Friday News & Notes from SmartPak

I have always been a top fashionista.

You’re 100% welcome for this little gem of a throwback to me as a kid, posing in my backyard with one of my horses. This horse belonged to a family friend and came to retire to our farm, but still hacked out a bit. His name was Riemenschneider, or Remo for short, which was a name given to him by his highly intellectual owner. This horse let me climb up his legs and wrangle myself onto him bareback in the field, and then when I felt like he was walking too fast, I would pretend to fall off by leaning off the side, and he would halt. What a literal magical unicorn.

National Holiday: Faux Fur Friday

News From Around the Globe:

We are deeply saddened to report the sudden passing of Kyra King Stuart. A longtime supporter of the sport of Eventing, Kyra founded the Stuart Horse Trials in 1990 and served as organizer from that point until 2005. She was elected President of the USEA in 2005 and served for two years. During her time as president she worked hard to save the classic long format, grew the USEA American Eventing Championships and Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series, fostered the USEA Young Event Horse Series, and helped develop the USEA Future Event Horse Series. [Kyra King Stuart: 1939-2018]

The FEI is working hard to ensure increased fairness in dressage judging for the future. In consideration of the increased cognitive demands on judges, studies were conducted on all the factors that can negatively influence perceptual cognitive consistency. Given that judging will always include human subjectivity, rules and regulations that improve judging capacity can always be improved upon, and these studies are integral to the future of dressage. [FEI Takes Steps to Make Dressage Judging More Fair]

Looking for an adorable Christmas themed pony book that everyone in the family can enjoy? Look no further than Fergus and The Night Before Christmas, which can be rightfully described as enjoyable for ages 5-95. Good thing for you, we have the top team at Horse Nation giving a proper book review. [Fergus & The Night Before Christmas]

Be still, my heart: