Basically, the title says it all. Politely.
Once we knew that the 2018 WEG would be in the US again, I lobbied for an Akhal-Teke Breed booth there. 2010’s breed booth attracted many tens of thousands of visitors at the Kentucky Horse Park. You can read the entire blog about my 2010 adventure here.
So, I had experience doing this, from fundraising to designing the booth. All good. We have a more cohesive group of Teke owners/breeders/lovers. Even better. I am 8 years older and not quite as ‘sound’ as I was in 2010. Expected.
So, in 2017, we started planning, scheming, designing, etc for our AT breed booth at the 2018 WEG. After quite a bit of behind the scenes planning, we (we being the ATAA) announced a call for pledges to make the booth a reality. We started officially discussing it at the 2017 ATAA General Membership Meeting at Dressage at Devon.
Our first call to action went out on 11/20/2017 with the Christmas Silent Auction. That did quite well, thanks to a streamlined system found by BOD member Gretta Teets.
We next mentioned it in December, during the ATAA’s early renewal raffle. Then again, in the Annual Report.
We finally started getting information from the WEG organizers on what it would cost, dimensions of the booths, etc. We had our first ‘official’ fundraising call to action on February 27th – we needed to have at least $6000 pledged before March 9th to make this a reality. There wasn’t much time, as the dates of the event were September 11-23rd- 6 months to fundraise and prepare!
We got MORE than the necessary $6000 in pledges in under a week. Wow! The Teke community is AWESOME! We put our down payment on a 9 x 10 booth and were told it would be in a large air-conditioned building with all the other vendors. We picked out a really nice spot near the waterfall.
We started working on volunteers, thanks to Gretta Teets for setting up the online sign up sheet, housing, thanks to Betsy Wandler for handling that. The largest different this time was that I was not going to drive out to N.C. with all the booth stuff, like I did in 2010. That took me 29 days and 6500 miles of driving.
Somewhere along the road between Washington State and the Kentucky Horse Park in 2010.
I’m afraid that just wasn’t in the cards this time. Not only is my husband starting a new business, but my business keeps me very busy as well. And, that is a LONG way to drive, even with my upgraded digs. Me and my ‘Glamper’ below.
So, between my lack of time and funds, the ATAA voted to pay for Betsy and my airfare, housing and a car as the main volunteers. Betsy found a camper that was to be set up at an onsite campsite, not only for me and her, but also for any other volunteers that needed a place to sleep.
I spent the next several months fundraising, with our generous donors giving over $11,000 to make this a reality. We really could not have done it without all of them. At the same time, I was trying to figure out what our booth would look like. 2010’s worked quite well, but I had all the parts in my trailer. That wouldn’t be an option this time, as only so much can fit in a suitcase. So, Sabine Desper agreed to be ‘box central’ as I shipped boxes of brochures (from 2010), banners, costumes, jewelry, IKEA furniture etc for the booth.
While this was going on, we had been trying to get an Akhal-Teke ridden demo at the WEG also. On August 11th, 2018 (yes, ONE MONTH from the opening day of the WEG), we were offered a spot for a ridden demo of Akhal-Teke horses. Our fantastic community got together to make it happen. 3 separate owners with 6 horses made the financial commitment (and it was hefty, let me tell you, just vet stuff alone was a monster) to bring their horses to the WEG and do a ridden demonstration in Ring 1 on September 12th at 5 pm. A huge thanks to Sabine Desper/Phil Case with Kurizma, Adamek and Kiergen, Katrina and Giles Ardiel with Gerald and Hendrick and Olwen Busch with Gulkana.
On September 5th, we heard that Backyard Green Films was coming to WEG specifically to film our demo. WOW!
Fast forward to September 9th, Sunday, when I flew on a red eye (not recommended btw) and arrived in North Carolina (or S. Carolina?) early in the morning. I picked up a rental car, immediately changed into shorts (in the rental lot, I am not used to hot and humid) and drove to the venue. There had been a statement that we should follow signs, not our gps to get to parking, so brain fuzz and all, I did that. For miles. And miles, going around small towns, etc. I finally arrived at the Accreditation tent after getting a nice tour of the countryside.
