Last year when I visited London I was able to go to Cross Country Day at the Badminton Horse Trials, which was one of the highlights of my trip. That was the first time I had ever been to any portion of a Three-Day-Event, though I have watched televised portions many times. It was an exciting day and not one I am likely to forget soon. Badminton is the largest four star event in the world, and there are only six in total.

This year I was able to go to Rolex, the only four star event in North America. This trip was definitely more involved than our day trip to Badminton last year. My sisters and I stayed in the area for four nights and had tickets for each day, with stadium seating for the three days the arena was used. And it was an amazing trip. I learned a lot about many of the athletes (and have become a tad obsessive about following some of them online), walked the cross country course, met Boyd Martin, watched Phillip Dutton finish his 40th Rolex ride (while bringing all three mounts into the top ten), and witnessed Michael Jung and fischerRocana FST become the first pair to have a Rolex three-peat.

[image error]There was fantastic riding all around, beautiful, extremely talented horses, and plenty of inspiration to be had. And this is where Rolex impacted me the most. While I was at Badminton last year an idea formed in my head for a novel set around eventing. The characters were so vivid in my mind that I regularly dreamed about them for weeks. And then I got stuck, lost my nerve, became overwhelmed with the process, take your pick. Whatever the cause, I let this story sit, untouched, for many months. Only the very basics were ever put on paper. But the characters still wouldn’t leave me alone, popping up at random times in my thoughts, demanding to be heard. While at Rolex, I finally decided that it didn’t matter how inadequate I felt myself to write this story, I was going to write it anyway. And so the process began anew. And so far it’s going very, very well. It isn’t–and will never be–perfect, but it’s a story that I want to tell.

I hope that over the next few months I am able to give some more concrete details about this story and tell you when it will be released. As of now I’m just trying to write. My goal is to have it complete, polished and all, by the end of the year, if not sooner. But life happens and there are no guarantees, so I can’t make any promises.

If you are at all inclined to follow my journey with this horsey story, please keep in touch. The more people who ask me about it, the better it will go. Here’s to hoping that I have another update soon. And if you would like to know more about my adventures at Rolex, please let me know. I would be happy to give a more in depth view of what happened there and my overall experience in another post or two.