Monday News & Notes from Fleeceworks

I sincerely hope anyone who made the early migration down to Florida packed their rain boots — or better yet possesses carpentry skills to build an ark. Ocala has been inundated with torrential rain over the past few days. The National Weather Service confirmed that Ocala set a rainfall record for the date on Saturday with 3.44 inches falling. The total rainfall since Friday evening racked up to 5.44 inches, with one area in western Marion County recording 7.1 inches.

It’s been a challenging year from a precipitation standpoint throughout the U.S. and across the pond. Please join me in a global rain dance in the hopes that 2019 will bring much drier weather and far fewer event abandonments.

National Holiday: National Maple Syrup Day 🥞

Name That Movie: “I happen to know everything there is to know about maple syrup. I love maple syrup. I love it on pancakes; I love it on pizza. I love to take maple syrup and put a little bit in my hair when I’ve had a rough week.”

Your Monday News & Notes:

Fair Hill International is seeking a new executive director in Elkton, Maryland. The Fair Hill eventing calendar goes from April to October, but the work goes on all year. The Executive Director reports to the Executive Committee of the Board, serves as the public face of FHI and assists the committees to do their work. [Job Description]

Applications are now open for the Retired Racehorse Project’s 2019 Thoroughbred Makeover, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America. Now in its fifth year at the Kentucky Horse Park, the Thoroughbred Makeover features competition in 10 disciplines for recently retired Thoroughbreds with less than 10 months of retraining for a second career. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 15, 2019, and accepted trainers will be announced on Feb. 1, 2019. [TB Makeover]

This is your friendly reminder that all USEF members must complete SafeSport training by Jan. 1, 2019. To complete the training, log in to your USEF member dashboard at USEF.org and click the “SafeSport Training” icon. You need to register on the U.S. Center for SafeSport website prior to signing in. Recommended web browsers include Google Chrome and Firefox. (I used Chrome and had no issues.) [SafeSport Training]

Grand Oaks Horse Trials has adjusted the January 18-20 horse trials in Weirsdale, Florida, to a one-day format. Preliminary and Modified will run on Friday, Jan. 18. Open Training, Open Novice and Open Beginner Novice will run on Saturday, Jan. 20. Training Horse, Training Rider, Novice Horse, Novice Rider, Beginner Novice Horse and Beginner Novice Rider will run on Sunday, Jan. 21. [USEA Omnibus]

Monday Video: It’s Olympia week! Who’s excited?