Eventing Competition Coverage: February 2010 Archives

This write-up is being posted so late because advanced division finished XC at 5:00 this evening.  The weather in Georgia this afternoon was mild; the sun was warm and the wind was cold.

Pine Top (GA): Homepage, Times/Scores, Weather

(1) From what I heard, the advanced division was moved to late in the afternoon because of concerns about morning shadows on some of the jumps.  There are two sides to every story, and I have not heard the organizer's perspective, but many of the riders said that the afternoon shadows and setting sun caused issues on the course anyhow.  

Ashley Adams and Vaunted in the shadows

(2) If you watched the live scores throughout the day, I'm sure you noticed a lot of issues.  According to the scoring, there were 12 rider falls, and I know of 4 horse falls, and 3 trips to the hospital for riders.  I'm not sure if that count is exact, but there were a lot of issues, especially in the prelim and advanced.  

--Jan  Bynny took a spill in the prelim before I arrived and got a ride to the hospital.  The word around the barns is a broken wrist, some ribs, and a concussion.  Note: when I say 'word around the barns' I think we all know what I mean, but don't take it as hard fact. 

(3) Rebecca Howard and Roquefort flipped over a pretty vertical gate fence about 70 feet from where I was sitting with everyone else.  Roquefort walked away, and Rebecca was put into an ambulance.  Again, the 'word around the barns' is a couple of broken ribs, collar bone, and a punctured lung.  When you're standing by something like that, your first reaction is to run over and help, and then when you see enough people are already there, all you want to do is sit down.  Fortunately, Jan and Rebecca are both super athletes and should make a speedy recovery.

(4) Karen had a fall in the prelim, suffered a mild concussion, and decided not to run her later horses, including Mandiba.  Karen is one of the toughest people in eventing, and I know she will be back on Mandiba well in time to accomplish their Spring goals.

(5) Ok, my apologies for all that bad news, this was obviously an uncharacteristically rough XC day, but the good news is that, to my knowledge, all the horses were fine.

(6) Boyd and Remington XXV had an extremely impressive trip around the advanced because they were held twice for long periods due to rider falls and still delivered a great round.  Ashley Adams was also held for a long time and handled it great.

(7) Of the four A-listed horses at the event, Will and Twizzel looked polished around the intermediate, Boyd and Neville took it easy around the intermediate (I think we all know Boyd can make the time with Neville whenever he wants), Woodburn looked calm, cool, and collected around the advanced, and Tru Luck withdrew.  

(8) For the B-listed horses, a few withdrew due to rider injuries, and the only B-list starters were Will Faudree and Sinead Halpin.

(9) Of the A and B listers, I guess I was most impressed with how focused and listening Woodburn looked.  When Woodburn pays attention to Phillip, nothing will stop them on the XC.  

Woodburn

(10) Steph Rhodes-Bosch and Port Authority were the only advanced pair at Pine Top to finish the weekend on their dressage score, and had the best looking Canadian XC round, in my opinion.  Michele Mueller also had a great weekend for the Canadians, winning her division.

(11) One rider's nervous mom sent me an email asking for an update on her daughter, which I was happy to provide.  I only mention this to point out that if anyone (especially a nervous mom) has special requests for updates at events that you know I am covering, please shoot me an email and I will do whatever I can to oblige.  I always feel like parents have the toughest time at feeling the nerves, far tougher than riders.  My kids are going to play soccer.

(12) While I am thinking about live coverage, it reminds me that we have gotten multiple requests to bring back the live blogs.  Please know that we have every intention of doing so, but we just didn't want to wear out the format over the winter.  Also, an afternoon of live blogging leaves me exhausted, whereas sitting around watching XC and chatting with everyone is my idea of a good time.

(13) Several big name horses from the past few years had a good weekend.  The Foreman beat his stable-mate and A-listed Woodburn.  Courageous Comet won in the advanced, and Tipperary Liadhnan won in the intermediate, and Norther Spy coasted around the intermediate.

