33 – The World Equestrian Games 2010!
Conan & Becky (our friendly barn show-jumpers) generously gave our horses their ride to the equestrian park – so nice of them!
Here we were… at the world famous Kentucky Horse Park!
There was a bit of a mix up getting into the park, our horses hadn’t had two equine influenza boosters – they didn’t need them as we don’t have equine flu in New Zealand. They were vacinated but only with one booster shot. It was written down but the officials had never come across it before, and weren’t going to let the horses in!
We bought a couple of bikes for getting around; it was quite a large place so they were a good investment, there were also bikes for hire but I think buying cheap ones was a better deal. A couple of people also hired golf carts
Due to coming from a geographically isolated part of the world the Australian and New Zealand horses were stabled away from all the horses from the rest of the world. Which also meant from the other New Zealand team horses – the eventers and show jumper, as they were based in England.
Pre-ride passed!! Lace gets numbered, we have a start! 
Bradley McGregor passing his pre-ride
The day before the race – pre-ride vetting. We actually ended up with the Aussie vet Brian, who we had met at big rides in New Zealand and who Nick knew quite well… so of course they talked about the rugby! Lace passed her check, we had a start!
The start! We let the front runners go in the hope of getting a calm start… kind of worked but you see Debby and Bradley having to swerve to avoid trouble. Lace looking very keen on the left.
Lace just visible on the far left, Bradley swerving 
Lace, unknown bay, Bradley, Omar
Bradley McGregor vetted out lame at the end of the first loop. Debby and her team were understandably upset. So now it was just Lace and Omar, a team completion no longer possible.
My wonderful, beautiful Lace
It was a really lovely course. The whole track was mowed… so even between markers it was easy to follow. And then on any tricky bits where there could possibly have been confusion there were volunteers standing pointing.
One of the highlights – because we’re not used to it – was having spectators. People actually cheering as we rode past! We would call out to them “Go Kiwi”, “Go Nu Zeeland”, it was fun. That is what the American accent sounded like to us.
There were also State Troopers on the major road crossing. All traffic stopped for us.
The second loop was the longest and most technical. There was one river crossing where the river was quite deep it was shaded by large trees and you had to get in down a steep slide straight into the water.
At another point they marked the course in a serpentine along the side of a hill, just to make it a bit harder… and officials there to make sure no one cheated!
We did the whole 160km then vetted out on metabolic vote, 2 to 1 against. She passed the heart rate and trot up but had a head twitch.
With all those really important top vets there it was Nick that saved my pony. He told them that he thought she had cerebral oedema, that they should stop giving fluids and use a certain drug. He was right, and thankfully they listened. I will always owe him so much for that, if they had kept pumping fluids into her, she probably would have died.
We didn’t get back to the hotel until after midnight, I was extremely hungry and tired, I nearly walked to a Waffle House a block away over fields but decided that was a dumb idea, The Waffle House had a bad reputation at night time although we had really enjoyed a visit to one for lunch.
Before we left NZ, during the planning, flights home were discussed. Because Bill was not well and we had left a week earlier than planned I could not justify staying just to enjoy myself watching the rest of the Games. Kerry and Richard had to get back for work. So we had asked for flights back ASAP, providing the horse would be looked after… we were told she would be back in quarantine then anyway.
Shortly after we had arrived in Kentucky Bill had gone sleep walking and had torn cartilage between his ribs and was in a lot of pain. I really needed to get home. But now Lace needed care and in fact would not be going into quarantine for some days. We were flying out in less than two days’ time. Nick and Nikki (equine physio) and the eventing crew offered to look after her, for which I am very grateful… but it was awful to not be able to stay and care for her ourselves. Some people were quite nasty about it too, but they never bothered to ask why we were heading home so soon, believe me I would have loved to stay until Lace was on a plane home too.
Lace had three weeks quarantine in Kentucky and then two weeks in Auckland before I would to see her again, longer than our whole time together in Kentucky.
