Rolex Kentucky 3 Day Event - Officially Fabulous

RK3DE 2011 "Officially" Over

As Nigel Casserley might say over the loudspeakers of the Horse Park “Official Rolex Time is over for another year”, the scoreboard is finalised and with it my own Grand Slam, having at last visited Lexington for the Rolex Kentucky 3 Day Event. [interesting how this is titled a “3 day event’ yet Badminton & Burghley are titled as “horse trials”, historic I guess?]

So far it’s been a great year for big four stars, in terms of top class competition, Badminton produced one of the best competitions for many years, and benefited from the best weather it’s seen for some time. Rolex hit a few milestones too. Mary King took the top 2 slots, a first at Rolex, she’s the oldest woman to win a 4 star, and, and, and….

Rolex: Mary King Wins

Until I get round to uploading all the other footage, here's Mary King's winning show jump round from Rolex:

Walmart & Rolex

Hello Lexington!

The odometer on my car ticked up to 200,000 kilometres as I drove to the airport for this trip to the US, my 5th or 6th trip in as many months, and I’m back again later this month, so my air miles odometer is racking up nicely too. The prospect of a move to the US for a few years still has me nervous, and also excited, but I doubt my travelling days will end, they’ll hopefully just slow down a little with a trip back to Europe every month or two. As I’m planning to be not a million miles from Lexington, I’m also chalking some of this trip up to research – well at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

For the first time Rolex presented me with an opportunity to visit this leg of the Grand Slam, not least because this year’s Badminton ran before Rolex. Having brought a few DVDs of the TV coverage with me to watch on the plane trips, Badminton is still fresh in my mind, so in amongst the cloud of thoughts from my business meetings whilst over here, I’m getting ‘pumped’ for Rolex - as the Americans would say!

The Best Laid Plans

My Own Personal Gym

I'm loving the weather this week, I don't mind the cold too much as long as it's dry and means I have an opportunity to dust of my sunglasses. The eventing season is under way, and whilst Mark Todd may turn to Yoga, or Jay Halim may turn to Zumba classes, I break out the mountain bike and Lizzie the labrador to warm my muscles up in preparation for riding.

With a few days of sunshine in the forecast I plan to make the most of the weather this week, before stepping on a transatlantic flight to San Francisco. Cycling around the forest today got me thinking about my plans for the year ahead, and particularly which events I should go and spectate at. I plan to go to a few overseas events this year, particularly in the US, and have Rolex Kentucky on my definite list, and amongst others, Rebecca Farm on my list of possibles. Pau, Luhmuhlen & Beokelo are all places I'd like to revisit as well.