It all ends so undramatically sometime. Usually I’m the one that leaves, today the whole gang left Fiona and I in the HKG airport to head to Beijing for the closing ceremonies, hugs, well wishes, an excessive amount of baggage all flew round along with one monkeyed up ticket that they finally got sorted (despite a seriously spikey girl behind the counter).

And then there were two.

We went out to meet Fast Eddy, who was sporting his snazzy new Team USA shirt and went back to have some breakfast at the hotel. Eddy promptly put the car in drive in stead of reverse and ran into the hedge, not once – but twice. No harm done… We went to the barn to check in, jam some more stuff into the container and

Breakfast moved us up considerably as we had put in some serious time on the dance floor last night. David Hunter (Team Leader for GBR) had somehow strained a calf muscle in a wheelbarrow race after the medal ceremony but it wasn’t evident when he took to the dance floor. It was like a horse who didn’t realize he had a bowed tendon. I imagine he may be far more broken down as a result.

The band at Insomnia was awesome.

We spent the day doing some seriously heavy lifting as Fiona and I (along with James and the Schenker crew) moved everything out of two containers, sorted it all and repacked the container to go home on the boat.

Seven weeks worth of stuff, plus a variety of things we’d acquired fit in with plenty of room to spare and it was a seriously sweaty episode. I’m not sure that the guys helping James and Richard had ever seen women schlep stuff quite so furiously as Fiona and me. The team went to the Farewell Lunch, and returned with rave reviews.

We had Team dinner last night (pre Insomnia) at the YMCA organized by Team Doctor Michelle Look. This wasn’t your average YMCA, it was rather swanky and we had a good time.

The Brits won and won and won againon the last night. Their program and their horses are to die for and they are a class act in every single way.

They won 10 medals total (five Gold and five Silver) so there was plenty to be happy about for all involved. As fiercely as we compete we also look out for eachother... and we are very happy for them as they do for eachother. Ricky (who came second behind Lee) said to me after he rode(he went into the lead and Lee was next to go):

"Joanie, I want to win, but if I can't I want Lee too."

I met some good people on this trip.

Finally turned on the TV today and didn’t realize quite how bad the hurricane is. Our little HKG typhoons don’t even begin to compare.


No more medals, back to reality...

Ok, so I was told that my blog yesterday was boring.

Ahem. You shall remain nameless but those with their videos on YouTube really shouldn’t throw stones.

Humor has been returned to full value. Last night at the venue I felt a bit on my own as the US gang was finished and Fiona had taken them to Stanley Market. I was doing my British duties so Will Connell and I found ‘FEI Sarah’ (Hames) and Olivia Robinson. Those Brits won ANOTHER medal (Felicity – Silver) she was a total champ. Becca was in Bronze medal position until the very last minute and it broke my heart to see the German rider go ahead of her with a test that in my opinion wasn’t any better.

Becca and Steffen need to commiserate.

Becca and her sister

Lee Pearson was in high demand and he did a number of interviews, he wears his causes and his dreams so clearly on his sleeve. He talks about riding in London in the able bodied Olympic Games if he could find a sponsor to buy him the right horse.

Imagine that. There is no doubt that determination breeds dreams.

John Ridley told me last night that he is very superstitious, he was finding wood to touch when he was talking about accidents at the race track. I feel like superstition is like luck or karma. Or dreams for that matter. It only is what you make of it. Many of these riders are making more of what they have, and never considering what they don’t have (in some cases that includes limbs or use of them) as being unfair. I can’t actually say that for sure… but if they do, they don’t operate with that chip visible to the rest of the world on their shoulder.

Keith and Pam... they WERE dancing

The final US riders rode this morning and Barb, Lynn and Keith were all philosophical about their performances. There is always room for improvement in everything that we do. Whether you ride the horse, write about it, manage a team, run a venue – hell anything in life, we can always do it better.

But I think it has been a bit hard to swallow for all of us that we are coming home without a medal. We’ve been close on a couple of occasions. But this isn’t horseshoes or hand grenades.

That is also something that has, at times, been so obvious throughout all the Games in Hong Kong (and in the Olympic Games in general)… the line between winning and losing isn’t always very long.

Making history and making a mess sometimes don’t look very different from the outside.

I’ll stop philosophizing.

One of the friendly horses rolled in the main arena today at the end of a test which was quite funny.

I caught up with Martin and Henry last night (and another Fiona, it is weird as I only know two in the whole world and they are both here) at Knutsford Terrace. I hadn’t been there before; it was a cool place, lots of restaurants and shops up a bunch of steps. That isn’t really a worthy explanation… We sat outside and had a good laugh while they finished dinner. It is great to have Martin back. He was appalled that I have 249 unread emails on my Blackberry. He wasn’t getting the fact that I have actually read them on the computer (although at this point, I’d venture to guess that there are a few people that may argue). I was showing him pictures on his computer yesterday, his inbox had about six items in it. The busiest man on the venue only has six items in his inbox. Organization would be his forte – thank God.

