Sorry for the sparse blogging Saturday and Sunday...Team Hollywood was pretty busy making sure Kelly and the old guy were in tip-top shape to complete their 4th consecutive Rolex CCI****! I'll post some recaps over the next few days...
Saturday...it was pretty clear that the cross-country course was a true four-star test, and it did take its toll on a lot of horses. The weather was beautiful, but the sun was very bright, making it a bit more difficult to get a "hot" Thoroughbred like Reggie cooled down at first. Reggie didn't help matters any by being rambunctious while we tried to work on him, though! He came back with a few scrapes, but generally looked good. His temp was 104 and dropped to about 100.5 in 30 minutes, and the vets were impressed with his heart rate and respiratory recovery. Since Rolex is run under FEI rules, we have to be very careful with what we use or give a horse. None of this, "oh, just give him a gram of bute" stuff. No. It's all about ice, cold hosing, more ice, liniment, and poultice. Cross country day is not only a test of the horse's fearlessness and fitness, but also that of the grooms! Bring. It. On!
We had 3 people as our core vet box team - me, Michele, and Jen. Michele dealt with holding Reggie while Jen and I (and others, as needed) just kept applying cold water and ice to get his temp down. Reggie was definitely acting like an insolent child at times - he absolutely loves cross country, and I think he would have gone back out for more! Once we were cleared by the vets in the vet box, we went back to the stable area where our real work began - rotating iceboots for approximately 2 hours, cold hosing of scrapes, icing of both front legs in a muck tub of ice water, and then running 4 liters of fluids to help rehydrate (Reggie has a nasty habit of not wanting to drink much after intense exercise.) There was also a lot of walking involved to help keep everything loose and assess how much we still needed to do. We poulticed all four legs and packed the front hooves last, and did all we could to keep the old guy comfortable overnight. Barns closed at 11 pm on Saturday, and Team Hollywood left at 10:45 to get a few hours of sleep before barns opened at 5:30 am on Sunday.
I woke up at 4:30 am on Sunday, only to discover that there was...yup...another thunderstorm! Ugh! I was already soaking wet by the time I got from my car parked up by the Pony Club office to the stables. Hooray! I fed, and then Michele, Jen and I started the process of getting Reggie ready for the 8:30 am jog...translation: Hand walking Reggie in the thunderstorm. We did another round of cold hosing and standing him in the ice water while we got him braided and cleaned up for the jog. I was the lucky one who got to braid his forelock, and this time I added a purple satin bow for luck. Kelly let me leave it in until right before the jog. Such a party pooper.
Kelly got on Reggie for a quick hack at 8 am and returned around 8:20 so that we could get him ready for the jog. Again, this meant a lot of walking. And practice jogs. And more walking. My legs felt like they were going to fall off (I went medication-free in a show of solidarity with ol' Reggie, but I think he's got a better coping mechanism...). And yet no matter how much pain I was in, I managed to keep going. When Kelly was on deck for the jog, I handed Reggie over to her and felt like I was going to puke. Mainly because I am a horrible runner and the practice jogs for the previous 5 minutes were killing my legs, but also because I was just nervous about the jog. During the first horse inspection on Wed., Reggie had been held for reinspection because of a slight stiffness in his left foreleg. Michele, Jen and I huddled together, wondering if we had done enough to get one of the two 19 year old horses in the field through to the last phase...
Kelly and Reggie trotted away and down the lane...sounded good. Reggie tried to eat the flowers in the box at the end of the jog lane and started off crooked coming back...the Ground Jury huddled together. We saw some nodding of heads but no definite "pass." OMG. I'm about to puke. And then the announcer said the two most magical words ever:
"Hollywood Accepted."
I'll admit it--there were some tears of relief. Yeah, I'm a pansey like that. Reggie was by no means in a position to win Rolex on Sunday morning, but that's not really the point. Completing a CCI****, let alone four in a row, is a kind of big deal, and at least Michele, Jen, and I had given Reggie and Kelly that opportunity with all of our hard work. Reggie and Kelly rewarded us with a pretty sweet show jumping round with one bum rail, but a lot of swagger. Hey, what would you expect from a horse named Hollywood?
79 Days until Festival 2011...
Reggie and Kelly pose with Grady after the Second Horse Inspection
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