thoughts after returning from WEGs

[mimiwenk]

Well, just got home last night after 4 days at the WEGs. Already missing it. What a wonderful time we had. We stayed at the Hilton downtown which was the Altech’s headquarters. We had a bus available to pick us up at the hotel and deliver us to the park. We were across the street from the Convention Center that had the International Equestrian Festival, could walk to any number of wonderful restaurants, and the hotel was wonderful. We parked our car upon arriving and didn’t use it again until we left on Monday.

Even staying 4 days, we didn’t get a chance to see everything at the park. Had tickets to Eventing Dressage, Cross Country, Dressage Freestyle, and Eventing Stadium. The Dressage Freestyle was the only thing sold out. Cross Country Day was amazing! So many people and the weather was perfect. The only negative was no food vendors on cross country. I don’t understand that. You had to come back to the very crowded food tent or one of the other very crowded lines to get anything - even water. I’ve never been to a large cross country event without vendors on cross country.

Jane Savoie had a booth with a riding simulator. I tried for three days to try it; however, there was always a HUGE line. Finally, on Sunday, I left the eventing jumping for awhile, and was able to do it!! I had a private lesson with Jane riding her horse which detects your body weight -rein pressure, seat, thighs, calf. Pretty cool!

Anyway, it was a great trip. I only wish I could have stayed this week also. Miss it so much! If you can go, you should!

[Rt66Kix]

I was there 4 four days as an outrider. While we had to take care of the horses, I still had time to see everything. I didn’t buy tickets to any of the competitions (on a tight budget), but I went through the vendor areas and Equine Village, et al.

My favorite was the France-Normandy Pavilion. Normandy is the host of the 2014 WEG, and they are here to promote them. Les Toques Rebelles, an association of great Norman chefs, were offering visitors free tastings of Norman products, like Camembert, creme fraiche, caramels and cider. They also gave 6 people from the crowd free 30-minute cooking lessons. I learned how to make an appetizer that has a gorgeous presentation. And then you could buy the cheeses, caramels, cookies, honey, cider, etc. right at the booth! Might have to get some of the honey.

The most entertaining thing was watching the Parelli-ites “work” their horses in the paddock next to our barn (I was an outrider.) When Pat himself was working, his minions stood at the gap in the fence with carrot sticks. They were slaw-jawed with awe. We somehow weren’t impressed…LOL!

I’m going back down this weekend, and I’m very eager to see the Driving Marathon!

[maplebrook]

Got home yesterday after Fri-Sat Sun at the horsepark. It was a great experience and well worth the 8 hr drive. I have attended Rolex many times, and this was so much bigger!

Friday night, we were initially bummed about not having freestyle tix. But I think we had the best seat in the house along the rail of the warmup arenas. Saw the warmup of all 15 riders, and was amazed at the differences. Most impressive were Pop Art and his rider who took a very long time to slowly bring her horse up to GP speed. Also Steffan Peters worked very slowly and carefully with Ravel to keep him relaxed and happy during warmup. Sr. Diaz and Fuego were a real treat to watch in warmup. He never asked too much of his horse for too long, and was very in tune to Fuego’s mood during warmup. He didn’t drill movements, and even let him gallop an a loose rein at one point. Both horse and rider were having fun. Lots of stretching and relaxation before going into the ring. In contrast, other riders were cranking horses into an overflexed frame and drilling, drilling, drilling the movements. It was hard to watch. The horses were obviously unconfortable and tense. It was all amazing to see.

Saturday XC day was fun - a lot like Rolex - but with a bigger, longer, more technical course. I was so happy there weren’t catastrophic falls or injuries. After walking the course on Friday with Jimmy Wofford’s group, I was a bit nervous. Planned to spend Sat evening at the trade fair, but didn’t want to fight the crowds, so back to the hotel for some needed food and sleep.