(14) Course designer John Williams posted two clean rounds in the advanced on Carrick and Sweepea Dean.

(15) If you send me a text that says "haha, we just beat you guys in overtime," yes, I will reply with something like "super, what's your GDP eh?"

(16) The Pine Top announcer (I wish I knew who it was) did a great job keeping things fun/interesting, and, most of all, thanked the volunteers multiple times.

-Update: Chris was kind enough to post that the announcer was Nicho Meredith on our FB wall.-

(17) As we have mentioned EN guest writer Holly Hudspeth sat out the weekend due to an injured wrist, but Boyd did a fantastic job catch-riding Cold Harbor and Stewie, making an incredibly hard task look easy.

(18) The inflatable safety vests seem to be catching on faster than I would have expected due to their expense.  I probably saw 40 of the inflatable vests, and maybe 20% of the advanced riders were using them.

(19) Fleceworks Mystere Du Val continued his winning ways, posting the lowest advanced score of the weekend.

(20) As a brief note, Amy Tryon and Leyland were entered at Twin Rivers, according to StartBox as of Thursday night, but they were not shown in the competition scores, probably meaning that they withdrew prior to the competition.

Until our N&N sometime Monday morning, go eventing.

I have no idea why, but I am heading over to Pine Top to watch the intermediate and advanced XC, instead of staying home and watching the rematch of the decade.  Advanced wraps up around 5 and, until my report later this eventing, check out live scores below.  

Pine Top (GA): Homepage, Times/Scores, Weather

Twin Rivers (CA): Homepage, Times/Scores, Weather

Texas Rose (TX): Homepage, Live Scores, Weather

The road to the World Equestrian Games really gets underway this weekend.

--5/6 A-Listed horses are competing over the next couple of days, with Neville and Twizzel in the Pine Top OI, Woodburn and Tru Luck in the Pine Top advanced, and Leyland in the Twin Rivers advanced.  

--7/14 B-Listed horses are entered this weekend, meaning that 60% of the A&B lists are competing.  Seriously, have a glance at the Pine Top entries, that event is absolutely stacked.

--Delivering a strong XC round will set the table for great Spring, but a shaky start to the season will raise a lot of questions with the selectors and will really crank up the pressure for the next events, which will only get harder.

--Canada has multiple team hopefuls including Diana Burnett on Wild T'Mater, Steph Rhodes-Bosch on Port Authority, and Rebecca Howard on Roquefort entered in the Pine Top advanced.

--Many other big name non-listed horses begin their Spring campaign this weekend, including Northern Spy, Courageous Comet, Nicki Henley, Tipperary Liadnhnan, The Foreman, Fleeceworks Mystere Du Val, UN, and Buckingham Place.

--Eventing Nation guest writer Holly Hudspeth is sitting out this weekend after losing a fight with a ladder.  Holly should be back in action next week, and Boyd gets the ride on Last Monarch this weekend and he will surely give Stewie a great trip.  

Paradise Farm HT: Scores, Paradise lived up to its name today with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70's (Fahrenheit).  In the JYOP, Arden Wildasin and Tally Awesme Bosco won on their dressage score of 34.6.  PD won the OP-A on Havannah's Orphan Annie, Will Coleman won OP-B on Ringwood Mircrest, and Joelle Bankerville took home gold on Malibu in the PR.  Hopefully we will see more of Phillip and Will at the Aiken training sessions this week.

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As a quick mea culpa/correction from yesterday, I was 2 months off when I wrote that WF had one victory in the last 12 months.  Proving that eventers can be detail oriented, one of our commenters pointed out that he had two training level victories in April of last year, thus making it 1 win in the past 10 months.  I apologize to our readers who are wondering "why is John spending a paragraph over a tiny mistake on a joke that wasn't funny?" but I want to make sure we are always accurate to the highest possible degree.  Anyhow I think everyone got the point, which was meant to be lighthearted.  Will and Antigua were one of the best teams in America for an impressively long time, and they were always a favorite for me to watch.  Will is leading the Intermediate at Rocking Horse going into the XC today on Pawlow.

