Carolina Barraquer was the Ride Manager of this event, based at the La Pradera Country Club. Carolina is a 4th level Dressage rider, with an eye on the 2010 WEG, but is volunteering an amazing amount of time and energy to the Endurance program. She is a member of the Endurance committee, and seems to be a major driving force - the details - behind the effort to be successful at FEI endurance. She works and trains at La Pradera and lives in the mountains to the East of the club, so knows the trails, knows the area, and this is her ride.

The venue facilities are perfect - stables, patios, office, water, electricity, and a very cooperative club. And the trails from the club are beautiful, but tough. Lots of hills, a fair amount of dirt/rock road - but plenty of scenery. Typical of the organization behind most of the rides, this was to be a chance for us to observe, suggest, comment, etc, with an eye towards FEI.

It seems that they don't have very far to go. There wasn't a huge group of riders, so it was fairly easy on timers and staff, but everything went very slowly. There was a minor issue with a rider getting off trail, but after many opinions were offered as to the right thing to do, Diego went and retrived their rule book and the solution became very clear. Just the right thing to do. The trail was pretty tough and the ride times were slow, but most of the riders finished, and the horses came through in good shape.

We spent the day watching riders come and go, and also going out on the trail to see the conditions and get some photos. Daniel was our gracious driver, taking us wherever we wanted to go. We were blessed with a gorgeous sunny day, it was beautiful out there. Fun to see the riders working the hills, making time when footing allowed, and traversing the countryside.

There was one water crossing which was causing some concern - the river was high from all the rain, and it was fast. Daniel managed to get us to the crossing just in time to see Mauricio Gauna and his son Martin taking the crossing - nice and easy, no problem. This section of trail is part of the Camino Real - the famous trail which was used for centuries to transport goods and people across the country. A nice touch of history.

The ride ended just at dark as the last of the 80km riders finished. Everybody gathered in the club house, enjoying their beer, enjoying each other's company, and celebrating the day with a raucous awards ceremony. Nice awards, lots of cheering, and Carolina appeared to come through the day in fine shape.