Brenna's International Games Exchange Experience

Brenna Donegan shares her experience doing international games!

Hello, my name is Brenna Donegan and I am grateful to Genesee Valley Pony Club, Western New York Region, United States Pony Club and to my family and friends for their love, support, and financial contribution to my USPC 2010 Games Exchange. I had an amazing time. I enjoyed getting to know my teammates Addie, Emily, Julia and Laurie. We had a great time together. Our coach Jo Emblin was awesome. She was more than just a coach; she was a supportive friend as well. Our chaperone Andrea Cone was wonderful. She took great care of us and she was like a second mom to me. Andrea and Jo were a great team guiding us and helping us throughout the tour as well as over the months leading up to the tour.
Sunday July 25 I took a plane to Maryland for training camp. My teammates and I stayed at the Cone family home. Our chaperone Andrea Cone and our Coach Jo Emblin took great care of us. Training camp took place on July 26, 27 and 28. We went to Nationals in Virginia to Lane Judge and do some more fund raising July 29, and 30 and headed back to the Cone’s on July 31st to pack and prepare for our tour.
We headed out on Sunday, August 1st...We were on our way!


Day 1...Heathrow Airport in London...We met up with the teams from Great Britain and Australia, and about 5 hours later the Canadians arrived. We travelled to our first host family about 3 hours away. We all stayed in big tents, it was a lot of fun.


Day 2...We visited Dunster Castle, which was really pretty. We took a long hike and saw an amazing view of the countryside.


Day 3...We wet to the North Devon County Show. All of the international teams were scrambled on to teams with each other for some friendly competitions to help everyone get to know each other and to have fun...and it was fun.


Day 4...We went to Butlins Amusement Park and had a lot of fun. We also visited a village called Minehead and took a trail ride on the Exmoor Moors. It was beautiful.


Day 5...We took a nice hike at the Valley of the Rocks. We had some time at Woolacoombe Beach, it was so beautiful. We visited the villages of Linton and Lynmouth and we had fish and chips for dinner.


Day 6...We packed up, Thanked our hosts and headed on our way to Kent.


Day 7...We spent time with our new host families and settled in. At this home I was paired up with a girl named Amber Williams from Great Britain. She was very nice and energetic. She was also the first person that I had met at the Heathrow airport the first day. We all enjoyed a barbecue together in the evening.


Day 8...We visited Greenwich Park, the site of the Equestrian Olympic Games for 2012. We met the manager and toured the grounds. It was amazing. We walked the tunnel under the Thames River to the Isle of the Dogs.


Day 9...We visited London for the day. We saw the Kings Troop,(Royal Artillery) and the Royal Mews, and we had tea at the Ginning’s Hotel. It was really wonderful.


Day 10 and on…We travelled to Warwickshire and settled in with our new host family…For the third leg of the tour I stayed with Addie Thornley from our USA team, Lauren Slater from Australia and Stephanie Strome from Canada. We all got along very well. Our Host Mom managed a riding center and rode horses for a living. She took us on a trail ride one of the days, it was awesome.

We had our competition on the last day. The team from Great Britain took first place overall, it was their day! It was their first time playing games together as a team which I found to be very impressive! The team from Australia placed second and our team was close behind them with third overall… just two points behind. The Canadian team took forth over-all.


That night we all got dressed up and had dinner together and said our good-byes. I am grateful for the time that I spent on the 2010 USPC Games Tour. It was an amazing experience. I made great friends and I have great memories that will last a lifetime.

Sincerely,
Brenna Donegan