbrellas and watched. The start of A was right behind 
the judge/announcer for cones so the starter of A was also the one who opened 
the gate for each entry to start cones. After a salute, each entry began and 
the electric eye was the time keeper. After the course was finished a couple of 
kids reset the cones when necessary and they were ready for the next entry that 
showed up.

The 6 hazards were accross the freeway. How the competitors got there I don't 
know, but I'm sure they came across the same small bridge we did. I would guess 
that all the hazards were on about 5 acres - maybe. There was a dog race track 
behind the hazards which was used to get the distance in. As a competitor, I 
came through the pasture where all the hazards were and then circled the race 
track and reentered the hazard area and did hazard one. Each hazard was roped 
off with 1, 2, and 3 on your right, a lane beside 3 to get you into 4 and 5, 
and 6 on the left of 5. On the left of 1 & 2 was room to stand and watch when 
you were through, or stand and review the hazards if it wasn't your start time 
yet. 

Hazard 1 was enormous hay stacks with a huge tractor inside the hazards. The 
starting gate was inside the roped off area for hazard 1, so you had to enter 
the roped area and circle to your left to go thru the starting gate. When you 
exited you had to go back thru the gate and shut them down and circle right to 
get back out to make the loop out of the hazard area and back onto the race 
track before you entered the hazard area again to do hazard 2. It was great for 
spectators, because we could see all 6 hazards from REAL close - hazard judge 
close. Most of the time there were 4 hazards going at the same time. EVERYONE 
did F gates. There classes here are called Level 1, 2, 3, and 4. You compete at 
whatever level you enter, but everyone does all the gates - even the beginners 
- Level 1s. No wonder they beat the stuffings out of us. By the time they get 
to the advanced level (level 4), they''ve been doing F gates for years!! There 
were a lot of children driving. The youngest was a 7 year old girl whose mother 
groomed for her. She drove a pair of shetland ponies. There was only one time - 
in Hazard 3- when her mother had to reach over her shoulder and pull the reins 
a little more to get the pair to turn a tight corner when the daughter's arms 
wouldn't go any farther. Otherwise she did it all on her own and flew! We got 
her on video in 2 of the hazards. We'll show you when we get home.

We got tired of watching ponies and singles and it started to rain so we headed 
for the car. When we got to the parking lot, we saw horse pairs and 4-in-hands, 
so got our coats and headed back inside for another couple of hours. 

We returned to the Blackhiede, turned in and rose early Monday to start packing 
everything into someone else's trailor for the show at Beekbergen. I am so 
thankful for our trailer!! When you leave it all in, you don't have to remember 
whether or not you have it or have to find a place for it. We got it all done, 
and left on Tuesday for the show. It had been raining before we got there and 
rained all weekend. It was slop by the time we left yesterday.

The grounds were beautiful. There was a two story tent for the Patrons right on 
the dressage field and between hazards 2 and 6. Vet check went smoothly. I was 
a little concerned about having a horse that I didn't know, but he was fine. I 
fell off a stool in the alleyway on Saturday before the Farmers World 
Championshipand sprained my foot so by Wednesday it was a lot better but still 
not 100%. I still have it wrapped, but as long as I'm on drugs I'm okay - just 
not as agile as usual.


Our dressage draw was the last one before lunch. We hoped the judges would be 
ready to eat and give us a good score, but such was not the case. The boys were 
in control, but did not have a lot of pizazz. We lacked that spark of impulsion 
all the way through, so the 61.57 was well deserved. We were 7th at that time, 
but after lunch the scores flowed a little more and we ended up 18 out of 44. 
Not so bad we thought. It rained during the morning, but cleared up before 
lunch so we did not have to don our rain gear. We went right after Lisa and 
hoped her 49.54 would make us look better, but we were happy to end up 18!!

