2000 North American Young Riders' Championships
Parker, Colorado, USA
2nd - 6th August 2000

Astrid Daily: July 30th - July 31st

The trip to Denver was something I looked forward to with mixed feelings. Of course, on one side I was absolutely excited to go over there for the competition, the atmosphere and the horses, but on the other hand sometimes it can just be too much. You daily face making the decision what the priorities in your life are. Horses, websites, show coverage or a social life. The choice is up to you and even if you have the ability to do it all, you'll soon realize that it's too difficult and complicated. At the moment I keep hanging in there and mixing things and it'll work out for the summer but judgment day is facing 28th September 2000 when college starts again.

My flight to Denver was at 11.15 AM so my parents and I had to be at the airport at least by 9. I only slept for two hours that night as Saturday evening is always scheduled for summer partying. I left the gig Saturday night (or Sunday morning) round 4 AM and I had to be out of bed by 6, so start figuring. The flight to Denver, which had a lay-over in Newark, was comfortable. I watched two movies, My Dog Skip and Heaven on Earth with new hunk Chris Klein. In the meantime I read my favourite American magazine, Cosmopolitan (OK, I confess) mainly because they have great hair tips in there (for instance: nourish your hair by smearing it with olive oil). In Newark I had to wait three hours for the connecting flight but because of a delay (supposedly because of the weather, which is bull) we boarded at 8 instead of 6 PM. In the plane the captain announced that we were ground bound for 40 more minutes and after that we got the message that we were 21st in row to take off, which meant another 40 minutes on the airstrip. Totally exhausted I arrived at Denver International Airport at midnight. Luckily our hotel was close by the airport so that I could turn in immediately.

On Monday 31st July 2000, we had one day to take it easy. Normally we planned on going to Manitu Springs where there are cute little shops and a nice Polish restaurant but instead we mellowed out on the show ground "getting organised" as Mary likes to refer to it. We met the "lonesome announcer" Nicho Meredith who is all ready to announce the NAYRC. Charlotte Skinner is doing the show secretary so there shouldn't be any major problem as she is a true professional. I was extremely happy to find out that our good friend from the West coast Roxanne Christensen is here to coach Ryan Hites on his new horse Dubiosis. Roxanne is wild and oh so fun to hang out with. Ryan himself seems to be settled down with his new girlfriend Robyn, which is good for him. Of course the Poulins are again at the show and as daughters of former Olympian Michael Poulin they exert a strong presence on the young riders' scene. Went to the grocery store with JJ and bought material to decorate our golf cart with. In the evening we just munched on some chips in the camper and later on drove to the Holiday Inn where Mary and JJ were invited to join Laury Kelly for dinner while her daughter was having a party with the other Region 3 riders. I had a Caesar salad which was too much soaked in the dressing and therefore a little bit too strongly flavoured. Jodie came down from the party rather quickly and so we went to the hotel quite early to get some work done. Because I left the adapter to convert my European electricity plug into an American one at the camper and because my computer battery was totally dead I couldn't do any work and read my Dutch book instead.