Home Sweet Home!

We are home! Or at least stateside again. This flight was slightly shorter than the flight going to Hong Kong, but 15 hours is still a tremendously long time to be on a plane. Alicia and I are spending the night at the Torsilieri's tonight and then getting up early in the a.m. to head back to the Carolinas. Derek is also spending the night here. Poor Sara and Elizabeth are still travelling- they had connecting flights that will get them back into the South late tonight. Jetlag is catching up to me already.

I can't tell you how proud I am of our team. They made USPC proud. We had an amazing trip and I've made many new friends. Alicia and I are already plotting on how we can get appointed for next year's IPE that will be in New Zealand!

Thanks for your support and well wishes, they were greatly appreciated!

Janna

Nations Cup Results

Three cheers for USPC. We placed 3rd. Our riders were brilliant, a credit to USPC for their horsemanship and sportsmanship. Our coach Janna Ritacco was exceptional in terms of sorting out the best possible horse rider combinations and advising our riders on how to give their horse the best ride possible. I am awed by our members and and their coach. They validate all of our USPC goals and beliefs. I am grateful and proud to be part of this team.

Team members:
Gus Torsilieri - NJ
Elizabeth Fite - GA
Sara De Pape - SC
Derek Alvey - MD

Coach:
Janna Ritacco

The final results were:
Australia
Canada
USA
New Zealand
Hong Kong

Camelot Riding Resort has been an amazing and generous host manager Phillip Sun anticipated all needs and was unfailingly cheerful and supportive. Massive kudos to Phillip and his staff.

The Hong Kong Pony Club can't be lauded enough as hosts and organizer of this Inter-Pacific Exchange. I just don't have the words to clearly describe the experience they created for us.

The memories and new friendships from this trip are priceless.

Alicia

Results from Day 1 of the Nation's Cup

Australia in 1st with 40, Canada in 2nd with 44, USA in third with 49, Hong Kong in 4th with 78, and New Zealand in 5th with 111. Our guys rode great- wish them luck for tomorrow!

Janna

Edited to add: (Wrote this before Day 1 of Nation's Cup and wasn't able to get it on the blog in time!)

Janna here, reporting live from China!

Tonight is our first stage of Nations Cup show jumping. We will jump under the lights in the huge ring at Camelot. We had a practice last night under the lights so that the horses could get accustomed. (These horses are almost exclusively ridden in the indoor arena during the day.)

We have a mixed bag of horses and tonight should prove interesting. One of our original horses is lame so we were given a back-up horse last night. He is nice but has a naughty habit of jumping exuberantly and then landing and planting his feet like a bronc- Gus was on him first and it was amusing to see him nearly go over the horse’s head. Sara got on next and he tried it with her too. Sara was able to figure him out though and he looks like he’ll be a reliable ride now. Derek’s horse is a steady guy but in the stable he looks rabid. He bites incessantly and tries to attack anything that walks by. He likes to leave rails up though so we can deal with his crabbiness. Elizabeth’s horse is the nicest one of the bunch. He is a warmbloody looking horse that is uphill and has a to-die-for canter. He should give us some nice scores tonight. Now onto Gus’ horse… He is… well, he is a horse. He is a bay horse. He is a bay horse that could have a career as a lumberjack because he likes to annihilate wooden rails. At high speeds. But it is not only rails that he likes to annihilate, he also doesn’t mind plowing through metal standards from time to time just to keep things interesting. Fingers crossed that tonight goes well!

The last few days we have been just hanging out around Camelot, there have not been a lot of formally organized activities. The team has gotten creative on their quest for entertainment. We have had team Family Guy viewing nights in the movie theater (the complete six season DVD box set of Family Guy was one of Sara’s buys in Shenzhen- good choice Sara!). Derek and Gus have been flying Gus’ remote control helicopter around Camelot (on a completely unrelated note, a few nights ago some team coaches and managers reported UFO sightings…). One night Derek sang karaoke with two Chinese couples. Everyone enjoyed Chinese cooking classes too and were impressed by the very sharp knives and inferno-like flames used to prepare the food.

We are all excited about our Nation’s Cup rounds tonight… wish us luck!