We were the next to the last pair to start marathon, again right after Lisa, 
about 12:45. It had rained all morning so was chilly and muddy but not coming 
down when we started. Section A was in a forest that is an animal preseve with 
a high fence around it. On one part of the section we knew we had crossed the 
border and were in Colorado. Then we reentered the forest. The neatest part of 
this marathon - a 20 minute walk to get to the start of A and a 5 minute walk 
to get from the End of A to the vet check where we were served something to 
drink after the vet checked us out. We then waited another 10 minutes before 
the 5 minute walk to the start of E. The end of the first K took us right past 
the barn and across the main street in town into Hazard one. It was tight and 
technical, as were all but number 5. The hazards were set up in a U shape with 
the shops and most of the dressage field in the middle ïnfield. Hazards 1, then 
7, then 4 were on the right side, 3 was on the bottom of the U, 6 on the right 
side next to the Patrons tent and 5 was in the woods behind the top of the U. 
There were lanes between the hazards for two way traffic as we passed each 
other coming and going around the U and fences between the lanes and the 
crowds. There were a LOT of people - more than were at Jardy in 2003. We were 
10th in hazard 51.95 sec. (1st was Harrie Verstappen from Netherlands at 49.06) 
He won the marathon!! His spare horse was being driven by the couple we are 
staying with so he could get her qualified because he hoped to be on the team 
from Netherlands, but after this show they told him who was on the team and he 
was not. Politics are as bad here as they are at home!!! Hazard 2 is sort of 
like the "hill"hazard at Live Oak. 4 posts on top of a hill and the other gate 
around the sides of the hill. We went thru a and the boys didn't turn on 
command for B and balled up on a fence. I thought I was going to have to get 
out the picnic basket before I could get Mike to GO ON!!! instead of trhying to 
back them up and do what he'd asked them to do in the first place. That cost us 
big time. We were 22nd with 54:68 (1st was Ben Gosschalk of Netherlands with 
44:38) Hazard 3 was under tnets and had a serpentine between E & F. We flew 
past F and had to circle to get it so there was another goof, bringing that 
hazard at 31st at 53:36 (1st was Hans Henrik Nielsen of Denmark with a 40:20) 
Hazard 4 was the water hazard I wore shorts to video that one and in the middle 
it got my shorts wet. It has 4 big pillars in the midde of a concrete pool that 
sloped to deep. Gates A & B were on the edge of the water, gates C, D & E were 
almost a figure 8 around those 4 posts with F on the land. We were warned at 
the start of E by Lisa's groom that one pair had slipped at the water's edge 
and peeled hide off both front legs of one horse from the knees down. We were 
cautious because we were all "knocking off the rust" at this show. We don't 
want to get anything hurt before Salzburg. We were 14th with 43:27 in the water 
(1st was Riny Rutjens 2003 Gold Medal winner in Jardy with 39:95). Hazard 5 was 
in the woods with piled up lumber and trees. We were 12th with 52:68. (1st was 
Hans Henrik Nielsen of Denmark with a 41:22) Hazard 6 was posts and rails and 
we were 12th with 53:68 (1st was Harrie Verstappen from Netherlands at 45:52). 
I don't know what happened in Hazard 7 but we ended up very slow in that one - 
24th at 59:08 (1st was Harrie Verstappen from Netherlands at 51:36). We didn't 
have any problems, just the wrong route, I guess. Harrie beat us a whole hazard 
in time in the marathon. When we saw a video of him, he doesn't look like he's 
going fast, but his times are great!!! We ended up 18th in marathon with 73.38 
behind Harrie's 63.34. That put us in 12th place. We drove cones in our rain 
gear! The boys were quiet, soft in Mike's hands and he got a little too 
confident and hit #20 with PLENTY of time!!! If only....... Lisa on the other 
hand, went double clear!!! They take the top 3 double clears - there were 9 
double clears - and did a scurry. Harrie Verstappen was the faster in the 1 
round, Riny Rutjens was 2nd and Lisa was 3rd, so Lisa went first and was clean 
in 1:08, Riny knocked the second ball down and was 1:06, and Harrie knocked 3 
balls down putting Lisa as the Cone Queen for the day!! Mike moved up one spot 
ending with a 137.95 behind Harrie Verstappen with his 197.58 - .37 out of 
being able to go back inside the ring to be presented with country flags, etc. 
We were so excited to be in 11th place behind people like Fumagalli, Mieke Van 
Tergouw, Riny Rutjens! Lisa moved up into 4th place over all. Mike and I agreed 
that after cone 19 I'm going to remind him "Don't get cocky, don't get cocky!"

We were exhausted!!! We had walked that mud or ridden bicycles everywhere we 
went. Mud everywhere and bicycles everywhere. NO motorized anywhere. There was 
one parking lot just for bicycles and I wish I'd had my camera. It was amazing. 
Every 3 year old over here as a bike! and rides it everywhere. Mothers have 2 
car seats on their bikes and go all over the place. Instead of strollers, you 
see moms with their children in the bike seats rolling them around. In the 
infield there was a face painting booth for the children as well as one of 
those aired up bouncing machines they can play in. It was great. They could go 
play while parents watched the marathon and everyone had a ball. 

We will be taking bikes again to Riesenbeck on Wednesday, but have decided not 
to take the spare horse. We would not use him except at the championship and 
that will be one less horse to take care of for 5 days. When we got home Sunday 
night, we unloaded horses and essentials and left the rest till today. Cleaning 
and more cleaning is today and tomorrow and late tomorrow afternoon we'll load 
up for departure on Wednesday. 

Guess I'll close for now and check in again next week. Thanks again everyone 
for your prayers. We can really feel them!!!

Luv ya,

Jerry & Mike "Team Texas"







Serving the Shepherd, Loving His Lambs,

Jerry McLennan 

PS Please excuse the missed spelled words. This is an old computer, with no 
spell check and I'm BEAT!!!

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