Lets get it started!

I keep looking at the calender and thinking its missing a week.. but its not Boekelo is nearly here! Yesterday afternooon Captain Mark Philips(our team coach) Sara Ike(Director of Eventing), Paul Wegand(Flight organizer), Doug Payne, Will Faudree, Tiana Coudrey and I all got on a call to actually discuss the details of our trip. I think that was when I realized wow we are actually doing this thing! I have tickets booked for Tate, Chrissy and I for Oct. 9. Will F and Mark Philips are headed to NJ on Oct 5. We will get a few final lessons from Mark at Hart Farm before we all pile our gear and horses into the trailer and head to the Airport sat. am. The horses will fly together with DVM Sara Gold and Wills groom Nat( she is the most experienced groom) on a KLM flight. Sara Ike, Chrissy, Will, Doug and I will fly on a continental flight which will land a few hours before the horses so we can pick up the car and then meet the horses upon arrival. Tiana is flying from the west coast and will arrive a few hours before us all. Mark has arranged a transport to come pick us up from the airport on the morning of the 10th ( my birthday!) to ship us all to the actual event.
Tate is on good form. We have taken it easy since the AEC's and he is back in the pool due to running on the hard ground. He was a bit foot sore but seems to be feeling much better. I had a great jump school this morning. Sunday morning I am headed over to Marilyn Paynes ( before she heads to Kentucky to judge the WEG's) and she will work through the 3* test with me. I did this before richland and had chrissy sit next to her and video. I ride through the test and she judges it( i can hear on the video) and then we work through it movement by movement to hopefully improve the score. Then i can obsess and watch the video over and over until I feel I am over prepared!:) .. it will also give me something to do on the 8 hour flight. I think Tate's win at Richland was greatly due to Marilyn's specific advise on how to properly ride the test. I plan on having a jump with Anne Kurskinski next week then after the lessons with Mark I think we will be set to represent well!
On a side note huge exciting news is a new partnership between myself,Brendan and Wendy Furlong. They have just purchased a horse called Classical King which they originally bred. They have decided to place the horse with me so we can see how far King will go in the sport. He has competed through the training level and we all have high expectations. I am truly flattered that Brendon and Wendy believe in me enough to give me a chance to campaign their horse. King arrives to NJ next week so stay tuned Ill take pictures.
As we get closer to take off day I will update this blog daily!
sinead