While I tried to sort out my pass and passes for our volunteers, I got an inkling of what this week would be like…not terribly organized. Volunteer Jacque Munn met me and we headed down to our booth, where Billy Pope had delivered most of the boxes I had sent to Virginia.
Jacque and I knew we needed a bunch more stuff, so we headed out to find a Walmart, or Target, or something. To make things a bit more interesting, I was sleep deprived and her mare unexpectedly foaled, so she spent much of the time trying to arrange vet care. In other words, neither of us were all there. So, we got another nice tour of the countryside. I think it took us about 5 hours to get back to the TIEC (Tryon International Equestrian Center). We did end up finally finding Walmart though.
By then, the camper had been delivered and set up on site. I couldn’t figure out how to charge my phone (sleep deprived), so I only caught snatches of the message about where it was. I caught, “white with burgundy stripes, key inside the door”. OK. So Jacque and I drove up to the quite nice RV park onsite and looked for an unoccupied white and burgundy camper. Found it and wandered around inside looking for the key (might be in front of an interior door, right?). I marveled at the fabulous accommodations that Betsy had found for us. Still couldn’t find the key…so I’m looking for paperwork and find..clothes in the closet. Hmmm, that seemed a bit strange.
The photo on the website of the campground we ‘thought’ we had reserved a spot at.
I was able to charge my phone a bit and called the guy who had dropped the camper off. We were in the wrong camper. So, with directions in hand, we quietly snuck out of that really fab camper and drove back to the empty gravel parking lot with trailers parked here and there. We found the white with burgundy striped one and when I opened the door, there was the key. This camper was more like what I had expected. Clean, but very definitely worn and a bit tattered. The front stabilizers were broken, so walking into the bathroom was a rocking experience. Also, it was to sleep 7, but they would be a VERY cozy 7. Not a problem, it was there, it was close, it was paid for. Morlin Jochimsen had flown in from Germany to help us and ride one of the demo horses for Shenandoah Farms. She and I worked on the booth Sunday night and then got to know each other a bit.
The actual camper we rented, in the middle of a huge parking lot. You can see why we got confused.
Our demo horses were in route Sunday afternoon and were supposed to vet in Monday at 1 pm. Sunday, we were told that on site stabling might not be available if the hurricane touched down, as it would be needed for quarantined horses that were currently stabled in tents. Demo riders/owners decided to come anyway, as the demo was still on. I networked and found local stabling for the 4 stallions that were only hours outside the venue at this time. The locals were FABULOUS! We ended up taking the boys to a local farm, where the owner had just signed the paperwork the week before on it. She apologized up and down, but it was lovely. Several separate barns, big turnouts, GORGEOUS views. There was no bedding, so I ordered a pallet of shavings, as we had no idea how long they would be there.
Kurizma enjoying the view. Dean Miller photo.
Our booth, Monday, September 10th, 8 am, when we first paid for our booth, we were told we would be inside a huge arena type building, with air-conditioning, next to a water fall. Well, we ended up outside in a tent, along with all the other vendors. The rumor I heard was that an Arab Sheik had paid a million a day for the covered area we were all supposed to be in. No idea if it’s true, but there were definitely some unhappy vendors. I was fine with it (except for lack of air conditioning), as I knew how to do a booth in a tent, not so much without any infrastructure.
Monday was a bear of a day. They continued to build while we were setting up, and kept bringing in more gravel to fill in low spots.
Besides building the booth, we got news. As Hurricane Florence was still barreling down on us and there were definite fears of unsafe conditions, they cancelled all the week one demos. We had our 4 stallions at a local barn, another mare at a different location and one more horse to come. I think I can safely say, the people who had spent a month scrambling to get their horses qualified, spent a LOT of money on vets and drove up to 2 days to get there, were a bit disappointed. Both Sabine and Katrina confessed that they had sent ‘A rather sternly worded email” to the organizers. The film crew had decided not to come already, as the airport they would fly out of was under a hurricane watch. Sabine, Olwen and Katrina figured they would spend the night and then head back the next day.
