Rolex 2013

So a couple of weeks ago I took a girls trip with Nathan's Gma, Aunt and Mom. We drove down to Lexington, KY to attend the Rolex 3 Day Event at Kentucky Horse Park. The horse park is a beautiful place. Nathan and I had gone to this event about 10 years ago when we were in vet school (when Nathan wanted to be a horse vet). After our trip, his grandmother got interested and has been going every year since. Her trip has now evolved into an annual girls trip. 

Kentucky Horse Park

The Rolex is the only 4 star event in the US...which means the top riders in the country show up and it's quite the party! Spectators and competitors (including the horses) travel from all around the world to compete at Rolex. 

We had tickets in the Patron tent where we had great food and drinks! 

The grandstand where dressage and stadium jumping take place. 

The first day consists of dressage. Dressage has been called ballet on horses. Each horse has to perform the exact same routine and they are judged on how well they respond to the rider and how well they execute each move. They don't ride to any music...the grandstand is very quiet during each test. They start out with about 40-50 horses entered into the competition. Each horse and rider has to qualify to enter Rolex. 

Day 2 consists of the cross country course. The course is about 4 miles long and contains about 27 different jumps and water features. The course claims a lot of victims....horses are eliminated from the competition if a rider falls off or if the horse refuses 3 times to go over a jump. The cross country day is definitely the most exciting day. The course takes about 11 minutes to complete. A four star event means that each jump is as high and as wide as they can be. The jumps are at least 4 feet tall if not taller and the wider jumps can easily be at least 6-7 feet across. 

The horses are inspected each day by the competition veterinarians. They are trotted down and back and evaluated for lameness. If the vets don't pass them as sound, they are eliminated. This is this year's winner- Quimbo. He and his rider were from New Zealand. Apparently it's been a long time since an American won at Rolex. The horses are simply gorgeous and my pictures definitely do not do them justice. These horses are probably worth more than my house!

The third and final day is stadium jumping. Again the jumps are high and wide. There are many difficult combinations and if the horses knock down a rail they are penalized. The horse with the lowest score at the end of the 3 days wins! There were only about 25 horses left competing on the third day. The rider wins a Rolex watch, $80,000 and gets to drive a Land Rover for one year....I'm sure there is more stuff too but those are the highlights!

We had a great time watching the amazing riders, shopping, and just enjoying the scenery of Kentucky Horse Park!