Rolex Kentucky: Best Weekend All Year
by Sophie Gary
May 1, 2014
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Sophie Gary |
So my fantastic weekend started on Wednesday - 3:30 (more like 4) o'clock departure from Calli's house, headed to Rolex. It was a pretty awesome ride, because I took up almost three whole seats in the back after about 2 hours, we realized that Liz forgot the tickets... WHOOPSIES! IT'S OKAY THOUGH because we ended up getting them. It was a 9 hour drive, but being with my friends made the trip seem short! We watched countless episodes of The Saddle Club... we basically knew every single line in every episode, but "LISA, YOU HAVE TO CANTER!" was one of our favorite lines so after we arrived at the hotel, we basically passed out and went to bed. 
The next day marked the beginning of our Rolex endeavor - the one and only Lillian Heard was not riding on Thursday, but we went out to watch the other riders anyway. We met up with Julie, and watched the dressage tests for the day, then explored the vendors. for dinner that night, we went to the one and only DON JOSE CUERVO!!!! lol DO NOT order the taco salad from there... ANYWAY. We returned to the hotel and found out that at midnight, Erin goes CRAZY. "1,2,3 LETS BOUNCE" GOODNESS GRACIOUS THAT KID NEEDS TRANQUILIZERS AT NIGHT!
So the next morning... LILLIAN WAS THE FIRST TO RIDE! We put on facepaint in her colors - navy and hunter green and some yellow, we got there at 9 - an hour early - to make sure that we had front row seats to watch. We did, and she did AMAZING! I crossed my fingers for the entire ride, which sorta became a ritual for every phase she competed in. [Gallery of over 100 photos from the Best Weekend All Year]
We couldn't believe she was ACTUALLY competing here!!! Following her ride, we went exploring around the cross country course with Julieeee! I learned so much in those two hours - not only about eventing, but also about how you should test drive a car. Oh, remind me NOT to be in the passenger's seat with Julie if she ever test drives a car... we almost did the range rover test drive with her, but we didn't wanna go as slow as they make you!!!
So anyway, we returned to the hotel and had dinner with the whole Bascule family. We met our pony club rater, and learned a lot about USPC and ratings! We also had very good pizza... SO. We went back to the hotel, to be greeted by an interesting smell. At first we all thought it was charlotte's socks, but in the end, it ended up being a moldy sink that was leaking. WHOOPS! So as usual, Erin went crazy at midnight and tried to tackle Charlotte etc. The next morning we woke up bright and early because it was CROSS COUNTRY DAY!
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Studying cell phone videos of Lillian's dressage test |
We watched so many amazing riders go, including William Fox Pitt, Jennie Brannigan, Phillip Dutton and Lauren Kieffer, but none were as amazing as Lillian! We also saw Kyle Carter go WHILE we were standing next to his wife and kids... We had no idea until the girl said "when will Uncle Kyle ride" and we were like WHOA. So anywayyy we were super nervous for Lillian's ride, but we knew she was gonna rock it - which she did!!! We all lost our voices from screaming like crazy!!! After her ride, we met Phillip Dutton, Doug Payne, and BOYD MARTIN! It was so awesome!
After spending another PERFECT day at Rolex, we returned to the hotel and did homework but after, we decided we wanted Panera (it was about 8 o'clock at the time) and so we got in the car and Charlotte put the address in her phone gps, and Liz put the address in Darcy (the name of her actual gps). Charlotte said we should use hers, so we did, and boy was that a mistake... we ended up at a huuggeee house, which was apparently our "destination," so we had to drive all over looking for an actual Panera. We finally did, and we ate a huge dinner, and went back to the room to spend our last night in KY.
The next day, we woke up bright and early to spend our last day to the best of our ability. We watched the opening ceremony, and watched everyone walk out in order of countries. The funniest thing happened - they announced the name "Libby Head" and Charlotte screamed GO LILLIAN! Awkward because it wasn't Lillian... WE DIED LAUGHING then they actually DID announce Lillian, and we went CRRAAAZZZYYYYYY!
We started shaking we were so excited! When she entered for her stadium round, we stood up from out seats and walked over to the fence to watch from even closer. She had an amazing round, and throughout the whole thing, my girls and I were holding hands and crossing fingers!
When she finished, WE WENT NUTS! We all cried even, then we sprinted over to watch her be interviewed on TV, to see Whitey get vet checked, and to congratulate Lillian. After her interview, we ran over to her and gave her A HUMONGOUS hug! We couldn't believe this actually happened! And we got super awesome pictures with her.
Unfortunately, that marked the end of the Rolex adventure for us - it was truly the "best weekend ever." Lillian is such a great role model, rider, and person, and we are all so proud of her for achieving this goal! I feel so lucky to be at a barn with awesome trainers, and I feel so privileged to have been able to journey to Kentucky to watch Lillian achieve this lifelong goal. Hopefully, our pony club team will be back here for nationals in July. Congratulations again, Lillian! We all love you!
I miss this so much already! It was the best experience, and NOTHING will ever live up to this :)
Sophie
Awesome!
Ilo-Mai
How amazing that these girls get to experience the very top of a sport...from the "inside"! And Peg and Bernie have done a fantastic job of chronicling it all in pictures. A weekend of a lifetime for them! Thankyou all for sharing!
Hugs, Julie
What a great job Sophie Gary did describing the events and goings on there in Rolex, KY. The photos were awesome too. I feel like I was right there with The Saddle Club gals.
Donna K
Kudos to you Sophie! And thank you Peg! Great stuff!
Mark (aka Calli's dad)
