Rolex at the Greene Turtle!

Last year, I made my first trip to watch Rolex in person - funny because I'd been to both Burghley and Badminton, but never made it just down the road to our own American 4-star. I honestly hadn't realized what an easy drive Lexington is from DC. This year, my mom and I have tickets to go to the WEG this fall, so I decided to skip out on Rolex this spring (saving my shopping dollars!). Man did I miss being there! I think I spent as much time watching Eventing Nation's live blog and Universal Sport's coverage - I might as well have gone to the event! But, Katchi and I had our own little tribute to Rolex XC day yesterday - I took him over to Rosaryville Park to do some galloping work on their hills. Katchi was super easy galloping and it was a great prep for our re-attempt (no hind boots this time!) at starting the competition season next weekend at MCTA!

So, today, I decided to venture out to the Greene Turtle in Columbia to watch the live showing of Rolex SJ on the big screen, in a sportsbar, with a beer, and french fries!!!! Lori B posted on the COTH Forum that she was organizing a viewing party, so I thought, what the heck! When will I ever have this kind of opportunity again?? What we lacked in numbers, we made up for with enthusiasm for the horses and riders. I really thought Phillip might win as other rider's rails fell, and fell, and fell! I wore my hat from last year's Dutton Academy to show my "team" support - although, it was lost on the other bar patrons, who had no idea why there were horses on the big screen, and definitely thought we were an odd group! The Turtle's manager came over at the end, and he said they actually watched the event a bit - they managed to figure out that it was bad when rails fell down, and when that grey horse (Kim Severson) ran into the fence - no good. They were excited that the super tall guy had won - they figured he must be a basketball player in his real job, because he surely can't do that horse thing all the time! I just smiled and thanked them profusely for the beer and big screen tv!

That's Boyd on the big screen - having a fantastic ride on Neville! How happy are we to have the Aussies flocking to the US?! Wow, those boys are looking good!