Meanwhile during Defender Kentucky weekend, there was one other international event running: Ireland’s Ballindenisk International 1. The feature class, the NutriScience CCI4*L, was won by British 24-year-old StormStraker with Fever Pitch. Also riding in this division was what could very well be this year’s Japanese Olympic team in Ryuzo Kitajima (who finished second), Yoshiaki Oiwa, and Kazuma Tomoto. Plus, Great Britain’s Mollie Summerland and new-to-the-level Flow 7 rounded out the podium.
You can check out the results from all the divisions here and visit the Irish Eventing Times Facebook page for lots of great photos.
Events Opening Today:Kent Horse Trials, Horse Park of New Jersey H.T. I, Seneca Valley Pony Club H.T., Full Gallop Farm June H.T., Silverwood Farm Spring H.T., Shepherd Ranch Pony Club H.T. I, Aspen Farm H.T
Events Closing Today: Hitching Post Farm H.T., Hunt Club Farms H.T., The Vista Spring YEH/NEH Qualifier, Bouckaert Equestrian H.T., Otter Creek Spring H.T., Spokane Sport Horse Spring H.T., Spring Gulch H.T.
Tuesday News & Notes from Around the World:
Eventers aren’t the only ones who obsess about footing. Not by a long shot (I know a couple footing snobs from an assortment of other disciplines, in fact) but you can add Thoroughbred horse racers to the list, too. In fact, there’s a whole lab in Kentucky called the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, a non-profit company, dedicated to keeping racetrack surfaces consistent and making them safer for horses. They’re in the process of establishing federal standards for racetrack safety. As they test surfaces they also collect a boatload of data which have helped to inform researchers about how track surfaces affect Thoroughbred bone health and longevity.
We all make a lot of joke about dressage being, ugh, the worst. But in the next breath anyone who’s worth their salt as an event rider will also sing it’s praises and knows exactly how it all plays into the fun jumping phases. That said, you don’t aways have to be practicing your twenty meter circles inside the sandbox — you should be working on your flatwork out in the field too. That’s called … you guessed it … fieldwork. Here’s a guide on fieldwork from Olympian Phyllis Dawson to get you started.
HorseHubby.com is back with a refreshed website and Mr. Horse Hubby himself, Timothy Harfield, husband of five-star eventer Elisa Wallace, has published a helpful blog post to guide future horse hubbies on how to survive their first horse show. Send this to your new beau.
Sponsor Corner: Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent tackled the Defender Kentucky Three Day Event and came out on top. Read all the details in this report sponsored by Kentucky Performance Products.
Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Watch This: While Doug Payne ultimately withdrew Quantum Leap from the holding box at the second horse inspection, we can still re-live their ride across country from Doug’s point of view! Check out his helmet cam recapping the big complexes on this year’s Defender Kentucky cross country course:
