Spring Time is in the air. The sun is shining, and the afternoon breeze is warm. The grass is getting greener by the day, and trees and flowers are blooming everywhere. And, of course, horses are everywhere.
It's the week after the annual Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, the most prestigous eventing competition in the United States and indeed in this hemisphere. It was nine years ago that I first attended Rolex; I was instantly addicted to the galloping hooves and flying horses that skimmed across the surface of the lush blue grass at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
In 1998, I stood along the galloping path watching Karen O'Connor soar through the air on the impressive, grand Biko. Like many others, I had fallen in love with his bright, wide blaze, and I was in awe of the seemingly immortal pair. Upon my return to Minnesota I immediately dug out the atlas to locate Middleburg and The Plains, Virginia on the map. Then a sophomore in high school competing at the beginner novice level, I resovled that I would some day live amongst the riding legends who grace the idyllic Virginia countryside, maybe even with a horse of my own to gallop through the fields.
Nine years later, I have just returned from what has become an almost annual pilgrimage to Rolex. Yet again, Karen rocked the eventing stage, this year with her bionic pony Theodore O'Connor, who is at least as big in heart if not in stature to his older cousin Biko. This year I returned to The Plains myself, rather than my native Minnesota. Who would have guessed that I would ever be so lucky to call Virginia "home?"
Something about Rolex is invigorating and refreshing. The atmosphere with nearly 96,000 in attendance over the weekend, is intoxicating, and every spring I leave Kentucky with renewed energy and devotion to the sport that stole my heart so may years ago. The horses are just in sight out my window happily munching on grass. Until next April, we'll continue practicing that sitting trot and dreaming of that Kentucky blue grass.
