[drivingpairs] Re: Fw: Texas Tidbits #3
- From: Bob Ashworth <bashworth@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 19:53:09 -0700 (PDT)
I had the good fortune to be in The Netherlands at just the right
time to go to Beekbergen for the CAI last weekend. I must say, my
Dutch friends were very favorably impressed with the entire
American team. However, they were in love the the McLennens horses.
Watching them power through a very deep water hazard at number 4
and come back to hazard 7 fresh and handy was a real treat.
I was favorably impressed by Everyone. What a show. I was also
pleased to see that even the best in the world can get stuck on a
pole once in a while.
Bob Ashworth
back home in Raymond, CA
--- Helen Roeder <helen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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
=== message truncated ===
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