On the Line

I’m sitting in an office building in downtown San Francisco, but my mind is 2,557 miles away. That’s how far it is from California to the International Ring at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Florida, where the WEG trials have just gotten underway.

USEF provided a free, live webcast of Trial #1 that was pretty damn good – I don’t know who was commentating but him and the camera guys did a great job of presenting my favorite sport professionally. It wasn’t their fault that I had to watch it in one itty-bitty corner of my computer screen, from my 6^th floor office with not a horse in sight. . .

I’m grateful I live in an age of live webcasts and new realities (see previous post), so I’m going to bite my tongue and not complain about the troubles of the worker bee, unable to take a week or so off and flit over to Florida when the mood strikes. Nope, not complaining. It’s super to watch the WEG trials live from my office, and I now know where I’ll be for the remaining four trials. Right here, in front of the trusty old desktop computer. That is, unless I happen across a really good deal on a round trip ticket to PBI. Then, flit, fly, whatever, I’ll be there!

This week, my intention was to write a perfectly normal article about a polo horse. Califa has been 10-goaler Mariano Aguerre’s favorite team horse for years. He’s played the US and Argentine Opens, been Best Playing Pony too many times to count, and was named the American Polo Horse Association’s 2009 Horse of the Year. He’s also a gorgeous (h/j snob that I am, I rarely use that word in the same sentence as ‘polo horse’) specimen of polo horse, impressively conditioned and muscled. Naturally, we want to write about him.

But get this. Califa has been cloned. Not one but THREE mares are due to deliver his clones in April. I know cloning is becoming more common and all that, but is anyone else having a hard time getting their head around an entire polo team mounted by clones??

Some people say that in a few more years, cloning will be just as accepted as embryo transfers. Show jumpers, western discipline horses, racing mules. . . . they’ve all been cloned. Last year I wrote about the cloning of Mark Watring’s GP gelding Sapphire. Gem Twist’s clone was born in September 2008. And when I interviewed McLain Ward recently, he told me that he’s toyed with the idea of cloning his Sapphire, joking that the Sapphire clone and the Gem Twist clone could have the first famous clone babies.

Part of me can’t wait for those clone babies to grow up and answer the nature vs. nurture question for us. But the other part wonders where this all will lead. What happens when a horse can multiply into five, or ten, or twenty clones? Are we on the path to a world full of superhorse doubles? The clone Olympics? Ahhh, multiplicity makes my head hurt.

Coming soon to a polo field near you. . .

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Today I was looking back at a post I wrote about two months ago. See it here. WEG was seeming closer and closer back in December; now it feels like it’s breathing down my neck. I can’t be the only procrastinator out there who hasn’t firmed up her travel/housing plans for the show of all shows this fall, can I? Ummmm, maybe.

Another official email from WEG organizers announcing LAST CALL to reserve media housing flipped my panic switch yesterday. Prices are up and availability is low, even though we’re still eight months out!!! You must reserve a room NOW unless you prefer to sleep in the street! And I’d done nothing to prepare for WEG other than write that last post.

Which brought me to important realization list number 2:

1. At least I’ve got the competition dates figured out. Spending fourteen days at WEG from the beginning of dressage to the end of jumping is about as realistic as telling my “real” job I’ll be in KY for two weeks watching horses prance around. Luckily, the dressage freestyle (Oct 1) and the show jumping final (Oct 9) are nine days apart, which is doable. And eventing falls right in between.
2. Doable that is, with laptop and cell phone glued to my side 24/7. Thank goodness for the Internet and working remotely. Assuring my employers on the West Coast that I’ll be constantly available never fails.
3. But the real source of panic was housing. The very cheapest hotel would run me over $1,000 for nine days! As a writer, I try to avoid numbers in any form, especially when they add up to money I spend. And as a writer, there ain’t no way I can throw down 1k in hotel costs.
4. I might not know a lot of people in Lexington, but it turns out that I do know the right people. After spending a couple hours tearing my hair out at the hotel costs, I reached out to a great local trainer I know. When I asked for housing advice, his answer was ‘you can stay at my farm.’ Those were million dollar (actually $1,000) words!!!!! Hallelujah!!!
5. So with housing solved, it’s time to move on to airfare. No, I haven’t looked into it yet. Maybe next week. . .