Sunday AM got to the park early for the 9AM jog. It was freezing! the jog was fun. There were lots of great jog outfits. It was sad to see Becky and Comet scratch. But right after the jog the rest of US team did a jump school with Katie and Henri Prudent. That was fun to watch. Managed to get to the main trade fair before showjumping, but the crowds were huge, and I didn’t find any bargains.

Sunday night afrter showjumping was awesmoe. The park emptied out, and it was much more relaxed. Instead of starting the drive home (yuck) we wandered over to the driving arena to watch 3 of the US driving teams practice. It was amazing, and beautiful to see. Wish I could be there for the driving competition! We then walked back to the trade fair and clinic area, and they were relatively empty. Around 7PM, when we finally decided to walk back to our car, we found the jumpers were doing practice runs under the lights in the main arena. We sat down to watch, only to find ourselves across the aisle from George Morris!! Nice. Each rider had 45 seconds to jump anything they wanted in the arena. It was fun to see, and very relaxed. Lots of really nice horses!

I’m sad to be home, but so happy to have had the opportunity to see the WEG in person. Next time (if there ever is one), I’ll plan to stay for 3 weeks!

[MIKES_MCS]

Maplebrook, we leave tomorrow at 5:00AM from Grand Rapids to spend 5 days at the WEG any tips on parking, shuttles, shopping, for us

[mimiwenk]

I forgot to add: while out on the cross country course on Saturday, we ran across George Morris. Stopped to talk with him and had our picture taken with him. He was quite friendly and chatty. How old is he anyway?

We also ran into Jim Wofford on Friday. Talked to him awhile, and he reminded us to read his latest blog (the one about David O’Conner riding the test dressage). If any of you haven’t read it yet, it is a must read. I laughed until I cried. All of his blogs are amazing - as is he. I hope he’s our next eventing team coach.

If you get a chance, go into town to the International Equine Trade fair at the convention center. Can’t help with parking tips, and we took the Altech bus.

[Fessy_s_Mom]

I arrived Thursday and spent all day Friday and Saturday at the KHP. I stayed at a hotel in Erlanger, KY a few minutes from CVG which was an easy hour drive to the Park. After checking in to the hotel, I went for a ride around to get the few things I needed that I couldn’t take on the plane and found a great little tack shop (Midway Tack Shop) and picked up a shirt and could not believe my luck when they had a 48" dressage girth in their consignment section for my big girl for $20! I asked if they had any WEG shirts and they were so nice to tell me to try “Party Town” where they had the shirts for less than the website - score!

Spent Friday morning walking through the trade fair spending most of that time resisting the urge to splurge on a pair of Dubarry’s. :lol: Spent some time at the schooling ring watching the jumpers and saw Rodrigo Pessoa hacking his horse on a loose rein while he talked on a cell. :lol: Then bought a ticket for eventing dressage and got a great seat and took some awesome pics. After that went to the cross country course to do the course walk.

Then grabbed something to eat and headed over for the Freestyle. I was disappointed in my seats because they were at the end, but still had a fabulous time watching the incredible rides. And FWIW, I loved Fuego and his animated way of going, but he just doesn’t have the suspension that Toto has so was happy with the medal placings.

Saturday was an absolute blast walking around the cross country course and getting some more great pics. Agree about the lack of vendors on the course. I couldn’t believe I had to walk all the way to the other side to get something to drink. :no:

I was sad that my friend wasn’t able to come with me so I ended up going alone, but you know how horse people are - there’s always someone to talk to where horses are involved. :yes: It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

Here are some of the pics I took.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=2068026&id=1259353498&ref=mf

If any of you know who some of the riders/horses are, please let me know.

[spotteddrafter]

[QUOTE=maplebrook;5138922]

Friday night, we were initially bummed about not having freestyle tix. [/QUOTE]

The saddest part is the massive sections of seats unoccupied! Those of us that tried to get the “good” seats in the permanent stadium who were jammed into bleachers were left staring at loads and loads of open green-backed seats during the freestyle. The rides, for the most part, were awesome though.

