For other Nations, Friday evening through to Saturday morning marked the first horse flight arrivals at times that would have made the Special Forces insertion planners truly gleeful; i.e. the middle of the night when the rest of the world is firmly ensconced in the land of nod (apart from the anti-social insomniac outside my hotel window who is equipped with a big boogie box and who seeks out, but fails to find, fame as a DJ). I understand all was going well with the first arrivals until a mechanical fault delayed the offloading of the cargo (not the horses). There were some very bleary eyes walking around the venue this morning but I suppose I should be pleased that there are now equines on the equestrian venue.
Back to Friday. Eventing stables bedded down. Hay opened to air. Final branding up. Grooms accommodations stocked and ready. Coca-Cola cooler stocked and ready. U.S. barn ready for lift off. Back then to the hotel and a planning powwow. Leah and Ana headed to the athlete village to deliver mattress covers, additional pillows, coat hangers and hanging rails and then Ana set off to “shop till you drop”. Christy and I stayed at the hotel to prepare welcome letters, phone number contact cards, chase missing freight deliveries (the clothing that was shipped from Houston for Dressage & Jumping) and also to admire the work of those building out our Team area. I also spent a number of hours looking at the transport plan and working on the airport arrival Meet & Greets for all out incoming flights; I think we are transporting 79 people from the airport arriving on 28 different flights – a drop in the ocean compared to the USOC but I am very grateful for the support we are getting from TEAM and Elcotour. All will be met by local guide and Rio expert, Patricia. Patricia looked after us when we were in Rio for the Test Event – she has a great sense of humour and the vision of her dancing away in the front of a van / minibus to a rather famous Chris de Burgh song (…best *****per in town) will remain with me until I am pulled down to Hades.
The designers of the Equestrian Venue have thought very hard about how to give those of us that work “back of house” a true Rio experience: One cunning plan (as Baldrick might spout) was to put down deep beach sand tracks through the stables. This, the kindly souls reasoned, would give us all the Copacabana Beach environment and would allow fashion icons such as myself to model the very latest budgie smugglers. Of course, not ideal for pushing tack trunks and carts through but quite useful for fitness fanatics seeking to tone the body beautiful. Said sand tracks are far better when heavily watered. Why use a ½ inch hosepipe I thought to myself when there is a perfectly serviceable 2” fire hydrant and pipe. Clearly I am no reincarnated fireman as my attempts to adjust the jet of water resulted in the nozzle coming off in my hand and my trousers (aka pants) getting soaked: To add insult to injury, it fast became apparent that the water feed to the fire hydrants is from a very different source to that feeding the hosepipes. It was not H20 that I really wanted all over me. What is about Rio and my damn trousers?
Saturday marked the start of the Silly Season. Morning arrivals in three groups to three different drop off points – eventing grooms / farrier, vet & physio / athletes, team leader & coach. Evening arrival – human physio (carrying marmite). Late afternoon arrivals…the eventing equidae.
So let the fun begin. Our eventing horses travelled from Miami where Tim Dutta and his crew oversaw the loading and waived them off for their journey South. The horses travelled extremely well, conveyed to Rio by TAM and were looked after on the flight by Shannon Kinsley aka Giggles…no, seriously, she is Giggles on her accreditation! Aircraft landed on time and Peden had the horses off in a jiffy whilst the kit headed to meet Mr Customs and Mrs MAPA. At this point there was a glitch – it was NOT a U.S. glitch but it was a glitch of significant glitchiness (in the eyes of Mr C or Mrs M) that the kit (feed, supplements, equipment trunks and vet boxes) were delayed a good 90 minutes as they were pawed through by Mrs M or Mr C or maybe both. The horses arrived (in trucks imported from Europe) and were offloaded and in to their new homes – they look GREAT and very much ready for what lies ahead.
The very welcome sight of the horse truck:
Lauren Kieffer and Veronica:
Mighty Nice and Emma Ford:
Kendyl Tracy and Donner:
Loughan Glen and Sally Robertson:
Blackfoot Mystery and Boyd Martin:
Eventually the kit arrived in a 40’ truck (semi . . I think is the correct U.S. speak). The truck started to reverse in to the unloading compound, hit a telephone pole, dislodged some wires that fell across the truck. All vehicular movement then stopped and collective logistics head scratching started. Luckily an intrepid logistics guru who either a) had rubber soles on his boots or b) was rather keen to get home, removed the wires at which point the driver deigned to continue his demonstration of poor reversing skills. During the day there is continuous procession of volunteers, cleaners, SSVs, NTOs and other luminaries passing through the stables. Ten ton of kit turns up and there is a spattering of very helpful, hardworking and vocal “muscle”, one telehandler and a forklift that can’t drive on the aforementioned sand. Perhaps we could have been done and in bed a little quicker with a little tweak to the plan but it was all unloaded, the grooms set fair, the horses turned in for the night and a pizza or three consumed. Eventing horses, athletes, grooms and staff in…check.
Horses settled in really well:
Veronica very much enjoying her bed:
As we left the venue an enthusiastic conveyer of doom and gloom informed me that, as of Sunday, we might not be able to “drop off” (from the vans / minibuses) at the same point that we have been using since arriving. The road outside the venue is the main “route” through the Military area within which the venue sits. It is, in effect, a dual carriageway with each side of the tree lined central grass area being at least 40’ wide and having two lanes. Only one side is used for traffic. So no drop off / stopping on a 40’ wide road not being used by traffic – well wouldn’t that just put me in a yummy peace & tranquility mood. Someone remind me….I do this because…???