What an Event! The 2006 AZ CDE is one I won't forget for a long time. The
winds on Thursday and Friday had me hoping that Arizona top soil had
balanced mineral content, because I sure ate enough of it. High winds
combined with an extended period of drought made for super dusty
conditions. Our carriage/horse/harness cleaning was wiped away in the
first few seconds of driving, and after a few minutes, we all looked alike,
all horses, carriages and faces looked the same - we were all Arizona pink!
I opted to stay out of the warm-up arena which was a huge cloud of pink
dust and just trotted along the roads for warm-up. The ponies did a
respectable intermediate dressage test, and since Diane was going right in
behind me with her tandem, I stayed to watch a bit. Wow! Now Diane is an
excellent driver, and she always does pretty good dressage, but that test
was different - it was beautiful! I sat by ring side, saying "wow", "wow",
and even, "wow". Then I said to my groom (Chris Downing) "I think she may
beat us... I think she is beating us.... I'm pretty sure she just beat
us." Yep, she beat us! I say Diane beat us by one point, her 38.??? to my
39.???, but she contends that it was by almost 2 points! :-) I love to see
beautiful horses driven beautifully and watching Diane and her cobs was a
true treat. Move over Dressage Queens - Dine just arrived!
I think May Beth Goree (our hostess) may have decided that there was just
too much dust for a little light house keeping, so she called upon the
powers that be for a little help, and the heavens opened up and washed away
the dust. Then somebody forgot to turn the sprinkler off. I sat in
Chris's wonderful motor home watching the driving rain fall and the slick
mud get deeper and deeper. I was going to withdraw, then I was going to
drive, then I was going to withdraw, then I was going to drive... I told
Diane that I was going to withdraw - she called me a wussie - so I had to
drive.
I'd read the rule book to confirm my understanding of "Withdraw" and
"Retire". I wanted to do cones the next day and realized that I had to at
least start section A and to "retire", as to "withdraw" would mean that I
was out of the remainder of the competition. My skinny pony was having
trouble keeping warm, so we harnessed him over his polar fleece cooler,
kept both boys in their stalls until the last possible minute, hitched in
the driving rain, slugged to the safety check and headed to sec A. I told
Chris that we were out of there as soon as I saw one slip of a pony
hoof. Once out in the slop and soaking wet we just kept going. I didn't
allow the ponies to go at any speed in the hazards and simply trotted
through them, going slow kept the ponies hooves under them. It was sad to
see that the Covered Wagon hazard had to be shortened since the high winds
had flattened one side of each canopy. It was probably a good thing
though, I might have been tempted to stop under the covers and just wait
out the rain. A lot of work had gone into the creation of that new hazard,
I hope it will be available for us to drive next year. I ended the
marathon not being able to feel my hands or feet. Being a California girl
competing in Arizona, I had not taken clothing suitable for the conditions
(not sure I own clothing suitable for the conditions!) and I may as well
have swum around in a pool of ice water for an hour, I wouldn't have been
much wetter. It was one of the most miserable drives of my life. On the
up side. Once the ponies were toweled off, triple blanketed, and loaded up
with hay - they seemed just fine.
It rained all afternoon and all night, all low spots flooded, and our 4x4
trucks tore up roads and pastures alike. Bob Goree brought out a tractor
to give assistance to those too deep in the mire to get themselves
out. Thank goodness for tractors and the kind men who drive them!
Sunday the sun was out and the winds were light (the way it's supposed to
be in AZ!) and the modified open cones course gave us a chance to scoot
along without churning up the grass (too much). The bright day lifted my
spirits and I was able to over look the fact that everything I owned was
covered in mud, and see the beauty of the snow covered mountains in the
distance. Ya, that's right - SNOW.
I will remember Coolidge 2006, for a very long time.
