The Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event
Friday
By: John B. Holbrook, II
April 24th, 2009

I received an invitation from Rolex USA to be their guest at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event which ran Friday April 24th through Sunday April 26th at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. Without jumping ahead of myself too much in the report, let me say it was an absolutely magical weekend for me on many levels.  Firstly, this was the first Rolex sponsored event which I have been invited to attend, and as such I was and remained honored.  Secondly, much of my family happens to be from and live in the great state of KY - I lived there a short time myself growing up.  So it gave me an opportunity to spend time with one of my relatives whom I don't often see.  Thirdly, it was a grand introduction for both myself and my wife Karen who joined me (and is a life long horse lover) to equestrian Eventing.

So what is the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event?  I got many quizzical looks from those who asked me "so what are you doing this weekend?" and I explained I was attending this event.    The event has a fantastic website at www.rk3de.org, and it's worth anyone's time to visit the site.  As the name suggests, the event combines three different equestrian events - dressage (which actually begins Thursday and goes through Friday), cross-country on Saturday, and show jumping on Sunday.  The event has a long history which goes back to 1974, when Bruce Davidson and the United States Equestrian Team won individual and team gold at the World Championships held in Burghley, England. This gave the United States the right to hold the next World Championships four years later, in 1978. The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky was due to open around the same time, and plans were made to hold the World Championships there.

Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI) was formed to as a non-profit organization to help plan the competition and raise public awareness. The first horse trials at the Kentucky Horse Park was held in 1976, to prepare. In 1977, the National Pony Club Rally and the North American Junior Three-Day Event Championships was also held there.  The 1978 event had more than 170,000 spectators and added more than $4 million to the local economy. The event was broadcast worldwide, as well as nationally on CBS. The success of the World Championships helped to convince the EEU to continue the event annually. Today, the event is broadcast worldwide in 18 languages.  Rolex was approached in 1979 to sponsor the event and has sponsored the event for an amazing 29 years.  The significance of this truly international event cannot be overstated - the only four star show in the US. Four stars is the highest level of competition, the same level of competition as Eventing at the Olympics, and the event is an Olympic qualifier. 

Lexington KY is only a two-hour drive South for me, so Karen and I packed up the car and drove down on Thursday evening.  We stayed at the Lexington Embassy Suites:  

After a good night's sleep and breakfast the next morning, Karen and I headed over to the Kentucky Horse Park: 

Here's some photos of the newly built outdoor stadium area within the Kentucky Horse Park - it's a magnificent facility and worked perfectly for the event:

This seemed like a good place for a wrist shot:

 After checking in to the media tent and collecting my photographers vest (I was provided with full press credentials and media access for the event) I took my place inside the ring with the rest of my fellow photographers:   

Having professional level photographic gear certainly helps, but the real key to getting spectacular photos at events like this is having media access to be able to get up close to the action.  As previously mentioned, Friday was a dressage (pronounced dressawwwsh).  Essentially the rider enters the ring and takes the horse through a strict routine (often called "horse ballet") and the discipline has ancient roots which go all the way back to medieval times.  It's also the most critical of the three events as rider and horse establish a baseline scored during dressage which can never go up - your score only gets worse during the other two events.  Dressage doesn't have the thrill and excitement of the other events, but it is a beautiful event as you can see:

 

At noon there was a break for lunch and Karen and I got to sample the Rolex Sponsors hospitality tent:

After lunch, we watched the afternoon dressage competition, then headed back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner with my cousin Kelli and her husband Doug.  It's unfortunately been far too long since I've seen my cousin, so I was really looking forward to seeing her!  We met at a GREAT restaurant in Lexington called Malone's:

Here's a shot of Karen and I the waiter took:

We then headed to a more casual place next door to talk some more - we had so much catching up to do!  Here's an embarrassingly bad photo of Kelli and Doug from my little point and shoot camera - sorry guys:

Doug and Karen were great sports and let Kelli and I blab on half the night!  Here's a shot of Kelli and I:

Kelli and Doug then drove us to a great place to go dancing called the Signature Club!  We had a blast!

 However, we were running on little sleep, and had a long day a head of us, so all to soon we had to call it a night.  But the weekend was off to a fantastic start!  Tomorrow would bring the Cross Country event, and the special invitation Rolex dinner party!