Walking Home

My Fiona (sisters from another mother as we have dubbed ourselves) came and found us with USOC Rebecca and Dr. Stacey. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Am currently writing in the car with Fast Eddy, just became Eagle Eyed Eddy as he just spied a cop in the place where we always do a somewhat questionable U turn to get to the hotel in the construction zone. The other driver won’t do the U turn, he has named himself Careful Ken as a result of the hell that we give him about it.

Finishing up in the hotel and just had a call from housekeeping asking me if my TV was broken. I couldn’t figure out why until I looked at the note I had stuck on it that says Reining Preview. I guess I should go write that.

So, there was no blog yesterday. I had a bit of sense of humor failure for the first time since I’ve been here and wasn’t feeling it. Apologies.

But I can report a great karaoke session starring two of my favorite people…

Those pesky Brits are romping through the medals, they won three Gold and a Silver yesterday. It has been fun to get to know their riders as well. They are becoming celebrities over there (the BBC is here just to cover them) and they are some of the greatest bunch. Lee, Simon, Ricky, Sophie, Anne… the whole group is very professional. Their Para Equestrian program is 20 times the size of ours and I can only hope that because of the WEG we can push our program to new heights. Lee Pearson won his eighth consecutive Paralympic Gold yesterday. Remarkable.

There was no competition yesterday morning and we were civilized, had breakfast and then Fiona and I went to Stanley Market.

Armed with my credit card for the first time in weeks, I was able to demonstrate reasonable restraint. There is nothing you couldn’t buy there. I bought running shoes (as mine have wandered off) some gifts for people and a nice jacket to wear racing.

Speaking of racing, I was extended a very gracious invitation by John and Lydia Ridley to go to Opening Day here at Sha Tin. It means taking a few days off (which would be nice…) and staying until Tuesday but it certainly didn’t take much convincing. When will that ever happen again?

I caught up on a bunch of other stuff in the afternoon and then returned to the evening session. I took the train, which was jammed and got there a bit later than I had anticipated. I missed the first British rider unfortunately but there was plenty of excitement. The Brits were in a class of their own.

Lee Pearson and I head to the Mixed Zone

Our gang gave it there best shot, Keith finally got to have his turn and David O’Connor’s Walk on the Moon (Danny to all his pals) behaved perfectly in the main arena. Their relationship is brand new but Keith was as grateful a person as I have ever met. He then promptly tried to mow me down with his wheel chair as we were having a bit of a race from the mixed zone to the athletes stand.

Keith and 'Danny' after their ride

It is infectious here, my bad mood was dissipating. Between the friends I’ve made and the horses that make it happen. You can’t really stay grumpy here.

USOC Rebecca, Fiona and Will

We haven’t done twice-daily sessions since the eventers left and the schedule is proving tiring. Our guys haven’t quite hit their stride yet as the arena is proving to be very buzzy (as it was for the other disciplines) and many of these horses haven’t been in this type of atmosphere. Everyone has been trying really hard, we just need a little bit of luck to bump our game up. The Brits just look invincible in the team portion.

After bouncing back to the venue last night after having tea with a good group and having a big laugh we watched the 1a and 1b classes. Lynn was super, she was third. Rhett is a cool dude and despite one very naughty moment in the beginning where he had a massive spook he was able to regroup and Lynn handled it like a pro. She assured me that he wouldn’t be doing that again.

Robin was happy with her horse but disappointed with her score… sometimes luck just doesn’t turn up when you need it.

It took ages to get the final results, so I tried to stay awake… it is always a bit hard to unwind at midnight when you get back from competition. I woke up at 4.30 in the morning half-frantic that I had over slept (I was moments late meeting Will Connell to go to the venue yesterday morning… Will was in the British army for 17 years so he is a stickler for punctuality, I have been known to be late once or twice in my life) relieved o know that I had two more hours of sleep. I don’t think I’ve been jet-lagged, just confused.

Which isn’t new to me.

Speaking of confusing, Fiona and I managed to seriously confuse the German vet at the Welcome Ceremony. He is a dead ringer for Aussie eventing rider Shane Rose and when Fiona and I saw him across the room we ran over to find out what in the world Shane was doing back at the venue.

Fortunately he was awfully good natured about two strange women accosting him.

Fiona: “Shane, what in the world are you doing back here?”
Joanie: “Oh it is great to see you!”
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