I was most disappointed by the lack of coordination with transportation after the Freestyle Friday night. We parked in SpyCoast, and waited almost 2 hours in line to get on 1 of 4 school busses shuttling back and forth. 4 school busses for 50,000+ spectators? REALLY?!?! And, we were near the front of the line! However, they did have a really good learning curve, as when I left after XC Saturday, there was bus after bus waiting for people.

One of the funniest things was we were sitting in the 1 food vendor area eating popcorn and sipping raspberry vodka lemonades when I heard a familiar Australian accent from right behind me. Turned to see Clinton Anderson sitting by himself at the picnic table right behind us. We chatted a moment or two, he’s a really cool guy! We even ventured over to watch some of his trailer-loading demo…pretty fun and informative demonstration!

The absolute BEST part was stopping into the Curvy Cowgirl booth and spending loads of money! Apryl was awesome to meet, and the clothes/boots were AWESOME! For those of you thinking about the Fuller Fillies Country Boot? WELL WORTH THE MONEY!

[oldernewbie]

[QUOTE=spotteddrafter;5139086]

The absolute BEST part was stopping into the Curvy Cowgirl booth and spending loads of money! Apryl was awesome to meet, and the clothes/boots were AWESOME! For those of you thinking about the Fuller Fillies Country Boot? WELL WORTH THE MONEY! :)[/QUOTE]

I found CC at WEG and bought a pair of dress boots. So, so happy to FINALLY have boots to show in! I have been riding with them since I got back and just love them. The best score of my trip!

We were at WEG from 9/24 to 9/28. I volunteered for 2 days and watched dressage for 2 days. Went with my sister and niece who also got to watch reining while I was working. We had a blast and I am so sorry I couldn’t stay for the whole thing. So many nice people to talk to, everyone in a good mood, and horses 24 hours a day it seemed like. So much fun!!!

[Holly_Jeanne]

not over yet!

I went on Wednesday and caught part of the Grand Prix Special. Very cool! Saturday I did my usual Rolex job. I’m a timer. Didn’t get to see any of the event and mostly just stared at a watch from 9:30 - 4:00. Was assigned to 10 horses. Some asked for time countdowns and some didn’t. Did a lot of walking. Thinking about going tomorrow. Don’t have tickets but thought it might be fun to watch jumping warm-ups if at all possible. Do have tickets for the driving marathon and I’m very excited about that.

[poltroon]

[QUOTE=mimiwenk;5138781]
The only negative was no food vendors on cross country. I don’t understand that. You had to come back to the very crowded food tent or one of the other very crowded lines to get anything - even water. I’ve never been to a large cross country event without vendors on cross country.[/QUOTE]

Yes, and it would have been helpful to know that would be the case ahead of time. I wished fervently that I’d smuggled in a sandwich for my 10 year old when we found ourselves at the start with one suddenly ravenous child. Coaxing her back to the food took every ounce of patience I possessed!

[Happyhooves]

We just got home from WEG and had a blast. I felt bad because we had an extra ticket (great seat) for freestyle (a friend who couldn’t make it at the last minute) that I know people wanted and there was no way to connect w/ someone who needed a ticket. I’d have loved to have given it away to a horselover who would have enjoyed it. Sigh.
The good: A beautiful venue. Beautiful horses. Wonderful being surrounded by horsepeople. Fabulous competition. Horse farms everywhere. We visited some farms, went to Churchill Downs, Keeneland, downtown Lexington, etc.

