Pure Chaos - WEG Part 1

Despite all of the hurricane warnings and drama surrounding the World Equestrian Games, we decided to brave the rain. My parents surprised me with tickets for my birthday, though my mom would be traveling with me. I'm not sure if I ever blogged about it but I went to WEG in 2010 in Kentucky by myself because my friend flaked out after I bought tickets. Long story short I got stranded downtown after midnight half an hour from my hotel, I couldn't flag a taxi down, my cell phone died, and they kicked me out of the bus station which was the only place with a pay phone.

As the title suggests, the best descriptors of WEG 2018 in Tryon, NC was pure chaos. It was incredibly unorganized in some ways and the facility was still obviously half built. But I still had a great time.



We got in on Thursday night around midnight resulting in my first experience with Waffle House. They were the only place open and we were starving, I found it entertaining that they didn't have french fries, just hashbrowns.

Our hotel... was not ideal. We stayed in Spartanburg as they were the only place I could find a hotel for the dates that we were there. I am a really cheap person, hence I picked a really cheap hotel even though my parents were paying. It was too cheap it turns out - there was mold on the walls, the air conditioner had some sort of terrible smell coming from it, the swimming pool was bright green, etc. My mom ended up sleeping in her clothes on the bed and she decided we needed to switch hotels the next day. Oops!

Friday we spent the day finding a new hotel, then touring around and figuring out where things were. There are some great restaurants in Spartanburg - Friday we ate at the Crepe Factory for brunch and Cribb's Kitchen for dinner - both were amazing.



Saturday dawned bright and early and in our excitement to make it to the equestrian center before the crowds we ended up at the spectator parking at 7:30am. The WEG website said that shuttles would begin 2.5 hours before the start of competition for the day, which with an 11am start time for cross country meant that we still had to wait 2 hours. But, that proved not to be true. The shuttles were up and running so we took one from the parking lot to the equestrian center (there was also one taking people to the xc course, but I wanted to look around the equestrian center and maybe do some shopping first).

We got dropped of at the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) and just sort of followed people in since there were no signs where to go, no one to check tickets or bags. We wandered into the vendor village after 8am (when it was supposed to be open) and it was a ghost town. There were no vendors open and just lots of trucks and golf carts flying every which way through the courtyard. We sat around and waited for the shops to slowly open then decided we should get to the xc course. There were lots of signs and we had read online the day before that shuttles would be taking spectators from the end of vendor village down to the xc course. We followed the signs and reached a volunteer who said that there were no shuttles, we'd have to walk. Come to find out later in the day that they were only doing shuttles from the parking lot to the course. Even though the signs said otherwise. Fail.

Hawley and Jollybo!

It was a long walk downhill and we followed the course backwards. We got to the main area where a lot of the fences were and someone finally looked at our tickets but pretty much if you didn't want to pay you would not have had to. You could have been in the TIEC, shopping, watching the end of the cross country course without repercussions. It was ridiculous and weird. We ended up sitting by the Longines water complex with our cheap Walmart folding chairs we bought the day before - it was perfect. I loved getting to watch the competitors walk the course (it was hilarious how many people walked the course barefoot!). And I got excited when Hawley Bennett-Awad walked by and said hi, commenting on what great seats we had.

It was so much fun watching everyone go in person - interesting to see how tired some horses were half-way through the course, which riders took the option to go around the water, how someone almost whacked their head on the bottom of the bridge they were going under, etc. SO many horses refused the waterfall jump (the "cascades") so it seemed like the smart people were taking the option around it. I was also really impressed with the Japanese team. I just love eventer people - everyone is rooting for all the riders, regardless of country. When someone retired after 2 refusals, everyone cheered for her making a good decision. 
  

Bummed I didn't get to watch combined driving this year!

The weather held out perfectly, only a couple light showers throughout the day. However, after xc was done we headed back to do some shopping only to find all of the vendors were closed for the day at 3pm. That was a huge bummer.

Overall, it was a great day! Cross country was fun to watch, we got to walk around the course and see these amazing horses and riders (while carrying around our $11 wine!) and neat to be right on the front lines.

Of course, everything got cancelled for Sunday because of the rain, but I'll write more on that in my next post!

Will Coleman and Tight Lines