Janna

Some Busy Days Since The Last Post

We had two shopping days. We rode the bus into Shenzen where there are probably several thousand shops under one roof selling everything made on the planet. Completely overwhelming with the sights, sounds and choices. The price is NOT the price. Bargaining is expected. Our exchange organizer, Kate Budge, gave us a brief tutorial on the basics and the fine points of bargaining and how to play the "game". It is definitely a competitive sport. Gus really got into the spirit and into the role. He acted as buyer's agent for the team. Great theatre!!! We came with one carry-on and 1 checked bag. We may need an ocean going cargo vessel for the return....



The first shopping day included a foray into a Chinese restaurant for Janna and I. Holy moly! Again the sights, sounds and choices were all new and amazing. We knew two words of Chinese. (Thank you). Not extremely useful when viewing a menu of Chinese characters. So once again we fell back on acting and miming skills previously untried. It was hilarious and all the patrons of the restaurant were entertained. We thought we ordered some kind of fish and eggplant. And lo and behold that is what we got. We again entertained the other patrons with our choice of utensils and crockery. We put our food on the small plate provided, did not use the bowl (as we had not ordered soup). During the Chinese cooking lesson we had the next day, I learned that the plate was for bones and trash and the bowl was meant for the food we intended to eat. In China it is expected that you will lift the bowl close to your mouth when eating. Something my mother and grandmother would have smacked me for doing when I was growing up. I am proud to report that we used our chopsticks. Janna's side of the table was much cleaner than mine. Again local custom saved me, I learned that a messy area around your plate is a complement to the cook!

The second shopping day was fun filled and action packed. A tale best told by one of the others. Check back for that adventure.

Now about the bus trip...

As Janna said, driving is a full contact sport. Bicycles do not hesitate to take on a 30 passenger bus. The number of lanes drawn on the pavement is merely a suggestion. Miss your turn at the intersection of two roads of 3-4 lanes each? No problem! Back up and turn right across those lanes, it's all good! Traffic travels soooo close together that you could reach out an touch the vehicle next to you. The really amazing thing? In 10 days and lots of hours traveling to see incredible things, we have seen only 1 fender bender and it was so minor I wondered why they stopped. We did see two bus drivers dismount and duke it out at one point.

The Kangaroo Cup was hilarious and everyone had a superior time. There were 4 teams of six with a team member from each country and one of the resort's Chinese instructors. The Cup included mounted games, a bicycle race, a game of hoops, a climbing wall, and a swim meet of sorts. The mounted games included a baton race, egg and spoon, a leading relay and an apple bobbing. I have blackmail quality video of Gus being bucked off 3 times in 50 meters by a sassy 11 hand pony. I have no idea about the results of this competition because I was laughing too hard.







I love the little Mongolian ponies they have here. Phillip, the manager of Camelot Riding Club breeds them for the school. They are the size of Shetlands but with a ground covering stride. However, a pony is a pony is a pony. Refer to paragraph above about the fate of Gus in the first race.

We visited the fortifications built during the Opium Wars along the Pearl River. Then traveled across an impressive suspension bridge to Chimealong Circus. The circus is performed in a huge amusement park. The sets were elaborate and beautiful (similar to a Cirque de Soleil performance). The aerial performances were Highly entertaining (get it? highly?) and the diving act was brilliant.



Yesterday was a laze around the pool day. The pool at this resort/riding club is absolutely beautiful. The pictures on the website don't do it justice. We drew horses for the Nation's Cup and got acquainted with them in the first of two training sessions last night. The Nation's Cup will consist of 4 jumping rounds. Two will be ridden on Monday and the final two on Tuesday. We have another training session this evening (under the lights). We are seriously excited about the jumping Monday night in the arena by the lake under the lights. A very dramatic setting. We should get some great pictures.

We have learned a lot about horse keeping in a challenging environment. The heat and humidity are unlike anything we experience even in our gulf coast. We will all come home and be newly appreciative of our home bases.

Alicia

From Gus in China team USA‏

Hello everyone! I know that I speak for the entire team when I thank you for the support that all of you have given us as we have been away competing and touring around Asia.

Today was quite a day for us as a team and individually, as we had a great amount of success in many areas. First off this morning, USA took first place by seven points in the opening Dressage competition. All four of us put in terrific rides that gave us an advantage right from the get-go. I was first in our order of go, and put in a good score. The judges were rather stingy with their remarks and scores and the highest score of the day was a 66.7. Keep in mind we had sat on our mounts twice, and the last time that any of these horses had done anything close to what we asked of them was, well they never had done preliminary movements before in their life. Canada and Australia both tied for second, but Canada’s collective marks out did Australia’s by four points. Hong Kong came in fourth with New Zealand a close fifth. A mounted award ceremony followed the competition, and we all received our red rosettes, which at first threw us for a bit of a loop. As far as individual placing, America had the highest individual score, as well as having two riders end up in the top five places.

