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From Fair Hill to Burghley with Colleen Rutledge, continued


ting in the waiting area, with all of the


other passengers, I see them sitting out on the tarmac. As I walk down to get on the plane, I realized it’s huge. Here’s to the second leg of our adventure!


AUGUST 21 –


After being stranded in Amsterdam for the better part of two days, we fi nally got under way. Next time the statement will be “yes, I need to get to England as soon as possible,” not “whenever you get a chance.” Luckily, I could at least ride HRH [Luke] while we were waiting for our ride to magically appear. Currently, we are on our way across the channel, soon to land at Dover. Un- fortunately, we were unable to get on the earliest ferry, which means we won’t get to the stables before about 4. T at’s a.m. We have been on the road for an extreme amount of time, most of it sitting, still waiting to get on the ferry. Luke is an


Colleen and Shiraz cross-country at Burghley, which is part of the Rolex Grand Slam


absolute champ about this, and has been a perfect gentleman about everything.


AUGUST 30 – We have ar-


rived at Burghley! After check- ing the horses in, I went to get Luke settled in to his new digs with the rest of the Americans. I managed to be the fi rst one here! For once I am not only on time, but early! I let HRH settle in for a bit, then decided that a hack around to scope out the place was in our best interest. Well, there are no words to describe the [Burghley] House


but “wow.” It’s absolutely beauti- ful. I rode around for a bit in the warm-up area with Blyth Tait and Mary King and went on a short hack with Boyd [Martin]. T is is so much fun, I have almost forgot- ten my nausea. T e best part about being here is the history that satu- rates the atmosphere. Every little village is older than anything we have back home. It almost defi es


comprehension.


SEPTEMBER 5 – I have completed the Burghley 4.5 star! Just kidding. It’s just the biggest four-star. It goes down as the abso- lutely most beautiful event I’ve ever ridden at. T e House is visible from almost anywhere on the grounds and it is just breathtaking. I feel so privileged to have competed here, not just because I did well, but because of the history of the grounds and the event. Dressage is and will always be a work in prog-


Shiraz passed the fi nal horse inspection with fl ying colors at Burghley.


ress, but it was much improved from Rolex. Our changes are still hit and miss and [in] this test, they were misses. Even though they were still late, they were bet- ter late changes, not explosive but unfor- tunately still my fault. I am just still a half a stride late when I ask. I will persevere. T ey will be right. T e qual- ity of our work is much better, but we are still lacking in our confi - dence in the ring. If the horse that I had out- continued...


Hunter • Jumper • Equitation Instruction


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