Grand Prix!!

Saturday May 5th was a big night down at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. It was the $100,000 Grand Prix national horse show. After a long day of working at the barn, turning out horses, helping with lessons and cleaning the whole barn family (about 40 of us) piled in cars and made our way to Chevys. There we ate dinner and talked about our day and went over a little bit about what we were going to see at the show. When we arrived the first event was called "the ride and drive." This is where a rider would ride their horse through a course of jumps and then jump of their horse and run to a car and sit in the passenger seat. Once safely in the car a famous person would drive through a driving course and who ever had the fastest time won. If you knocked down a fence when jumping or a cone when driving you would get penalty points and time added. The winners would get 5,000 and donate it to the charity they were representing. The two big famous people who were their was Billy Rae Cyrus and Steven Speilberg. The next event was the main event. About 28 riders would ride through a jumping course that consisted of 5 fences by themselves and two 5Ft fences 5 feet apart and they would have to jump over. If you had a clean round (no knocking down pools) you would go into what is called a Jump Off. That is wear it is a small jumping course and the person with the shortest time wins. Out of everybody only two people made it to the jump of to compete for first and second. In riding you can place all the way to 8th. Rich Fellers won first making it his second big win after just winning the World Cup. It was not only a great bonding experience with the our barn but also a big motivator for myself and everybody else at the barn who wants to take their riding to a higher level. That night we understood perfectly and got a glimpse of the risk, thrill, adrenaline, love and passion it takes to get to that level of riding.