The bad: The porta-potties were not cleaned often enough, even for horse people used to roughing it with porta-pottiess. These truly were absolutely appalling, and I’ve experienced some nasty facilities in third-world countries. Also some possible scams going on. We parked at Spy Coast parking next door where you could get a shuttle bus, and one of the zillions of uniformed volunteers told us we could pay $20 daily parking, or get a multi-day pass for $50. We opted not to pay for a multi-day pass because we’d just arrived in Kentucky after traveling cross country, and were too overwhelmed. We came back the next day and said we’d like the pass, only to be told there was no such thing. We double-checked with other volunteers to be sure. So we might have handed our $50 to the guy the day before and been ripped off for $30 with no recourse. There were no signs so you could know what you were supposed to pay, no supervisors or anyone around to report it to. And who knows how many people were possibly taken by this? Most of the time, the lines for the shuttles were horrendous, so we ended up walking quite a way instead, which was okay except you paid $$$$ for parking with the reasonable expectation that you could realistically get a shuttle to the park in time for your event, and you’d see people trudging along with tired kids after a long day. Poor planning.
Also, my kid was charged $5 for a soft pretzel at a booth, and just after that, I saw that the printed sign said $4. That kinda angered me. Things were expensive enough anyway every way you turned, and it felt creepy having to be on guard so you wouldn’t be scammed by people, esp. people who were wearing uniforms.

It was kinda disappointing not to be able to get a printed sheet of the competitors’ names for the morning showjumping, the daily sheets. Apparently, they couldn’t get clearance for the names in time to have them printed. A little thing, but it’s part of the fun to be able to know when your favorites are coming up and have the sheet for a souvenir.

All in all, considering the logistics of pulling off a huge event like this, it seemed to go pretty well.

[bambam]

I thought they did a great job logistically frankly, although certainly there were things they could have thought through a little better- overall however I thought they did great
Just wanted to note- there was at least 1 food vendor on the xc course (and I think there might have been another one in the tent near the first water but I never went over to look- that might have been for very special people only). Not a lot of selection and not helpful if you could not find them but they were there (and selling beer too- that Kentucky Bourbon Ale Saturday afternoon hit the spot for me).

[Diamond_Jake]

Tips?

We would park downtown at one of the parking garages, and grab the LexTran to the park for a buck. Parking downtown was $8 a day. EASY schmeasy!

Apryl at Curvy Cowgirl is awesome. She will be thrilled to hear how happy you guys are with her products.

The BoB store WAS cool, wasn’t it? I do not have access to many good stores, either, and got my bottle of Sore No More, and splurged on a Perri’s travel kit.

I really wanted to get a Draper fleece throw- my dog stole mine and will not give it back!

Did you guys get the chance to see this new Aussie clinician, Guy Mclean? He did an AMAZING performance at the convention center!

I also got Ron Turcotte’s autograph!

I am so glad everyone had such a nice time!

[CDE_Driver]

Has anyone parked in the handicapped lot and taken the shuttle to the gate?

[Boomer]

I was at WEG Friday 10/1, Sat 10/2 and Sun 10/3.

$20 for parking per day seemed like a lot to me and others I was with.

I bought lunch - an average turkey & cheese, 1 banana, 1 water and 1 coke for $15.50 - seemed very high.

Seating was hard to come by - I was glad to have my Rambo backpack folding up seat!

Hotels were a robbery - no wonder seats were open for a lot of things.

My friend said the porta-potties were disguisting. Was glad I have an iron bladder.

The Horse Park, Kentucky in general, gorgeous farms were awesome!

XC was a beautiful day with great rides! REally wished I had such a great place to go and gallop! What fun! We would have loved to have vendors on the XC - at least water, sodas, pretzels/popcorn.

They needed better signs - hard to tell where everything was. Thankful my friend was volunteering and showed us the ropes!

Overall I really loved going - wished I could’ve gotten freestyle tix and not had to peep at it in the few vendors still open. that aside, it was a blast and I’m glad I went!!

[Zu_Zu]

Another Great WEG thread ~ thanks for sharing ~

Enjoying this WEG thread also ~ glad to hear about everyone having a great time ~ More please ~ :yes:

[oldernewbie]

@Diamond Jake;5139449

Apryl at Curvy Cowgirl is awesome. She will be thrilled to hear how happy you guys are with her products.

Went to ride today and one of my fellow barn-mates showed up with a pair of Fuller Fillies dress boots that she bought this weekend from CC on my recommendation. We danced a little jig (she’s Irish!) of happiness for having boots that fit! Yay!

So add another to the list of happy CC customers!

