Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games

Violet Forbes is an employee of Classis Communications, a consulting firm working with the World Games 2010 Foundation. With decades of experience in managing media centers at international competitions, Violet has seen it all--and isn't afraid to share! See below for her thoughts from Kentucky Cup Driving...

Sunday Night
As I sit in my hotel room and contemplate my last day here and the last installation of this blog, I am contemplating quite a few things.

To anyone preparing to come to the Games, or to the Horse Park in general, forget the pretty shoes. Invest in a pair that is comfortable, weatherproof, and in my case, can be thrown out after the event (packing shoes covered in mud and smelling like wet dog make for a very unpleasant experience when you eventually open your suitcase). All the walking and standing that I do mandates these kind of shoes, which are never the most beautiful. Something that pains me – I love pretty shoes, but the ones that I love are only practical if I can sit down all day, which is not in my job description. So I wear the ugly comfy ones, and still have a back ache and swollen feet at the end of the day. Thank god for Magna Paste, which my horses have to share with me.

I am always a little depressed on the last day as we tear down the Press Center. I really do enjoy my work (no matter how I complain) and I have a lot of fun with the people I work with and for, so leaving makes me sad. This trip I am really sad to leave my Tower. It was such a nice location with all the necessities of life at hand.

This was one of the easiest events to work because of the drivers. I have never had a group of people be that kind, cooperative and genuinely nice about letting me intrude on their time. The drivers that I dealt with, Chester Weber, Tucker Johnson and Boyd Exell, were three of the nicest gentlemen, in the fullest sense of the word, that I have had the pleasure to chase down in quite a while. All three of them surprised me (and that is very hard to do – at least in a good surprise kind of way) on Saturday when they showed up in the Press Room of their own volition after the Marathon phase. Normally my big fear, the one that wakes me bolt upright in bed at 3 am, is that I won’t be able to get the riders that I need to come for a Press Conference. That – I gave a party and nobody came nightmare. I actually slept through the night on Saturday, confident that these three would not let me down. So not only are they the top drivers in their sport, but they are kind, sincere, funny and articulate people. They have earned my everlasting support and respect. Right now, I hope that they are the top three next year as well, because I really do need to sleep through the night.

So as I sit here slowly gaining the feeling back in my feet, I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to next year even with all the challenges that an undertaking of this magnitude will bring. I hope that it will be as fun as my time with these drivers has been.