Late night links

Tipperary:  I have become increasingly convinced that the US team made a very reasonable decision to keep “Paddy” on the team when the definite entries were named over the weekend.  Word is that the cellulitis first appeared on Paddy’s leg in the middle of last week.  Obviously everyone took the situation very seriously; multiple scans were taken of the leg which revealed no problems and Paddy never took a lame step last week or through the weekend despite the swelling.  It’s worth noting that Paddy has a reputation for being one of the soundest US horses.  The team was able to get the swelling down so Paddy was included on the US definite entries as the deadline to change those entries came and passed–again, from what I hear, at this point he had never taken an unsound step and nearly 10 scans from multiple vets had revealed no injury.  Then, inexplicably, the cellulitis got worse on Tuesday morning and the rest is history.  I feel terrible for Kim, Paddy, and also the US alternates who are left wondering what might have been, but sometimes good decisions don’t work out due to bad luck and horses are certainly good at teaching us that lesson.
Picks: I promised to make my WEG picks and I have my handy-dandy blindfold, dart board and, entries list so there is no point in delaying further.  In my mind, Germany, Great Britain, USA, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia are in a different class than the rest of the countries in the sense that anything but a WEG medal will be a disappointment.  All the other countries will likely be happy with a weekend that qualifies them for London 2012.
1. USA
2. Great Britain
3. Canada
Canada is obviously a dark horse pick, but I have been writing about them as a dark horse since well before Rolex so I don’t see any reason to abandon them now.  Germany really scares me, but the nature of having so many quality countries is that some of them are going to be left off the podium.  If the Games were being held in Europe I would probably have Great Britain winning and Germany in the top three–I think home field advantage makes a big psychological difference.
My individual pick to win the World Equestrian Games is Phillip and Woodburn.  This is based in large part on the fact that Woodburn has been going extremely well for Phillip in the training sessions and I have a feeling that the XC time is going to be really tough to make on Saturday.  If Woodburn is ever going to win a four-star, this is the weekend to do it.
Names: As a final thought before I get to the links, I want to thank everyone for some great comments over the past few days.  I know we have said this before but we have picked up some new readers over the past few weeks–if you leave a comment please do not leave the ‘name’ section of the comment form blank as it gets confusing if too many people post under anonymous.  Use your area code, a random sting of numbers, a color, the phrase “John stinks,” or anything you like but please don’t leave it blank.  

Go eventing.
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