Rain and rain and rain and.....

So - when they say that typhoons bring a ton of rain - they really aren't kidding. We (Emma Ford, Phillip's groom) woke up this morning to a note under our door to say there was a level 3 warning. OK - so that means it is going to rain - by the time the riders got to the barn at 6:30 it was upgraded to a level 8. Level 8 means that the stock market is closed, the government offices are closed, no school, etc. Off the riders ran back to the athletes' village before the shuttles stopped. The grooms spent the morning watching the sky POUR water over Hong Kong - I think that is why the city is so clean. We didn't dare venture out of the barns, and the horses weren't allowed out of the stable area. The morning was quiet - we read our books, polished some brass, brushed our horses, drank some coffee and had some naps - could have been worse!
The riders did venture back around 1:30 to clearing(ish) sky and got on for a bit of flat work before the next squall came through. They went ahead with the jumping under the lights in the main ring as planned. The US really lucked out - we again got a window of time where we didn't get completely drenched. The horses went really well in the ring - all are feeling really confident!
We had a great gallop yesterday - there was a bit of cloud cover and a breeze, so the horses pulled up remarkably well. The much agonized over poor air quality has been unseen so far - there is humidity - but little pollution.
The riders get to see the cross country tomorrow for the first time - all reports are that is is an amazing course - Michael Etherington-Smith is the designer who also does the course at Rolex - so no surprise that it's well designed! We do hear that it is quite twisty - we'll see what the riders have to say tomorrow. The grooms are going up to Beas River (where the x-c is) tomorrow as well to get the lay of the land before we have to ship there on Sunday afternoon.
Tomorrow brings dressage lessons in the AM and time in the main ring with the dressage ring and judges' stands all set up tomorrow night.
sleep for now -
Sorry for the lack of photos - we have been told we are not allowed to post photos until after the games are done - for security purposes... sorry!
more soon.