[asterix]

We were there for eventing – got there fairly early each day, parked in Spy Coast, near the close end of the lot, and found it a very easy 5 or 6 minute walk to the entry point up behind the Head of the Lake.

I thought the food was as expected for a big sports venue like that – yes more expensive than on the “outside” but reasonable selection, portions, and very quick service.

We bought sandwiches early on xc day so no return to tent needed; I checked with the guy in the food tent the day before about opening early and he said he’d be happy to. When we arrived at 8:45 or so on Sat they were very nice about opening a register for us

I do think the hotel/Shorts system was a ridiculous scam. I signed up for it but managed to wiggle out of it a few weeks ago, and shopped around; deals started to appear in the last 10 days, and when we arrived, the hotel across the street from us had “rooms available” advertised outside.

[VicariousRider]

We had a great time and I am really glad that I went because I would have felt pretty sorry for myself if I had missed it. Overall, the horse events were AWESOME, the trade fair is great and the volunteers and staff are SOOOOO NICE!!! Also, most attendees were friendly and we met some really nice people. We met only a few jerks (such as one guy who cut about 200 people in line and when he was called out on it announced “I am a WEG vendor. I know exactly what I am doing and I have been working all day.” Someone proceeded to inform him that we are in fact purchasing his goods and he should not be screwing his customers). I always felt safe and it was really pretty. That said, I felt that the organization of the event itself was quite poor. The following things really stand out:

PARKING: If you plan on parking, give yourself about 2 hours to get from your door to your seat to be safe. There are not enough shuttles and the traffic is a nightmare (If you are going to drive from the south on 75 get off one exit early on 922 and go in that way: so much faster!!!). You have to pay in cash and once you park you CANNOT leave and return the same day (same goes for entering the horse park itself). The shuttles from the hotels don’t seem like a better deal to me (especially if you have more than 2 people) because they are $15 per person per day and stop at a bunch of hotels so they say it takes about an hour to get to the park. Not to mention that you have to wait for them to arrive (they are on a fixed schedule).

LINES: There are HUGE lies for everything. Forget about getting lunch at lunchtime or paying for things in a timely manner at the official merchandise tent. Also: get in line for the potty BEFORE you have to go or you’ll have an issue.

COST: Not only are tickets expensive, but parking/shuttles and food are very expensive. We were allowed to bring in Luna Bars and Water bottles and that’s what we lived on for 3 days.

DISTANCE: There is a TON of walking. The busses (from parking and shuttles) drop you off at the “main gate” but then you have to walk about 1/4 mile to the stadium. I think that they did this so that people would have to walk past the shopping, but truth be told, I think people would go seek out the shopping. My poor mother who has had a hip replacement was struggling after a few days of this and it was really time consuming to have to walk way in. It would have been nicer if they would drop you off between the shopping and the stadium so that you could get to either easily.

[dogbluehorse]

[QUOTE=Rt66Kix;5138860]
I was there 4 four days as an outrider. While we had to take care of the horses, I still had time to see everything. I didn’t buy tickets to any of the competitions (on a tight budget), but I went through the vendor areas and Equine Village, et al.

My favorite was the France-Normandy Pavilion. Normandy is the host of the 2014 WEG, and they are here to promote them. Les Toques Rebelles, an association of great Norman chefs, were offering visitors free tastings of Norman products, like Camembert, creme fraiche, caramels and cider. They also gave 6 people from the crowd free 30-minute cooking lessons. I learned how to make an appetizer that has a gorgeous presentation. And then you could buy the cheeses, caramels, cookies, honey, cider, etc. right at the booth! Might have to get some of the honey.

The most entertaining thing was watching the Parelli-ites “work” their horses in the paddock next to our barn (I was an outrider.) When Pat himself was working, his minions stood at the gap in the fence with carrot sticks. They were slaw-jawed with awe. We somehow weren’t impressed…LOL!

I’m going back down this weekend, and I’m very eager to see the Driving Marathon![/QUOTE]

Good to know, will start planning now to attend in 2014! Sound like fun.