Trip for Young Rider World Cup with Meagan Davis

Arrived in Frankfort after a fortunately uneventful flight. Meagan's mom Karen met me at my house and we went together to JFK for the flight. Meagan and her dad Bill met us at the airport. It's about a 1/2 hour drive to Kronberg to our very pleasant hotel near the Schafhof, the stables of Ann Katrin Linsenhof. This is where Meagan's horse Bentley is staying until the competition along with Jamie Holland's mare Fleurina (from Canada) and Georgia Worth's horse from New Zealand.

Georgia's horse's trip from Australia took a long time; they had an 8 hour layover in Singapore and another stop in UAE, but I don't think anyone traveling with horses has the story to tell that Bill Davis and Tom Dvorak have after their trip with the horses. Hopefully the entire story will be written up but in very, very brief:
horses bump along NYC roads in truck, into quarantine stables at JFK for 6 hours, delay for three hours, nice flight in humongous cargo plane, about to land in Frankfort, airport closed due to snow, fly to Cologne, start to land, about to land, shot back up into air, planes stuck in snow on runway, fly to Munich where they will "try" to land, before landing pilot says: "hang on, it;s gonna be rough" because will have to use engine to stop plane because don't want to use brakes, but his runway is short for this big a plane; they are last plane allowed to land; they wait; they wait; they wait; this crew leaves because their time allowance to fly is up - new crew comes in; Frankfort opens, maybe, we can't leave for hours because passenger planes have to be gotten in and out first; but we have live horses and are running out of food and horses will run out of patience soon (Bentley can be VERY opinionated about travel); too bad they are told; pilot keeps calling everyone possible; finally animal welfare people in Belgium are called; eventually after being given several different wheels up time, they are on their way again and land in Frankfort and after hours waiting for the vet there the horses are released after 34 hours of travel. The truck from Schafhof picks them up - Matthias Rath himself had driven out first on one of the unsuccessful trip. Bill said all the Lufthansa pilots and crew were wonderful throughout and he now knows all about how a cargo plane works.

As an FYI, Ann Katrin Linsenhoff is a former team rider for Germany (rode in Seoul “with” me), her mom Liselott was an individual Gold Medalist, and her stepson is Matthias Rath who was a very successful YR and this year represented Germany at WEG. He is to be the new rider of Totilas. Totilas isn’t here yet — he will come in January.

Anyway, Bentley now seems happy and comfortable. Meagan is doing her usual two times a day ride. In the morning she just stretches him for a 20 - 30 minute relaxing ride and in the afternoon we school him. His schooling is mostly suppling, reminding him of half halts and me annoying Meagan with position reminders :-)

So let me explain where we are -- Ann Katrin Linsenhof was instrumental in putting together a World Cup for Young Riders about 7 years ago. Riders are invited from around the world — I went with Mica Mabragana a couple of years ago — she represented South America. The US rider is chosen from the Freestyle scores from all the CDI’s around the US. The rider with the highest average of two scores is invited. Some of the riders go early to get training in Europe. The European representative usually were European Champion or highly placed in the European YR Champs. This year there are 14 riders – from Germany, Holland, England, Austria, Belgium,Denmark, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand.

Meagan is fighting a cold, but hopefully will be through with it by competition time on Thursday.

Kronberg is a bedroom community for Frankfort. Last night we had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant and fought the crowds at the Christmas Fair. Several streets are blocked off and the place was jam packed with people, baby strollers and big dogs.

When we arrived it was just above freezing. Most of the snow had melted. It has been raining or drizzling most of the time since then, just above freezing, although this afternoon the sun tried to come out for awhile.

A brief word about how I feel about Meagan and what she has accomplished. Meagan and her amazing family first came into my life in 2000 (I think) at the second Youth Dressage Festival. Two years later she rode in a clinic with me with her pony Van Gogh (all she remembers is the 45 minutes without stirrups!) and I showed her that she COULD do FEI pony and that summer she won the FEI Pony Championships at the CanAM Challenge in Canada. Meagan lives in Stone Ridge, NY — not exactly the center of Dressage riding in the US — not exactly the center of any kind of riding in the US. As she progressed from Van Gogh (FEI Pony) to Cachet (FEI Juniors at NAJYRC) to FEI Young Riders with Bentley (NAJYRC two years and this year’s National YR Champion at Gladstone) she worked with me off and on. Between the offs and ons, she works mostly on her own. In the past she had some lessons with Debbie Bowman, Tom Noone, Volker Moritz, Courtney Dye, Scott Hassler, Henk van Bergen and some of the USDF Young Rider Clinics (Conrad Schumacher, Sue Blinks, George Williams), but the day to day (week to week and often month to month work) has been on her own at home where they have no indoor. And of course anyone that rides with me has the disadvantage of not having someone get on to fix a problem or demonstrate how it should work. No matter how talented someone might be, this is a real disadvantage — one learns by feeling what is correct (for both rider AND horse) or seeing what is correct — it is hard to learn by only being told what is correct. Also as a teacher, it is always nice to be able to get on and feel what the rider is feeling to be able to relate better.

Bentley came to Meagan as a very successful horse, but a horse with some serious issues (some of you may have seen the pictures of Bentley doing his antice with Meagan and with other riders!). He was unlike anything she had ridden before — both at his best and at his worst. Meagan’s riding has improved tremendously in the two years she has had him — there have been some major ups and downs — thrills and disappointments. But I have never known Meagan ever to be discouraged. She comes for a lesson occasionally and then does her work faithfully at home. When she returns for the next lesson she can efficiently tell me what is going well and what is not. There were sometimes months between lessons. Even the best riders in the world have people watching their schooling all the time. Meagan is fortunate that her dad fulfills this role the best he can. Bill listens and watches at her lessons and has developed a terrific eye. At the shows Bill and I often stand together and his suggestions are always right on.

I feel honored to be part of this team — Karen is the most organized person I know. I have no worries that the paperwork is correct and that we have the latest information. Bill can fix anything, handle the horse, and keep us laughing. Even younger brother Brad is a supportive and helpful part of this team. So no matter what happens this week, I feel fortunate to be here with Meagan — the culmination of her years as a youth rider. Starting next Monday she will be looking forward to competing as an adult.

The competition is part of a major show — lots of classes including top level show jumping and a World Cup qualifier for Dressage — we probably will see a lot of riders who came to WEG including Peter Gmoser, Christoph Koschel, Matthias Rath, Isabell Werth, Imke Schellekens Bartels, Patrick Kittel, plus other top competitors like Ulla Salzgeber and Victoria Max-Theurer. Should be fun. They organize a show that is super fun for spectators.