I did some major arm-twisting and horse trading and got them VIP tickets for Wednesday and Thursday. We also got stabling for the boys at Spy Coast Farms.
Tuesday morning, everyone was all hands on to finish the booth up for the Opening.
We had loaded a bunch of the brochures, DVDs, etc into the car so we had somewhere to work. Everyone else was in the same boat – trying to set up our booths for the opening on Tuesday. It was a busy day. While we were working, the venue was still working too, putting in roads, gravel, buildings etc. I met a few of the TIEC s in a store and they were pulling allnighters trying to get the venue finished by opening.
Dean and I headed to the Opening Ceremony Tuesday night, everyone else was taking care of horses. I was rather unimpressed by the ceremony, as far as I could tell, there were no horses and not much going on. Later that night, I pleaded with Dean to go pick up Betsy Wandler from the airport 90 minutes away. Thankfully, he did that and got her back safely.
Wednesday morning at the Booth.
Things were starting to really come together. We had our basic set up figured out, had built all the Ikea bookcases, hung the lattices, figured out where to put stuff, etc. One of our biggest draws was the original sculpture, ‘Nadi’, by Monica Bretherton. It got a LOT of interest.
Here are some details of the booth:
By Wednesday afternoon we were ready! We started talking to people, handing out brochures and DVDs. We also took lots of photos of people with “Nadi”.
Several other volunteers had shown up by now, including Jas Shearer-McMahon, Yorke McGillavry and Victoria Tollman. We did have several volunteers decide not to come because of the hurricane, but there were enough people that we all got time to eat and use the restrooms. I think we were passing the VIP armband around, so everyone could get in the air-conditioning for a bit and have a fancy lunch. I will admit, the entire week flew by, not only because of the hurricane, but also because it was jam-packed!
We ended up not having the planned ATAA General Membership Meeting on Wednesday night, as we were all just too dang fried.
Thursday Morning: rainy, hot and humid.
Jas and Yorke ended up getting earlier flights out (they had planned on leaving Sunday), but were worried the hurricane would strand them. They left on Friday. I don’t recall now if the photoshoot for the boys was on Thursday or Friday…I think maybe Thursday, but not 100% sure. The boys were at Spy Coast Farms, which, by the way, is FABULOUS. The owners? of TIEC also owned (or knew the owner?) of Spy Coast, and set our horses up in splendor for at least a day or so. Dean Miller had come all the way from Florida to take photos of our demo, which of course, didn’t happen, so he took photos at Spy Coast instead. Here are a few of my favorites:
There are a bunch more of fantastic photos, but I won’t put them all here.
Friday, people started heading out, hoping to beat the weather, which was supposed to be really bad on Saturday night. In fact, we were instructed to batten down the hatches, put all delicate items up on pallets Saturday and that the entire venue would be closed on Sunday. Some of the ominous clouds on Saturday.
Saturday night, Betsy and I headed off to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Sunday, she took me to the airport to fly home. She reported that there was quite a bit of water on the floor (squeegees were very popular, btw) but she got it set back up for Monday.
I just followed the next week on Facebook, Betsy reported that the crowds did get a bit larger, but it was never what we expected. Part of the problem was that the organizers moved the food trucks that had been hanging out by the vendor booths midway through the second week, which really cut down on traffic.
All in all, it was quite the whirlwind. We did see quite a few T-shirts reading “Go with the Flo….rence. WEG 2018”. Quite apt. While this WEG wasn’t nearly as well put together as 2010s (and I thought THAT one was chaotic), they will end up with a gorgeous venue for upcoming events. We didn’t get our demo, but we did hand out thousands of AT brochures, hundreds of DVDs and talked with many, many people. One thing both Betsy and I noticed was that almost no one had NOT heard of Akhal-Tekes, and many people had come specifically to see them at the demo. Even those that weren’t quite sure just needed to be reminded about the viral video on social media “The most beautiful horse in the world”. Then they knew what Tekes were. That is a huge increase in knowledge since 2010 and a big shift in how Tekes are viewed in general by the public. Our hard work is paying off!
Here are a few photos from the 2010 WEG in Kentucky at the Kentucky Horse Park. You can read about my journey there and back again, here.
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