The Events Have Started

Today was the first day of all the events in Champs. It was the dressage portion in Eventing today in the Rolex arena. Quiz was going on in the tent by the Rolex arena. I didn't personally get a chance to watch Polocross and Dressage but they were going on too. I hope you got a chance to see them.

They had games in the indoor arena by the trade fair. Speaking of the trade fair there was a cutout of Gina Miles jumping Mckinley. Her face is cut out so you can put your face in and take a picture. The Show Jumping was really fun to watch also.

Opening Ceremony

Yesterday at 6:30 we had the opening ceremony for Championships.First came a golf cart pulling a platform with New Orleans flags, umbrellas and people throwing beads at the people in the stands. They were advertising the 2012 Annual Meeting that would be held in New Orleans. After them came 2 Mounted police officers carrying the America flag and the Kentucky flag. After them came a girl who's dad is fighting in Afghanistan. While he was there he flew they pony club flag. The girl had the flag he flew.

The USPC president Tom Adams, the board of Governers, walked in the parade with a banner that listed all the sponsors of Pony Club.

All the teams paraded into the Rolex Arena one by one. They went in alphabetical order and the announcer called out what divisions the regions were competeting in. They all grouped in the center of the ring forming the letters USPC:

Then we had two other guests come in to the ring. A reiner and a polo player. The reined just did a small demonstration of reining and the polo player represented that polo was to become a sport in pony club. Yay!

There was one pony club member who sang the national anthem and the sound system decided to act up. Every time the sound died all the pony club members joined in to make it louder. It was really cool to watch.

Tom Adams declared the games begin!

Mid Cal Hangout

If you need a place to rest, get a drink, or just to hang out, come to the Mid Cal tent! It's in the line of tents just outside the Champs Show office. You can go along the line of tents and trade pins. We were having lots of fun there today morning.

 It is also right by a people transport. Lots of people had lunch there too.
Come visit the Mid Cal tent!

Canadian Pony Club Quiz Team

Canadian Pony Club has been invited to participate in the USPC Championships and Festival. I caught up with their Quiz teams before the briefing. There were totally 7 competitors from Canada in Quiz. They were picked because their experience in regional, national and international Quiz competitions. Some of them have been on Internationale Quiz Exchange teams. They had lots of fun Canadian spirit things with them.

All but one of them were from British Columbia. "This is the farthest that I've been from the ocean. (wiping forehead of sweat.)". They were excited to know we were from Middle California. One of them has visited Mid Cal before. All of were exited to compete here in Quiz.

We got to talk about their ratings. They mentioned that their rating system goes D, D1, D2, C, C1, C2...unlike us that go D1, D2, D3, C1, C2, C3..etc. Later in the day we ran into them again and notice one of them had a felt backing of a rating higher that her actual rating.. Just for fun. They were hilarious.

Good luck!

Keeneland

Sunday morning, we went to Keeneland. We were late and missed the horses breeze (that is what they call horses exercising. We walked around the grand stand and then the barns. We came across a person named Dwayne. He talked non-stop about his horses. Then we met his twin brother Wayne. They two were quite interesting. Dwayne said we should take our pictures with one of his horse that he thought was going to be a future Derby winner. (No Pressure. No Pressure..) He let me help him grain his horses.

We went back on Monday to see the horses exercise. We saw a few horses really galloping like in races. Some of them were being trained to run really close to other horses. There was one rider who stopped to talk to us. He seemed enjoy all the attention that the visitors were giving. We ran into folks from Woodside Pony Club and Skye Valley.

KESMARC

KESMARC (Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center ) is an equine therapy hospital. I went there for a tour of their facilities. Two of the interns there gave the tour they said that what Kesmarc does is help horses heal and get back to full health. It is not exactly a vet hospital. Some horses come in with injurys or just come in to build muscle. Most of the horses are off the track horses that the owners want to sell.

Kesmarc has many treatments that help the horses. We got to see all of these on the tour.
First they have the swimming pool. It looks like a big circular pool with an concrete island in the center. It is 16 feet deep so the horse has to swim.When horses just get started in the pool there are two people handling the horse, one on the island and one running on the outside. The horse takes breaks every now and then. When it does, the handlers lead the horse on a ramp where the horse can stand. The pool strengthens muscles all over without putting stress on the bones. It also makes them look good.

Then we got to see the Aqua Tred. This is just an treadmill for horses that is under water. The horses usually use this before the pool to get used to the water. Here the horses can stand. There is a ramp going down to the actual treadmill part and the water is chest high for the horses. This also strengthens the muscles. It also gives the advantage of a higher view of the horse so they can see lameness more easily.

http://www.kesmarc.com

They’re Here!!

The horses arrived at the horse park at about 7:30 this evening. All the competitors were eager to see their horses and were hanging around waiting for them. We had some ice cream as we waited. We had carrots for the horses. Maya was holding her horse's stud chain for so long she just wore it around her neck.

After a while the truck came around the corner. All of the girls were really really excited.

Logan’s dad warned everyone that the horses might try to rush out of the trailer.

All the horses were very eager to get out of the trailer. You would be too if you had been standing for 2 1/2 days. But, they all behaved and waited for their turn to taken out of the trailer.

We got them out and they walked around and ate some grass. All of them seemed to love the green fields. Everyone looked fine except Logan's horse got bitten on the nose (he is fine). After the horses stretched their legs and went into their stalls, everyone packed up the trailer and took their things up to the stalls where they started setting up their tack rooms.

Oh, I forgot to mention. The trailer blew out one of its tires a couple of hours before it reached Lexington. The drivers just drove straight through. I heard they don’t try to stop and change the tires when something like this happens.