sport horse snippets
A Taste of Four-Star Adrenaline A Journalist “Rides the Course” at the Rolex Kentucky Event by Kim MacMillan
looming in front of you? I was fortunate enough to have that opportunity during the Rolex “Ride the Course” media trail ride at the 2012 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Even though we didn’t actually jump any of the fences (thank goodness), my first thought was that the jumps looked even bigger from the back of a horse than they did from the ground! My trusty mount, Comanche, an enthusiastic
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Appaloosa gelding who is part of the Kentucky Horse Park trail ride string, jigged around the Derek di Grazia designed cross-country course on Thursday afternoon. Comanche and I, and several other lucky journalists and their mounts, were led by Olympic medalists Gina Miles and David O’Connor who provided commentary on the
ver wondered what it would be like to look through your horse’s ears and view a Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event cross-country obstacle
course and shared their thoughts on tackling it. Our first stop at the Rolex Head of the Lake (obstacles 19 & 20a,b,c,d) included a course briefing from Derek who met us at the complex via golf cart. Then we stopped at several more obstacles including the Sunken Road (obstacle 17a,b,c,d,e), the HSBC Water Park (obstacle 5a,b,c,d), the Double Corners (obstacle 14a,b), the HSBC Classic Series Normandy Bank (obstacle 22a,b,c), the Brush Water Challenge (obstacle 8a,b) and the Bridgestone Park Question (obstacle 9a,b,c). The course was about four miles long with 29 numbered obstacles and roughly 47 total jumping efforts (depending on which options the riders chose). Both Gina and David described the course as “asking
serious questions” and warned that any mistakes, such as a tentative approach to an obstacle or misjudgment in pace causing their horses to tire too early, would
The group of intrepid journalists who experienced the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI4* cross-country course from horseback on the Rolex media ride. Olympians Gina Miles (black shirt/grey horse) and David O’Connor (white shirt/red roan) are fifth and sixth from the left, respectfully. The author (black vest), and her mount Comanche, are the farthest to the right.
54 July/August 2012
Photo by Allen MacMillan / MacMillan Photography
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