2004-08-19 - 10:23 p.m.

Stolen from Jimmy Wofford's OLympic Blog here: http://www.jimwofford.com/

I spotted a tall, elegant dressage rider in the far end of the arena, working in collected trot. It wasn�t just the element of collection that drew my eye, but the unity, the harmony, the inner peace that defined the moment. When she turned towards me, I could see that it was Anky Von Gruesven. I had heard a great deal about her horse, but had not seen it until now. As I watched, she turned up the long side and went into a passage-piaffe-passage series of transitions that were as good as I have ever seen. There is a lightness and elegance in her riding that defines dressage for me, and her horse thinks he is playing with her, not working. She turned back to the other end of the arena, and did some suppling work, while I held my breath, and prayed the moment would continue.

The ring where she was working is at the top of a hill. Watching her, I was seeing her outlined against the top of the next mountain range. So when she turned down the long side of the arena, the early morning light brought a glow to the surroundings. The footing is so good in the training areas that the horses� footfalls are silent. And the angle of sight I had put the next ridge in the background at the level of her horses� feet. She repeated the same passage-piaffe-passage series again in the far corner, but this time she transformed it into the most powerful, correct, floating extended trot I have ever seen. I had the illusion that she was trotting across the tops of the mountain in the background, and her horses� steps were bounding from peak to peak.

That instant alone would be enough to make my trip worthwhile, but the moment got even better. Nearing the corner, she suddenly broke out into a beaming smile, gave a squeal of delight, dropped both reins, and slapped her horse on the neck, murmuring to him in approval and praise. He held his elevated frame for a few more steps, wagged his head back and forth as if to say �Damn, we�re good�, smoothly lowered his head and neck at the trot, and went searching for grass along the edge of the ring, with Anky continuing to praise him. They walked by the out gate, and turned towards home, leaving me with a new definition of harmony in horsemanship.

I passed David O�Connor, and Jane Savoie on my way out.

�Did you see that?� I asked.

�Oh, yeah.� David said.

We smiled at each other, and just shook our heads. What can you say?

All of us had jobs for the day, so we went ahead, but we knew had seen something extraordinary.

Ah. If only.

Of course this completly guarentees that I am going to be up at 5am to watch the dressage competition on Bravo.

-bsg-

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