Dressage at Devonwood

I spent last Friday, Saturday and Sunday ogling beautiful horses at the lovely Devonwood Equestrian Center near Sherwood, Oregon, and watching them perform in ways my horses and I can only dream about. Well, I doubt my horses dream about much except eating grass.

It was very hot. But thanks to the Traumhof table under the VIP tent, I stayed comfortable most of the time since most of the rides I watched were in the Sand arena, in front of the VIP tents. Only when I was chasing around to catch rides in the other arenas (there are 4 of them) did I get a small taste of what those poor riders must have been going through, riding in the hot sun. And wearing black wool blend coats. Although the technical delegate waved that requirement, most wore them anyway. They do look stunning. But hot.

It was fun to see Jessica's horses, the other lovely horses from the Sonnenberg barn where hers are currently in training, and from her barn, Traumhof. And, of course, to see Kevin and Jessica and Ian and Jessica's sister Sarah. Horse shows are big parties for those of us who don't have to groom and tack up and clean out stalls and ride. Jessica kept very busy as groom, as well as owner, of Elisienne (Lily) and Rudeau (Rudi). Plus helping friend Danielle get ready to show her horse Nick and read the tests for her. It was pretty hectic when there were three horses from their barns in three different rings at nearly the same time.

I didn't take as many photos as I should have. I was too busy taking it all in. I do wish I'd taped Lily's Grand Prix musical freestyle. It was beautiful. She did very, very well at the show, winning her Grand Prix class and placing second in the musical freestyle. But I took not one photo of her. Sarah got this one of Lily and Kevin in a quiet moment in the barn.


I did get a few photos of Rudi. Here he is just entering the Terrace Arena with the control tower in the background where the announcer sits and somehow keeps track of who is going into which arena and what their scores are. In the second photo of Rudi you can see the vendor area under the white tents above the Terrace Arena. Everything a horse crazy person could yearn for is there.




The next Devonwood show is in September and Lily will be there again. That show, I'll do better with the photo taking. Hopefully.