With all of the Prince Harry excitement, I’ve failed to mention the highlight of my whirlwind trip to Wellington last week. And no, it wasn’t the McLain interview. This is how it went down:

Last Wednesday, I met up with Canadian writer Tik Maynard, who I mentioned a few months ago here: We’re Two of a Kind, You and I. Tik’s been writing about his working student journey around the world over the past year, and his story jumped out at me when I read about his experience with Ian Millar. We exchanged emails, and he contacted me when he was thinking about going to work for Anne Kursinski during WEF.

Tik wanted to know if I’d heard anything about how Anne was to work for. We-ell, sure I had. . . Rumors abound that she is really difficult to work for, picky about everything, and makes everyone show up to the barn at 4:30am. But Tik decided to risk it, and moved to Florida at the beginning of January. And instead of horror stories he quickly reported back that the rumors appeared to be untrue. The staff does have 5am start times when horses are going in the hunters, but he’s getting the chance to ride with Anne all the time and is learning a lot.

So when we met up, he offered to ask Anne if she’d be willing to do an interview with me. She was and I’m certainly not one to turn down a chat with a five-time Olympian, no matter what rumors I’ve heard.

Anne turned out to be one of the most open and friendly people I’ve met in a long time. Her eyes literally shine when she gets to talking about Eros, her old Olympic horse. She had some great Jimmy Williams stories. And I could tell how much she loves teaching when she described how reading the horse’s body language makes her a better coach (I do that too!) Wow, I can relate to Anne Kursinski?? It was a cool feeling.

By the time I left, I wanted to work for Anne. It was so refreshing to meet such a big name rider who is that passionate and insightful about horses and training.

P.S. The barn was out of this world amazing. The gorgeous facility in Mallet Hill is owned by hunter rider Lee Kellog Sadrian, and it was no surprise that Anne expressed to me how ideal it was to operate out of such a heavenly barn.

Tik, you are one lucky son of a . . . . !

Look for my article about Anne Kursinski in April!

It may not come as a surprise to you, snarky reader, but Prince Harry was as protected as the president. I held out hope until the very end that we’d lock eyes and he’d motion me over for a chat at some point during the weekend, but sadly, he was too busy being shuffled about by his handlers from point to point.

Our press group ranked somewhere below The Daily Mirror and somewhere above the general public. Sidelines Magazine was in with The Huffington Post, Style.com, NY Resident, but none of us could break the Brit press forcefield. So I got lots of photos like this:

Harry on the move.

That is, until the polo started. The polo game was great! While the fashion writers sulked over the fact that there weren’t enough celebrities there to gawk over, I thanked my lucky stars (again) that I work for a horse magazine and watched the polo! Yes, it was a charity match, but everyone, players, spectators and VIPS (well, most VIPS) were into it.

Some highlights/notable moments:

• $500,000 had been raised for Sentebale by the second chukker of the first game
• I saw Prince Harry fall off!! His horse slipped and he was maaaaaaad to find himself on the ground.
• Actually, I have my doubts as to whether the horses were wearing caulks. Three or four of them slipped, bad, and another player on Harry’s team fell off midfield when his horse slipped.
• The wives/girlfriends of the South African players (South Africa played against Harry’s Sentebale team) were cursing up a storm and &%$# talking the umpires during the intense second chukker. THEY were into it.
• Someone found a silver key during the divot stomp that was worth two round trip tickets to Paris on Virgin Airlines. I looked but sadly, that person wasn’t me.

I’ll write a full synopsis for the next issue of Sidelines, but here’s a few pictures in the meantime. I think our photographer/subject chemistry was pretty strong, don’t you??

Harry’s horse jumping the board.

Harry over the boards. Foul! Foul!!

Harry on the ball with a fight on his tail.