The Bluegrass is Kind of Brown ...

It was pretty brown out there... (Nan Rawlins/Equimage®)

I've been enjoying the Driving competition - the competition but not the grass. It's too bad there's been so little rain in this part of the USA.  The beautiful region of Kentucky known as The Bluegrass is not very blue, or green for that matter. The grass is kind of yellow, brittle, and - well - almost dead.  It doesn't photograph well.  The light bounces off the yellow grass, creating a color cast in the photography.  It tends to fool the eye too.  Makes you thin you have a color cast in your photography when you don't.

The Bluegrass was green at this same time last year...(©2009 Equimage®)

Lots of spectators and no rain equals brown and dead... (©Nan Rawlins/Equimage®)

There's a whole lotta yellow going on out there... You can really tell where the galloping lanes are.  (©Nan Rawlins/Equimage®)

Eventing Cross-country was hard on the park. The tens of thousands of spectators trampled down the grass into a flat mat of dead sod.  It's so sad.  It's not we spectator's fault - its mother nature's. A couple of good rains in the week or two prior to The Games would have fixed things right up.  The Bluegrass would be is green again. I figure they'll have to re-seed and re-sod major parts of the is park after this competition is over. Otherwise winter will leave it looking like a muddy parking lot.

The driving venue (©Nan Rawlins/Equimage®)