The accommodation and weather at WEG

The FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, USA have been the cause of some press in the last few days. We catch up with #supergroom and BGA member and Ambassador Alan Davies, (Team GBR groom to Charlotte and Carl), direct from WEG, in his series of blogs. 

In the last couple of days since my last blog the weather here and accomodation have been talking points...

Yesterday the weather was a bit cooler with a bit of a breeze so the riders all came in and rode so that it was easier on the horses and takes less out of them. They also got to walk around the newly constructed arena....well, actually, it's still being constructed! Being a World Games, and with 8 disciplines to cater for, they have had to add more arenas.

It's really starting to feel like a World Games now as the eventers are out of quarantine so they were all riding this morning. We can also see the endurance horses from our barn, which seems like a whole different world!

The heat and humidity was very high in the middle of the day so the horses have rested in their stables under the fans. Then we groomed them and walked them in the afternoon when it was cooler. 

Tonight our grooms house is starting to fill up, we have all disciplines living here which is great fun. Rachel Tolley who takes care of Tina Cooks horse is here, we've been friends since Sydney Olympics in 2000, so we've got some reminiscing to do!

The groom accommodation has been a major drama. Luckily Team GBR have found us an amazing house, however some grooms are in pods and some are in a tent....  So we have to hope the predicted hurricane doesn't hit -  I think we might be having some other nationalities on our sofa!

Today dawned a little cooler having had some showers in the night . It was a welcome relief to the heat and humidity we have been experiencing. 

We hand walked the horses in the morning as the riders were coming to do the first Arena Familiarisation in the afternoon. More showers threatened at lunchtime but they held off and we managed to stay dry.

The heat crept up again and we had to get iced water to wash the horses after they worked, to help get their temperatures down quickly. The water that comes from the hoses is not cold enough to reduce the body temperature quickly enough, but with ice cubes in buckets of water you get them cool really quickly.

I got the horses to their stables and got them untacked as quickly as possible then let them take a drink, then took them to the wash bays and got them covered in iced water.

We managed to get them back to their stables before the sky turned black and we got the impressive storms that had been threatening all day. We had a massive down pour with thunder and lightning and as I write this it looks like we are in for some more - but it looks like the facilities and surfaces are holding up.

It's off to bed early tonight as we have the trot up tomorrow morning early.

Catch up tomorrow,

Alan

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Read Alan's previous blog here.