Sinead’s Tuesday Morning Reader from Pennfield

Good morning Eventing Nation!  Tuesday is the day before Wednesday which is the day that Jersey Fresh starts which is 5 days before summer officially begins at the Eventing Nation corporate headquarters, which means margaritas on the beach for the chinchillas.  Here are a few quick eventing notes to tide you over until it’s time for sunglasses and sunscreen: 

–The legions of Eventing Nation mobilized on Monday and surged Sinead to the top of the USOC athlete of the month voting.  When we posted a link to the voting Sinead was tied with softballer Raven Chavanne for 31% of the vote and we voted her up to 50% of the vote.  I know from chatting with folks at the USEF that sometimes it’s hard to get our eventers noticed by the USOC so hopefully we raised a few eyebrows at the USOC office with all the votes for Sinead.  [Poll Results]

–There are a staggering 8 USEA events this weekend–Jersey, Winona, Galway, Plantation, Jubilee, Mill Creek, Kent School, and Full Gallop.  Off the top of my head I believe that is 6 different USEA areas in action.

–Jersey Fresh has 12 horses entered in the CIC3*, many of which are trying to qualify for the CCI3* at Bromont, and Jersey has 17 horses entered in the CCI3*.  [Jersey entries]

–The Horse and Hound has announced that Mark Todd will be competing in the next Express Eventing Series qualifier in June.  Express Eventing hasn’t worked that well in the past and I’m not sure why they keep trying to make it work.  Express eventing addresses several of the spectator issues that eventing faces by letting everyone watch the entire competition from their seat and all at one time, but the format is way too much like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.  Cross-country jumps are supposed to be jumped at speed as part of a galloping course, and trying to do otherwise is just dangerous.  [Horse and Hound]

–Danny Warrington wrote an interesting and opinionated blog for the PRO blog on Monday.  He started off with a great point that is often forgotten–the optimum time is optimum, not mandatory, and it should never be a reason for someone to push their horse too fast.  Danny also describes that he is very satisfied with his purchase of a shipping pony to help his horses that don’t like standing in the trailer.  But after these thoughts, Danny gets to the important stuff with one of the more open public discussions of the issue I have seen from a rider.  I’ll just quote the entire paragraph:

“I think this about the Dutton / O’Connor race. It is the Democrats and Republicans. You can decide who is who. I think with David as the coach did so well with a young team of Canadians because they have team spirit. No doubt he did an amazing job! I think he will run into a bit of trouble here in the U.S. where we have a three party system; we have team O’Conner, team Dutton, as well as team Buck! I love them all but………… truth be told it is a three party system. I do know this, David will have a much tougher time running this team then he did Team Canada, there is no doubt that this country has the talent to win medals, let’s hope that the U.S can combine the best of all its teams and united we can develop one team that has one goal! To take THE BEST HORSES AND RIDERS TO THE GAMES. Let’s become the United States Eventing Team!! Not the divided states. Good luck David!“

[PRO blog]

–It may be Tuesday, but blog posts and articles are still coming out from a great last weekend of eventing and even the weekend before that.  Diana De Rosa has a good article in the Examiner about the Heart of the Carolinas Three-Day, including interviews with the riders, and a shout out to the events impressive sponsor–Nikon.  [Examiner.com]

–One of my favorite blogs, Golightly Sport Horses, kindly kills two birds with one stone and recaps Saturday at Difficult Run Pony Club HT and Sunday at MCTA.  [Golightly]

—The Straight Up blog thinks Princess Haya is The Carrot