“Hold my beer.” Photo courtesy of Road Less Traveled Eventing at Penrose Farm.
Here’s a beautiful idea that you are welcome to steal: My barn has been doing a weekly Adult Amateur Happy Hour each Tuesday headlined by two of my favorite pastimes — jumping horses and sipping adult beverages among friends. The evening kicks off with a discount-rate group lesson with our trainer, typically focused on an exercise or two that is scalable for a variety of levels, followed by some tack room socializing and potluck-style snacks.
Adult amateur riders are an integral demographic in our sport and work just as hard or harder than anyone to juggle jobs, families and riding. (Lest we forget, we have an adult-amateur as our reigning USEF CCI4*-L Eventing National Champion!) There are lots of ways we can lift one another up, from USEA initiatives like Worth the Trust Educational and Sports Psychology Scholarships to helping create an environment of support and camaraderie among ammy-adults in your own eventing community. Of course, holding one’s beer while they tackle a gridline is also always appreciated.
Go adult amateurs. Go Eventing!
National Holiday: National Take a Wild Guess Day
Weekend Results:
Ocala CCI & H.T. [Results]
Twin Rivers CCI & H.T. [Results]
Plantation Field H.T. [Results]
FENCE H.T. [Results]
Your Monday News & Notes:
The FEI Sports Forum takes place April 15-16 at FEI Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Topics slated to be discussed include gender equality; an update on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, including climate mitigation planning; eventing risk management sanctions and measures; and an all-day forum on the future of endurance. The entire Forum will be streamed live and also be available to watch again on fei.org, following the end of each session. [FEI Sports Forum 2019]
The USEA’s Jessica Duffy has done a super job covering California’s Twin Rivers CCI & H.T. over the weekend. With 476 entries spread across 34 divisions there’s been plenty of action to follow, and we’re glad our friends at the USEA are giving West Coast eventing the love that it deserves. (On a related note … if you know any aspiring West Coast-based eventing journalists, please send them EN’s way!) [USEA Twin Rivers coverage]
Need some jump school exercise inspiration? Horse & Hound has your hookup with this exercise by five-star eventer Sarah Bullimore designed to help develop balance, rhythm and the ability to land on the correct canter lead. [#SundaySchool: Sarah Bullimore’s figure-of-eight jumping exercise]
We love seeing eventers giving back to the greater equestrian community. Jess Halliday’s JH Eventing in Sutton, Massachusetts, will be running raffles at its 2019 series of schooling horse shows to benefit different charitable organizations. Its upcoming May 5 show will benefit Detroit Horse Power, an organization that aims to bring the magic of horses in children’s lives to inner city kids who would not otherwise have these opportunities. Other causes they hope to benefit this season include the Buck Off Cancer Foundation and Canine Cancer Foundation. Anyone can participate in the raffles, and item donations are also welcome. [JH Eventing]
Hot on Horse Nation: Duct Tape: The 8th Wonder of the Horse World
Just in on Jumper Nation: Perfectly Pricked Pony Ears, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products
Featured video: David Frechette à la The Horse Pesterer has posted several videos from Ocala CCI & H.T. over the weekend, like this one of Open Prelim winners Liz Halliday-Sharp and Gorse Hill Cooley. (Liz also won and placed second in the CCI3*-L Pan American Games qualifier with Flash Cooley and Cooley Quicksilver respectively, and picked up a few other ribbons with other horses as well. Busy gal!)