The second part of our day was quite different. After boarding a small bus bound for the famous shops in Shenzhen, we set off for a action packed afternoon of shopping. Shenzhen is about an hour away from Camelot, and to get there one has to drive in the famous Chinese traffic. The traffic over here is hilarious. All road signs are ignored, traffic lanes are non-existent, and pedestrians are treated with the same respect which we give to squirrels that are in our way. As we traveled down the highway at break neck speeds, buses and trucks loomed and swayed about two inches from our bus and every five minutes our bus driver slammed on his breaks and sent you flying to the front of the bus. Driving is quite an exciting experience. When we arrived at the Lo Wu Commercial Complex, we entered, and there to meet us were thousands of shops, thousands of people and thousands of deals. Instantly you are mobbed by men and women selling stuff. You are dragged to the right then to the left by merchants trying to get you to enter their shops. We were instantly accompanied by a fellow named Tony who kept asking what we wanted, because he could get it for us at a great price. It’s hard to explain exactly what this place was like but here is my take on it:

Imagine your everyday five floor shopping mall. Now instead of nice neat shops every couple yards or so, replace that with hundreds of shops jammed on top of one another, all selling basically the same thing. The merchants sit outside of the stores, and as you walk pass they grab you and yell “You want iphone? How ‘bout hand bag, sunglasses? DVD? YES you want” heaven forbid you make eye contact or else you’re done for. At first it’s horribly overwhelming but as you get used to it, the experience is quite entertaining.

When you finally find something that you want, then the real fun begins. Unlike in America, there is no set price that you pay. Here, you fight tooth and nail for the best price, which can go on for quite some time. The merchant whips out his or her calculator, and punches in their price. This is usually hugely inflated and your response is to look at it, laugh and say “no way, too much”. Then they hand the calculator to you, and you put in a price, usually you go with 1/3 of what they put in. The merchant will look at your price, get wildly offended, laugh at your price or say no way, then they put in their new price, usually ten dollars less. Then you counter. This if done right can go back and forth for quite some time, till you get close to where you think you want to spend. Then once you make your last offer and they decline, you throw your hands up in disgust and begin to walk away or towards another vendor. About ten seconds after you begin this act, they come running after you and give you the final price. All in all it’s a hilarious game and you can have quite a good laugh. I know personally I stood toe to toe with one lady and we yelled at each other at the top of our lungs for a good fifteen minutes before we came to an understanding. It’s a terrific experience.

After about four hours of this we met up at the bus and had a hair rising ride home. We had so much fun that we are going back tomorrow for more. We have a few days off from riding so I don’t know who will be blogging away next but stay tuned and thank you for your support.

Gus

Team USA - Dressage Results

Its official! USPC places first! Canada is 2nd. Australia is 3rd, edged out by 4 points on the rider marks. Hong Kong is 4th. New Zealand is 5th. The point spread between 1 and 5 was 108 points. All teams rode well.

Individually Gus was 1st, Elizabeth 4th, Sara 10th and Derek 11th. Nicely done USPC for Team USA.

Eliza riding for Canada had the second highest score for her Team Canada.

The tests have not been handed back yet. More on that when we see them.

More exploration of China this afternoon. We are having a wonderful trip.

Alicia

Team USA Post from Derek

Today we select and choose our horses. Earlier Philip, the head instructor, gave us a brief description of our horses which we used to figure out who we would ride. Around 8am we got on our horses and began riding, half way through the lesson Janna switched all of us to other horses which fit each of us better than the horses we started on. We finished riding each getting about 15 minutes on our new horses, before we had to take them back and cool them down.

Later in the afternoon after lunch we went to the local super Wal-Mart. Three stories high, this giant store contained everything from shoes, to shampoo, to high end stylish clothes to even selling airline tickets. The Wal-Mart contains everything you could possibly need and more. A whole section exists where you can eat exotic foods such as chicken legs to weird things that cannot be named. I buy several nice polo’s for 50-80 Chinese currency. This is equivalent to $10 US dollars, a great buy. Gus buys a bunch of different types of food to try.


We then head to dinner and eat buffet style that night with 5-6 native Chinese dishes.

