A warm breeze ruffles the banners hanging above the grandstand as the sun begins to spread its pink and or 4. "I know you want to get that last jump in."
Five minutes later a tractor takes the 5. ring, raking the dirt stirred up by the horses. Another tractor carries the jumps for the first class, handy work 6. ing hunters.
Spectators slowly file in. Officials take their seats. And at 8 a.m. the 7. public address system announces the start of a new day.
ange glow over the silent stables and carousel. The last remnants of the previous days' activities - crumbled cups and napkins - overflow the garbage cans throughout the grounds.
It is 5 a.m. Tuesday and the Devon Horse Show is waking up. It is barely light.
Five people stand in the Dixon Oval, the main ring, rubbing their eyes and yawning as they watch their horses trot around them in circles. The silence is broken by the kissing sounds they make at the horses, the horses' trotting steps and the chirping of birds.
Rob Hansen, 18, a Pinkerton guard from Darby, has just finished his rounds and is headed back to the guard booth. "I could hear whips cracking at 4:30 (a.m.) in the Gold Ring, but I couldn't see them from here," he says. Hansen, whose job is "to make sure nothing goes wrong" in the fairgrounds at night, says equestrians like to get an early start while the air is cool.
Heather DeYoung of Miller Stables in Ontario, Canada, who got up at 4:30, is feeding a hackney pony. "We got up when our boss made us get up. You've heard of 'Ebenezer.' "
With a laugh she looks at her boss, Duane Miller, and says she got up early only because "he's so cute."
As the name of the show implies, horses come first at Devon and human needs can wait. "We won't eat until around nine-ish, but once we get everything done, we'll take the afternoon off," says DeYoung's co-worker, Brian Errico. Miller Stables' ponies will not show until the evening.
About 5:25, Debbie Pappas, 23, of Bedford, N.H., opens her eyes in a special sleeping stall. Her sleeping arrangement is "really nice 'cause it's easy to just roll out of bed and take care of the horses," she says. She walks from stall to stall with a hose, filling the horses' water buckets.
By 5:30 a.m., Charlie Weaver has reached the Gold Ring and is exercising a thoroughbred named Without a Doubt. "The early bird catches the worm," he says. With 1,600 horses participating in the nine-day show, which ended last night, competition for space is keen.
