AROUND THE OVAL TRACK

2007 World Championships... continued

Magnus and I stayed in touch via the internet. We discussed my setbacks and my victories. We strategized. Now I have an oval track. Well, I have a big flat arena (100 x 300) with tires that form an oval track. Hogni and Miski knew if we were going out it would be for fun; riding in would be work. We started riding at the beach at least once a week, trotting in a foot of salt water and swimming to increase their stamina. We started looking better. We started working on timing, speeding up and slowing down smoothly, with little visible communication. Man, this is hard. It’s really hard to perform a good walk! Makes me sweat just thinking about it.

Then I traveled to Sweden to train. I tried horses there and was videotaped riding on my first legal oval track. Two weeks wasn’t enough time to practice or to learn a new horse. I did find one that I might have been able to borrow, but he was then sold and wouldn’t be available for me to use at the WC. I also had to schedule my training around my babysitting. Babysitting was a priority (Tristan is a great joy!).

The big day was looming. There were so many details to work out. If I qualified in Five-Gait, I would have to borrow a horse; my 18-year-old horse is my heart, and I wouldn’t ask him to tolerate the flight to Amsterdam and back. My 15-year-old horse would take me to the Four-Gait if we qualified. Santa Ynez is six hours away, a long drive. I was planning to attend a show there two weeks before tryouts, and to leave the horses there for a tune-up and to give them time to get used to the new track.

The best-laid plans can go awry: a huge abcess in my jaw took over my life. The dental work required a two-week recovery, no riding and no pre-tryout practice show on Will and Asta Covert’s track (also WC team member Anne Marie Martin also trains). Shoot.

Stina and Steinar took the horses eight days before the tryouts. They rode and trained them and continued their conditioning while I recovered. The two-hour drive to Burbank became a five-hour drive due to a tractor-trailer accident; thank God the horses were already there. I then rode with Steinar for three days. The horses were softer, more responsive, sharper, but, Hogni had a small swollen place on his pastern. The vet/chiropractor came right out. He felt it was a pooling of blood, nothing to be too worried about, but something to watch. Heavy sigh.

After driving to Santa Ynez, getting my horses settled, driving back to the hotel, and settling in, I began to work on visualizing my ride. From entering the track until leaving the track, I felt the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, the movement and responsiveness of each horse. Our look as a team preoccupied my mind.

The next two days I worked and trained with Asta Covert. She was invaluable. She put me at ease and taught me this track. She made several suggestions and helped me decide not to ride Hogni in the Five-Gait tryout. His leg hadn’t improved. He wasn’t lame, but I could feel hesitation in him. I had a wonderful dinner with Asta, Will Covert, Betsy Covert, Anne Marie Martin, and Einar Ragnarsson, our judge. I’ve scribed for him several times and had been judged by him on occasion: He is a very tough but fair judge. We all talked and joked about our trials and expectations, and I thought how much fun it would be to participate with them as a team.

Tomorrow is the big day. It’s evening, I’m lying in bed visualizing my ride. I’m mentally preparing to tackle this with all my concentration, I’m not nervous—maybe all the visualization has helped. I’m riding for scores really, I don’t expect to make the team. There are many more-qualified people riding, and many who have shown at the WC in the past. But I do want to do well.

I did do well. Great, in fact. No major mistakes, clean rounds, 5.7 in Four-Gait and 5.3 in Tolt. Not high enough scores to qualify. Not good enough to be in the running. My slow tolt was too fast in both sections and cost me 1.5 to 2 whole points. Okay, whew. Huge disappointment, but I learned that I could ride in a very stressful situation. I will do a few things differently next time. I should have given the horses more grain, for that extra ounce of oomph, in the heat, on a new track in very warm weather, and I would put pads on them, as the track was very hard. I’ll be more ready next time.

Off to Holland. Wow, great directions to the competition grounds. We arrived Tuesday evening. There were parking attendants directing us to regular parking or to the campsites. There was bicycle and moped parking. The woods were dense and gorgeous. It began to drizzle. There were large metal plates lining the walkways so they didn’t become ruts of muck. There were two entrances, one for those of us with badges and one for people needing to purchase tickets. At the entrance they had schedules available and results of the day’s events. There was a large food tent, a restaurant really, offering pastas, salmon, steak, chicken, sandwiches, fruit cups, smoothies, strawberry tarts, all kinds of soda and water. This is a huge improvement from the WC I had attended in 1999 in Germany (where I met Alexandra). There was indoor and outdoor seating. There were many shopping booths offering Icelandic horse art, riding clothing, tack, and horse remedies. So many choices, so little time. We needed to find our kids.

We tromped around the campsites until we found the bubblegum pink moped and motorhome. Whew, the in-laws, the kids, and the grandbaby. What had I been thinking? With Alex competing, I was needed to watch my grandson. Well, not needed; his dad was there and Alex, too, but she was busy going to team meetings, checking on her horse, feeding, grooming, riding, taking care of Bragi’s needs and her own. My husband, Barry Walker, and I helped Kristofer and Tristan’s other grandma look after him. We entertained and fed and played with the baby. In between, we watched the events.

We watched all of the American riders. We managed to meet some of them and their cheering supporters. We watched all of Alexandra’s classes. She qualified for the A finals in Tolt. She finished the A finals tied for third place. It’s like watching music, seeing her ride. There is so much cohesiveness between her and Bragi, they truly dance together. The Tolt finals were very exciting. Johan Skulasson went into the finals as the favorite and was ahead until the fast tolt, when his horse lost his shoe. Stian Pederson then advanced to first on Jarl. The last two World Championships in a row, Stian and Jarl had finished second to Johann. It was great to see him win, but sad to have it be over a lost shoe. He was a gracious winner and won the Four-Gait Finals as well.

We tried to watch everything else. There were several horses I would’ve loved to bring home in my suitcase, several in the breeding show. Kormakkur scored 10 for Tolt. There was a color booklet with the scores and photos of all the breeding horses available for purchase on Saturday. Very impressive organization!

We trudged through the woods to the pace track—too late for bleacher seating, too short to see over the crowd. Shoot, my first disappointment at these proceedings. I weaseled my way between the crowd and secured myself about eight inches of rope at the front so I could see the pace races. The energy and speed and thrill was worth the struggle. Magnus rode very well. He placed fifth with 22.16; the winner had 21.55. Emelie Romland of Sweden, on Mjolnir fra Dalbae, was the only young rider to place in the top six riders in PP1, P1 and P2. She placed in all three disciplines!

I’ve never seen such powerful young riders. Among all the many amazing horses and riders, the youth riders literally took my breath away. Helena Adalsteinsdottir was very focused, so poised, and she well deserved her first in the tolt B finals. They were all impressive, concentrated, their riding looked effortless. I will need another 100 years of lessons to look like that.

It will certainly take more than six months of training for me to be good enough to compete alongside of them. It will take more dedication on my part. It will take a better-trained horse. It will take all of my attention at the next WC, and I’m not sure I want to be there in that capacity. I enjoy watching and learning (and playing with Tristan) too much. A lot could change in two years, so I can’t say I won’t attempt it again, but…

Laura Koskela is at Sunland Ranch now, training and teaching riding lessons. She is trying to sharpen my riding, but I’m going off to Sweden to visit the kids, again. Life is all about priorities. Click here to return...