Today we ride our horses at 8am again; like yesterday, being the first riders our horses are already tacked up for us by the grooms. We ride and begin to really click with our mounts learning all their quirks. We run through our dressage tests at the end of our ride. After our 50 minutes of riding, again like yesterday we cool down our horses. The weather is still horrible, 95 degrees and about 2-3x the humidity as back home in Maryland.

This is the first day we have our lunches packed and we do not eat in the restaurant. We get on the bus and get driven for about an hour to a Chinese folk town which is a tourist attraction. The small town is made up of a man made river with boats, lots of performances of ancient traditions and many historical buildings replicated to a small scale. There is a horse show where Chinese foot soldiers and riders stage a battle with swords. After wards our team pays 20 R&B or 3 American dollars to ride a Mongolian horse around an arena. We get lots of pictures. The day is continually rainy. Just sitting under shelter is not enough to stop the sweat from rolling off you.


On the drive back to Camelot, the resort we are staying at, we take a 15minute break at wal-mart again in case anyone needs anymore necessary goods.

Dinner is mashed potatoes and chicken at the restaurant.

Derek Alvey

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Friday night was our Welcoming Dinner which was held at the Beas River Country Club's Clubhouse. It was a formal dinner and we were randomly assigned seats to help us break out of our familiar teams and mix, mingle and meet other team members, coaches and chaperons (also called Team Managers).

I was sitting at the table with FEI bigwigs, a steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the NZ coach, our FEI dressage judge, and the president of the HK Pony Club. It was interesting to meet horse people from all over the globe. We had a lovely and very diverse buffet- one of the hors d'oevres options were huge snails still in their shell. I regret to inform you that I passed on that option! The desserts were the best part of the buffet- they had all sorts of custards, creme brulees and puddings. Very tasty!

We heard speeches from the organizers and president of the HKPC and were treated to a slide show of things to expect over the next two weeks. I am happy to report that our team looked classy and well put together. Elizabeth & Sara wore knee length white pencil skirts, a red shirt and fitted navy blazers on top. They would have made Ralph Lauren proud! The boys looked quite handsome in their white shirts, khakis, navy blazers and their American flag ties. Our team got many compliments on their appearance and in my very un-biased opinion were the best dressed!

Saturday was the most fun yet. We went on a "junk trip" in the South China Sea. We boated out an hour away from the island and dropped anchor in a beautiful cove. We were able to swim, dive from the boat, and play on the beaches. Most of the PC'ers dove off of the top floor of the boat- what adrenaline junkies! The water was beautiful- emerald and clear and very calm. There must have been about 40 other "junks" near us. It reminded me of boating on Lake Hartwell, except this was the tropical version and our neighbors were singing Chinese karaoke! It seems like the kids really got to know eachother on the trip.



We leave for China shortly. It will be an hour and a half bus ride. When we get to Camelot we get to meet the horses our team will be riding. The US team drew group "E" horses. Here's hoping that group E stands for "exceptional" in dressage!

Janna

The Eagle Has Landed

Well we survived our 16 hour flight and arrived in Hong Kong around 7:00 p.m. There was a typhoon heading this way but luckily we avoided it! The first night was pretty uneventful because by the time we made it to the city it was dark so we just came straight to the place where we are staying. We are staying at the Beas River Country Club. It is pretty incredible. With mountains on one side and high rises on the other its a pretty neat place to stay. The only bad part is how wet and humid it is here.

We checked out three different equestrian centers today. They are so unique from farms at home it was a really great experience. The barns are double deckers, and every horse that comes has to be imported from another country (none are bred here) and its a limited amount that can come. No one owns their own horse in Hong Kong, or at least it is very rare. All of the horses, except for a few, are owned by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and then leased by their riders. We have been talking to the Hong Kong pony clubbers and have learned so much from them and became very good friends. We also got to see and pet one of the most famous race horses in all of Hong Kong!

We actually got to go swimming this morning and have become really good friends with all the teams! Its so interesting to hear all their stories about their hometowns and how different it is from us. But they were all like us in the sense that none of us could turn down the slides in the pool, like little kids! Tonight is the Welcoming Dinner so we are looking forward to getting dressed up for that!

Seeing all these horses today made us so anxious to ride... one day closer! More posts and pictures coming soon! The Blog is blocked from the place we are staying so we are trying our best to give updates.

-Sara :)

This is really happening!

