Brian O'Connor Reports From California Dressage Society

After dealing with all the rain over the last few weeks in the Mid Atlantic in the sport of eventing, I am out in California at the CDS Regional 7 GAIG finals.....where I thought I would enjoy some wonderful CA sunshine.....well silly me...It poured with rain most of the morning and into the afternoon, causing the two outside rings, and warm ups to be completely underwater and more than soggy.  What is happening these days?  I am from Virginia, have survived the east coast earthquake, a hurricane, FEET of rain (not inches,, FEET) and now am gettin soaked and full of mud at Rancho Murieta!!  Well, the outside rings were shut down , and Glenda and Jennifer (Cornerstone Event Management) rescheduled the rides into the three covered rings and we got it all in.

Most of the day consisted of warm up classes for the championships, but we did finish with some freestyle finals, and the first round of the futurities. Sabine Schutt Kery had the high score of the day with a 79% in her first round on Sanceo ...lovely test and very supple, elastic and expressive.

The ring was really very flat in the indoor, but many people said she had the horse really "uphill"...maybe I missed something....? Then Luke Skywalker got a 71%, using all the "force" he needed to take the lead in his series...Obi-wan would be pleased....
 
We finished up a very long day around 7:45pm and are looking forward to a much better day tomorrow (Friday).....Guenter S and I are having a "round table" discussion at cocktail time with interested fans....we will all be seated at the 6 x 8 regular dinner tables (who'd have thunk it?)...great turnout, both by competitors, sponsors, vendors,and volunteers..CDS is really the best!  Thanks to GAIG and HorseShow.com for their support and sponsorship....
 
More from the west tomorrow,  Brian