The above picture is of a brand new tophat that is also a helmet, or a helmet that is also a tophat, whichever you prefer. They are made by the Dutch company L’Hiver and apparently meet all safety standards. They are so new that there aren’t photos of people riding in them yet. Samantha has the story and more photos on her blog. [Samantha’s blog]
Now for your quick news and notes…
–Speaking of helmets (nice transition huh?) don’t forget to enter our wear-your-helmet photo contest. Entries close Sunday.
–The Galway CIC3* is this weekend in beautiful Temecula, California. The first horse inspection is scheduled for this afternoon and dressage starts on Friday with the CIC show jumping Friday afternoon. Galway is a marquee event on the west coast, and many top horses will be there from novice to CIC3*, including several Rolex entrants such as Jumbo’s Jake, The Alchemyst, and My Sedona. The weather is expected to be in the 40’s and rainy…oh wait, that’s the weather for where I am going to be instead. [Weather, Times/Scores]
–Speaking of Galway, the US and Canadian training sessions are being held at Galway Tuesday and Wednesday. Chelan is on scene and will be sending us reports of all the Galway goings-on this weekend. We’ll have more weekend event previews in tomorrow’s news and notes.
–As is usually the case with natural disasters, the horses in Japan are suffering along with the people. But, things are starting to look up thanks to support from veterinarians, horse lovers, and the racing industry. According to reports, racing has even resumed in the western part of the country. [TheHorse.com]
–Max Corcoran writes about all things Camp O’Connor in her latest blog entry. Mandiba to Badminton, Quin to Rolex, new horses, and Lauren Kieffer back to riding…it’s a busy time around OCET. [Max’s blog]
—The genius puppetry behind War Horse [via LA]
–In a study of British farrier trainees, researchers found that the trainees tended to have difficulty giving balance to the hooves and that there was a correlation between the imbalance and whether the farriers were right or left handed:
“Right-handed farriers tended to over-trim the inner (medial) wall of the left forelimb and the outer (lateral) wall of right fore. They were more likely to trim for mediolateral balance on the right forelimb. Left-handed farriers tended to do the opposite.“
Hopefully the study will help alert trainees to their tendency for imbalance depending on which hand they are, which should allow them to correct the imbalance sooner. [Horsetalk]
—Best of the Blogs: A Katie Prudent training session report from Katherine Erickson
This is how I feel right now:
That’s all for now. Stay tuned throughout the day for your eventing news and ridiculousness. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.