Congratulations to Shaun White for destroying the competition last night and taking home Gold for the USA.  Watching Shaun win reminded me that the complete domination he has shown for so many years in snowboarding is nearly impossible in eventing.  When Shaun shows up at a competition, everyone else knows they are going to lose, even to Shaun's b-game.  

But in eventing, the horse component adds a much higher element of risk.  When I say risk, I mean statistical deviation of results due to chance (think luck).  The point is that horses get abcesses, they get hot nails, they strain tendons, sometimes they don't feel like jumping, sometimes they jump one inch lower than they need to, sometimes they get startled by the crowd, top owners decide they can't afford a horse any more, etc.  None of these things happen completely randomly, but they are much more out of a rider's control than say training 8 hours a day to deliver a perfect half-pipe round.  For Shaun White, he has incredible talent and when he mixes that talent with hard work he is a sure bet to win.  To rephrase my point, one of the most frustrating things about riding for me is that while there is a strong correlation between hard work and achievement, this correlation is lower than most other sports.  

The good news is that due to Shaun's win and several other strong performances last night, the USA now leads the medal count by 4 over Germany.  As British soccer football fans chant when they play the German national team: if you won the Great War, stand up.

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If you are one of our three readers who never looks at comments, please check out yesterday's tag-line post, which has gotten a great response.  It seems like (5) is getting the most love, although I have to agree with Lisa that (7) made me laugh really hard.  

Also, it seems that our spike in FB friend requests is due, at least in part, to Dana D. who told me that she sent out a bunch of "friend suggestions" to try to spread the word about EN. Also, Lauren was kind enough to tag us in her status which also probably helped.  I get friend requests on my phone, and when I woke up this morning the entire front page of my messages was filled with requests.  Thanks guys for helping more people to learn about EN!

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Oh yeah, and there are a couple of events this weekend:

Rocking Horse Winter III HT: Homepage, Weather, Ride Times, Live Scores

The first Advanced horse trials of the season was a one-day at Rocking Horse, in Ocala, FL on Tuesday.  Bruce Davidson and beautiful Cruise Lion finished on a 51.9 to win the A-A division.  Surprisingly, Erika Peterson and Under the Influence were not entered today.  In the A-B division, Buck won with Ballynoecastle RM on 37.3 and Kyle Carter finished second on Madison Park.  Peter Atkins and HJ Hampton won the speed award as the only Advanced pair with zero time penalties on XC, and they also were the only team to finish on their dressage score.  Surprisingly, Criticial Decision, Jam, Rock on Rose, and Titanium all had troubles on XC.  

Southern Pines H.T. II (NC), Poplar Place Farm March H.T. (GA)

*Open January 26, 2009, Closing Feb 23, 2010, and Happening Around March 12, 2010 

*Opening Feb 9, 2010 and Closing Mar 9, 2010, and Happening Around Mar 25, 2010
Corona del Sol H.T. (TX)
Morven Park H.T. (VA)
Pine Top Spring H.T. (GA)
Galway Downs CIC3* & HT (CA)

Sunday Night Pine Top Update: In Pine Top, Kate Hicks and Belmont II won OI-B.  EN guest writer Holly Hudspeth and Last Monarch had a great weekend, finishing in second on their dressage score of 33.6.  USEA writer and another Rolex hopeful, Ashley Adams had a tough SJ with 5 rails, but a double clear XC.  Sinead Halpin continues to show the benefits of her time with WFP and won the OI-A on 34.8.  John Williams finished both Carrick and Sweepea Dean in the top 4.  The OI-B division had 3 A-List horses entered (Tru Luck, Neville Bardos, and Woodburn.  Both Neville and Woodburn withdrew after the SJ, and Tru Luck finished in 8th with 8 XC time penalties.  Courageous Comet, Inmidair, Remington 25, and UN all also finished in the OI-B.  Kerry Torry and Beantown Player led wire to wire in the IR.  Full Scores

Pine Top (GA): Times/Live Scores, Homepage, *Weather, Thomson GA

Aiken Update: About three to four inches of snow fell on Friday in Aiken, but the snow has since melted.

