Vermont’s Thursday News & Notes from Devoucoux

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Consider it the Bonnaroo of eventing: a six-day, three-competition Festival in the middle of summer in the middle of nowhere. Plans for the competition include a Novice/Training long-format three-day Tuesday through Thursday, a Beginner Novice/Novice one-day horse trial on Friday, and a two-day Beginner Novice through Intermediate horse trial over the weekend.

If you’re into heatstroke and running your horse on rock-hard ground, you probably won’t like GMHA’s Festival. But if you’re into well-designed courses (Tremaine Cooper, assisted by Janine McClaine, have created up-to-level, educational tracks with new jumps and complexes at all levels) and $10,000 in prize money (whaaa?), you might want to pencil this one into your show schedule.

In addition to the eventing competition, the Festival intends to “provide a fantastic, Vermont-themed competitor and spectator experience.” The organizers have lined up several activities and welcome amenities, including competitor parties (yep, that’s plural), a trade fair featuring Vermont products as well as nationally-known equestrian and other vendors and family entertainment.

If you’re looking for something to keep the significant other busy, South Woodstock and the surrounding area offer plenty in the way of recreation (golfing, biking, hiking and climbing). Woodstock, pop. 3,232, is supposed to be pretty charming itself. Ladies Home Journal voted it “The Prettiest Small Town in America,” so there’s that, too. [US Eventing]

-On a related note, a new year-end awards program was announced today for riders competing in the state’s USEA recognized horse trials: the Vermont Eventing Challenge.
The program is sponsored by Strafford Saddlery and presented by Green Mountain Horse Association, South Woodstock, Hitching Post Farm, South Royalton and Huntington Farm, South Strafford, VT. Qualifying shows for 2012 will be Hitching Post Farm Horse Trial (May 19 – 20) GMHA’s June Horse Trials (June 2- 3), Huntington Farm Horse Trial (July 14 – 15) GMHA August Horse Trials (August 10 – 12) Huntington Farm Horse Trial (August 18 – 19) and GMHA September Horse Trials (September 15 – 16). [GMHA]

Hipster cred: National Public Radio has featured not one, but two equestrian-themed stories this week as part of its “Countdown to the Olympics” series. The first was a story Tuesday on Hiroshi Hoketsu, a 70-year-old Japanese rider who earned a spot at the London Olympics for dressage. Hoketsu was 67 when he competed at the 2008 Games in Bejiing. Japanese officials are still deciding whether they’ll let him compete. You can listen to the full story and read the transcript here.

The second story was broadcast Wednesday morning and concerned itself with air travel for horses. The story was titled “How do you ship a horse to the London Olympics? Carefully, and via FedEx.” It featured an interview with Tim Dutta, whose  international horse transport company will be flying between 50 and 60 horses to London this summer. Read/listen here.

David O’Connor has agreed to oversee the development of a new international caliber eventing course for Cedar Run Horse Park, located just west of Collingwood, two hours north of Toronto. O’Connor praised the property’s footing and terrain, describing it as “a fantastic piece of ground for horses and people.” The course will be unveiled on July 29 at the first of two Ontario Horse Trials Association events scheduled to take place at Cedar Run in 2012, ranging from Beginner to Preliminary levels. [Horse-Canada]

Competitor and patron of the equestrian arts Bruce Duchossois thinks building a horse park in Aiken is a bad idea. In a letter to the Aiken Standard, he outlined his concerns about the proposed construction of a horse park in Aiken County.

He pointed out that comparable facilities, such as the Olympic Horse Park in Atlanta and the Kentucky Horse Park, are struggling, and that the costs of maintaining such a facility would far outweigh any income that might be generated. He also noted that it would result in numerous show-date conflicts and that the park would be built too far outside Aiken to be beneficial to the city itself. 

“I feel strongly that this group should channel their efforts to promote and support the existing equine venues and respect the integrity of our equine community,” Duchoissois wrote, and encouraged readers to voice their opinions at an upcoming town hall meeting. [Aiken Standard]

HN Today: Two years ago, western rider Maegan Gossett bought herself a jumping horse, and she’s been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since. Recently, she discovered a new source of inspiration: Boyd Martin. (Not the real Boyd Martin–the one on YouTube.) [Hello, Boyd]

Best of the Blogs: Sinead Halpin’s “Find Your Limits By Passing Them (Or Hitting a Tree)”[COTH]

Top of the Tweets: From our Friends at FLAIR (@FLAIRstrips): “Don’t forget. We R doing FREE FLAIR Strip applications @ #RedHills! Check your competitor packs 4 the coupon! Good luck & safe.

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