Thursday News & Notes from SmartPak

Icabad Crane with Phillip Dutton in the irons. Photo by Barry Bornstein.

Icabad Crane with Phillip Dutton in the irons. Photo by Barry Bornstein.

It’s official, folks — America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred, AKA Icabad Crane, is now officially a Prelim horse! He made his debut at the level yesterday at Full Gallop Horse Trials, finishing in third place on his dressage score of 30. Phillip reported on his Facebook page that Icabad was the fastest horse on cross country by 36 seconds and had an absolute blast romping around the course.

This time last year, Icabad was making his eventing debut at the Beginner Novice level, which is a pretty impressive move up the levels. For a horse that ran the Preakness in 2008 and was so incredibly successful at racing, it’s unusual to be equally successful in another sport and a real testament to the OTTB breed!

U.S. Weekend Preview:

Rocking Horse Winter III H.T.  [Website] [Entry Status]

Sporting Days Farm II H.T.  [Website] [Entry Status]

Sol Events at Circle T H.T.  [Website] [Entry Status]

Twin Rivers Winter H.T.  [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times]

News From Around The Globe:

Surefire Horse Trials is teaming up with Great Meadow CIC3* to make a historic eventing weekend extravaganza! As we all know, Great Meadow is hosting its first event in many years on June 19-21 of this year in the form of a fabulous CIC3*. This is the same weekend as Surefire HT, which hosts Beginner Novice through Intermediate every year and is amazing. They are now coordinating efforts so that riders and spectators can attend both events over three days and enjoy tailgating, mimosas, cross country and the best riders in the country. What could be better? Be sure to check out the video below! [Surefire Horse Trials]

The Kentucky Horse Park has graciously opened the Alltech Arena for schooling due to the inclement weather impacting Lexington and the surrounding horse community. Schooling times are 4-7 p.m. Feb. 26, Feb. 27 and March 2-6. Cost is $20 per horse; pay by check upon arrival or credit card over the phone only. Bring health papers and negative coggins for each horse, as well as a signed liability waiver. Email Nicole Rivera at [email protected] to sign up for schooling.

Attention all Aiken Eventers! Kick off the eventing weekend at Sporting Days by attending a Young Rider benefit party this Friday 5:30 to 8:30 at Tod’s Hill. No admission, lots of food and drinks and music! There will be a raffle to benefit USEA Young Riders and Aiken Equine Rescue, and you can come right off the course walk wearing your muck boots. Grab some food and drink, and check out the raffle! [Splendid Days Splendid Nights]

If you’re a young rider competing at Sporting Days this weekend, you should think about entering the Cross Border Young Rider Challenge! There is no extra cost to enter, and you can join a team or make your own team of friends. Open to all riders under 21, and extra prizes for the taking! Email Chris Donovan for your entry. [Cross Border Challenge]

Are you in need of a working student? We’re preparing a fresh list of Working Student Listings for the upcoming season, so if you’d like us to include your position, please send a description and contact information to [email protected]. Our winter listings post was wildly successful! [Working Students Winter Listings]

Best of Blogs: The Myth of Natural Horsemanship

Surefire Eventing & Great Meadow team up for a fabulous weekend in Eventing!

logo_600x100 SmartPak