So the team met up in New Jersey for a couple of days for some practice and “team-building” activities. First let me just say that I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about New Jersey. Apparently the “stereotypes’” really do exist, but I have yet to see them. Everyone up here has been so overwhelmingly nice and accommodating. I want to give a special thanks to Gus’s family and pony club for all their support! Aside from all the great people we’ve met, the farms we have visited have been incredible. It really is horse heaven up here.

On our first full day we trailered the horses over to Clover Hill Farm for some jumping practice. The practice went well (minus my one premature dismount from Timmy, but that’s all behind us now because we are on to only having good luck!), and all of Gus’s ponies were fabulous. Thank you to the Torsilieris for sharing your horses with us! Also, Clover Hill is an amazing farm.We were so lucky to have the opportunity to practice at such a first-rate facility. Thank you Melinda (my nother-mother for the week!) and the Hartmans for sharing your beautiful farm with us.

Today, our second day, we got up early for some dressage practice over at Briland Farm on the same ponies as yesterday and then took a nice (eventful) hack down the river.

After dressage we headed over to Princeton for some bike tours. This has definitely been a major highlight of the trip for me so far! Princeton is a beautiful town and the campus is amazing. After riding bikes around campus for a while we parked the bikes in town and did a bit of shopping. Also, I can’t leave out the best part of our bike ride… THE TANDEM BIKE! At first this thing was seriously freaking scary, but once we realized it was best to just have one of the guys pilot the bike and the girls hang on for the ride, things went much smoother. In the end everyone got to take it for a spin.

We came back from Princeton to have a wonderful dinner at the Torsilieris’ house (burgers, hot dogs, fresh corn, salad, and homemade cookies), along with some badminton and serious Marco-Polo action in the pool. Yes, pony club has its way of bringing out the kid in us all.

So, tomorrow we are getting up early to run some errands and then it’s off to the airport at 11:30 a.m. so we can fly out at 3:30 for Hong Kong. I can’t believe this is really happening. Just praying right now that we all survive the 16-hour flight.

P.S. -- Check out the bottom for some pictures!

See you all on the other side,

Elizabeth

Beautiful New Jersey country side.

America really is the best country in the world!

International translator? ...Check!

The chapel at Princeton.

Princeton campus.

More campus.

Tandem bike!

Again.

...and again.

Go Alicia!

Group picture under Princeton arches.

Introduction

So, after several requests, we have decided to start a blog where we can share our upcoming adventures with friends, family and supporters back in the States.

For those of you who don’t know, we are the United States Pony Clubs’ team representing the U.S. in the Inter-Pacific exchange this summer in Hong Kong and China.

The team is as follows:

August Torsilieri (H-A), New Jersey Region

Sara DePape (B), Carolina Region

Derek Alvey (B), Capital Region

Elizabeth Fite (H-A), South Region

Coach: Janna Bankston Ritacco

Chaperone: Alicia Henderson

Below is a bit of information on the exchange taken from the USPC (http://www.ponyclub.org) website:

The Inter-Pacific Exchange first began in Australia in 1964. Great Britain, the United States, Canada and New Zealand were originally part of the exchange, followed by Hong Kong and Japan. The exchange was conceived for the older members of Pony Club to have an educational, cultural, bilingual and competitive experience. Each team consists of four members, a coach and a chaperone.

Team members are selected according to the following criteria:

- Be a B level rating or above

- Older than seventeen years of age.

- The riders will be expected to have had experience riding and competing on borrowed horses.

- Having competed at the Training Level of Eventing.

- Jumped 3'6" in Show Jumping.

- Have top Horse Management skills.

- Plus all recommendations must be excellent for selection.

Hopefully this information will help everyone back home to better understand what we are doing. We will try to post every day of our trip so stay tuned for updates.

We hope you enjoy our blog and thank you for your support!

Our itinerary for the trip is as follows:

- Leave for Hong Kong from Newark, N.J. (3:30 p.m., July 21)

- Welcome Dinner in Hong Kong (7:30 p.m., July 23)

- Sightseeing in Hong Kong (July 24)

- Travel to China (July 25)

- Dressage Competition (July 28)

- Kangaroo Cup (July 30)

- Nations Cup Show Jumping Competition (Aug. 3)

- Return to Hong Kong (Aug. 4)

- Sightseeing in Hong Kong (Aug. 5)

- Farewell Dinner (Aug. 5)