After completing dressage and show jumping on Saturday, the Pine Top preliminary and intermediate competitors will head out on the cross-country today. An added advantage of running the cross-country on two separate days is that the first horse will start at 9am and the last horse will finish before 4pm–meaning that early morning and late afternoon shadows will not be as much of a factor. Rebecca Howard, Doug Payne, Mara Depuy (formerly Dean), Clark Montgomery, Arden Wildasin, and Arianna Almeida are all leading intermediate divisions going into the XC. The Intermediate-2 division is a duel at the top between two Canadian team mates–Rebecca and Jessica.
Jan Byyny and Why Not made a successful return to Pine Top on Saturday and were 4th after the dressage and show jumping. Will Faudree withdrew Pawlow after the dressage, and that was the plan all along.
Udonna show jumped clear and sits in 17th going into the XC. This will be Udonna’s first intermediate XC course, so, as much as possible, the emphasis will be on getting a nice steady trip out of the enthusiastic mare–we all know she has the jump. The Udonna story is still on the Chronicle homepage from Friday. If you read it, you will realize that tracking down and discovering that kind of great story is why the Chronicle wins so many Pegasus awards.
Now for a few quick links:
Controversy over Adelinde Cornelissen’s bloody mouth WEG elimination
Horse racing in Illinois is on the verge of extinction
The BLM has halted the roundups
Horse owners need to be wary of mud
Stubben North America acquired Courbette
Local horses praised at Pentathlon
In other news, my favorite text on Saturday came from Jon Holling: “I have a serious complaint about your recent post…I don’t believe u even know what a chinchilla is.” That’s ridiculous Jon, everyone knows that chinchillas are small furry amphibious birds.
Speaking of amphibian birds, Annie mentioned this last week, but Willow Run Farm is hosting a jumping derby on St. Patricks Day (March 17th) in Ocala. There will be two levels–training and prelim with lots of cool prizes and food. For the three eventers out there who plan on being sober on St. Patrick’s Day, it sounds like a fun time. [More Info]
That’s all for now. Good luck to the Pine Top competitors and thanks to the volunteers for coming back for a second day of cross-country. Go eventing.