Snowy Aiken Saturday

Ocala Update: At the Florida Horse Park, Olympians Karen O'Connor and Mandiba led wire to wire and won the OI-B despite taking their time with 8.8 XC time penalties.  Leslie Law and Fleeceworks Mystere Du Val won the OI-A, finishing on their dressage of 25.2.  In the IR, Devon Brown and Dynamic Image won on their dressage score of 30.8, and Ashley Kehoe placed second on a 48 with Mazetto and fourth on Magic Man. 

Full Gallop Farm February HT (Feb. 10th): Results 

Ram Tap HT (CA): Homepage, Results

Alex Livengood, competing in Open Intermediate with her grey gelding, Past Due, definitely had the most stylin' warm-weather gear. (left)

Flash and Zeus take Doreen for a walk.  They remembered to dress in layers, and they color-coordinated too! (below)

Jet is warm enough inside, thank you very much. (left)

My mom stopped by with our dog, Joey, who is very camera shy.  Her big red coat is the same one she wore on her trip to Antarctica.  She still wimped out and went home early. (right)

Play Locate Leslie at Pine Top in Thomson, GA this Valentine's Day weekend!  Walk up to as many people as you can and say "Visiting Eventing Nation improves my dressage scores."  If you find me I'll answer, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and you'll be an automatic Fan of the Day!

At Poplar Place, the intermediate and prelim cross country rode pretty slow with a lot of riders taking their time, with the footing on the hilly course described as deep, wet, and frozen.  Poplar Place's resident trainer Werner Geven and Tommy Two won the intermediate after moving from third to first with 8 time penalties.  3 out of 8 starters did not complete the intermediate XC, and two of the finishers had over 20 time penalties.  Overnight leader Becky Holder did not finish due to a rider fall, but we hear that both horse and rider are fine.  In the open intermediate/prelim, Elizabeth Barron and The Graduate needed all of their 16 point lead to stay ahead of Imogen de lavis and Brisco Bay, who posted the only double clear of the division.  Abigail Lee and No Questions won the open prelim with just two time penalties, finishing on 37.8.

At sporting days, Ashley Adams scored an impressive 31.6 on Vaunted in the advanced combined test.  Everyone has undoubtedly noticed Ashley's name coming up lately because she has been doing some work for the HRN and EventingUSA.  Interestingly, Ashley scored .4 higher with a 32 after the dressage in the intermediate combined test.  Erin Renfroe and DeCordova won the intermediate/prelim with a double clear and finished on a 29.6.  Sarah Cousins and Maggie Sharp won prelim A & prelim B respectively.

Poplar Place February HT: *Scores, Homepage, Weather, Location, Ride Times

Sporting Days HT: *Scores, Homepage, Ride Times, Aiken SC, Weather

Notes: The AIken eventing season really begins this week.  From now until the end of spring there will be an event within an hour of Aiken basically every single weekend, which is one reason eventers like Aiken so much.  The Sporting Days entry list has some good names on it, including Boyd, Jan, Tara Ziegler, Molly Bull, Jennie, and former *two time Olympian Julie Richards.  Bonus points to anyone who can name *both Olympics.  

Recap: The eventing season really kicked off this weekend, with three significant event. Kristen Bond on Are You Ready, Peter Atkins on HJ Hampton, and Heather Morris on Slate River all won Intermediate divisions, and Che Mr. Wiseguy won a Training division at Rocking Horse.  Alexader Slusher and Last Call won the Intermediate in Cali.  Links to scores are below.