It’s a bittersweet Wednesday morning around Eventing Nation as Stephen Bradley’s fabulous event horse Brandenburg’s Joshua has been officially retired from upper level competition. Josh hasn’t competed since the WEG selection trials at the American Eventing Championships last year and Stephen, along with Josh’s owner, Mr. William Lowe, came to the decision together.
When Josh was competing he was always one of the best horses in the US and indeed the world. In his three appearances at Rolex (2006, 2008 and 2009), Josh placed 3rd, 4th and 10th, respectively. Stephen and Josh were also on the Gold Medal winning team at the 2003 Pan-American Games. Josh could win all three phases and frequently did. Although I haven’t checked the records, I would guess the list of horses who have been top 10 at Rolex three times is incredibly small.
Josh’s newest venture will be skipping around lower-level events with Charlotte Harris, owner of From and In The Fog. Stephen said of the retirement: “While Josh has been one of my favorite competition partners of my career, I felt I owed it to him to retire him while he was still sound, happy and ready to keep working. Joshua is the most polite horse that I’ve ever ridden. He’s a true gentleman, and it will be nice to see him out and about with Charlotte.”
Stephen is truly a class act and I’m thankful to have been able to cheer for such a nice horse ridden by such a nice rider for so long. Congrats on a great career Josh from all of us at Eventing Nation.
As a completely random aside, some EN readers might have noticed a discrepancy in the title. Somehow “Brandenburg’s Joshua‘s Wednesday Reader from Horse Quencher” just didn’t have the same ring to it, so I left off the traditional possessive from this morning’s news and notes title. Which brings me to the news and notes…
–Some people in London are concerned about large groups of people converging on Greenwich Park for the Olympics and the impact on the local community. So, naturally, they plan to gather in a large group and converge on the test event next week in protest. [Horse and Hound]
–Annie posted a wonderful video of Silva Martin and Sea Lord yesterday. Check out more great videos from the PVDA Ride for Life Dancing Horse Challenge at [Golightly Sport Horses]
–It’s O’Connor Event Team camp this week which means lots of mayhem for everyone at OCET including Annie. Annie will likely have a report on camp sometime this week. Don’t forget the sunscreen Annie, we’re all thinking of you from the air conditioned EN compound.
–Mogie Bearden-Muller is hosting a summer eventing lecture series at her farm, Foxhill Eventing, in Maryland, starting July 6th. $5 of every $25 fee is going to Boyd’s fire relief fund. Topic is Walking Courses for Competition, and how to set lines for schooling at home. Mogie is a USEF “r” course designer, an advanced rider, A Pony Clubber, and USEA ICP Level III instructor. It sounds like a fun chance to learn something and support a good cause. Learn more at [Boyd’s blog]
–There are a few fun blogs for your reading pleasure this morning.
Ellie MacPhail writes about the seemingly never ending frustrations and revisions of planning that happen in eventing [Ellie’s blog].
Suzanne from ‘The Confessions of an AA Eventer’ blog starts her post with one of my favorite lines from a blog ever: “Groton House Farms Horse Trials completed Sunday… I did not. ” [Confessions] I know the feeling Suzanne.
Holly Ratcliff writes that riding cross-country in Ireland is not for the faint of heart [Shoes, shoes, and shoes…and horses].
From Regarding Horses, the most important thing to do for your horse when you leave for a few days tis to give them lots of treats [RH]
Last, but certainly not least, part 2 of horse shopping from [Horse Junkies]
–In a very sad and tragic story from Eurodressage, Australian Hayley Baresford’s 12 year old Olympic horse Relampago de Retiro was euthanized in Germany following a trailering accident. The trailer was 200 meters from home when a car pulled in front of it, causing the driver to swerve and overturning the trailer. To make the story even more heartbreaking, Hayley told Eurodressage that her breast cancer had returned earlier this month. All of us from Eventing Nation are thinking and praying for Hayley and her family today. [Eurodressage]
–I think the secret is out about Sport Horse Nation, so to speak. We have been getting a ton of ads submitted recently. Frankly, I have even been surprised by the success stories that I have heard from friends who have posted ads. Over 10% of the people who post ads write us back to tell us they sold their horse through SHN, and people I have spoken to usually get between 5 and 10 calls in the first day, although there are likely some people who get less. SHN’s success is due to the fact we have a lot of great horses posted each week and the wonderful job Leslie does managing the site.
—Best of the Blogs: The SmartPak blog examines if there is any relief from equine allergies
–I was going to Youtube search for ‘talking animals and their strange owners videoing them,’ but Coren has that pretty well covered lately. Instead, I’ll post this photo from Andrea Blair, sent to us by Robynn Zimmer and also posted on HJU I believe. The photo is from Topline Stables Horse Trials in Salmon Arm, BC, and I don’t think there’s much more to add than that.
–And, after second thought, here’s a bonus video of Stephen and Josh at Rolex in ’08:
–Welcome to hump day Wednesday Eventing Nation, the weekend is just around the corner. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. See you soon.
