Near the top of the list of things that lose you points at the Pony Club Championships
A packed week of eventing begins today with the start of the United States Pony Club National Championships, held at the Kentucky Horse Park from today until Friday. I was never allowed in Pony Club mainly because of their oppressive ‘no shirt, no shoes, no riding’ policy. If I had been allowed into Pony Club I’m sure I would have looked forward to competing at Nationals. 1,000 Pony Clubbers will descend upon Lexington for show jumping, dressage, mounted games, quiz, tetrathlon, polocross, and eventing. The eventing competition is a USEA recognized event in 4 levels (BN, N, T, P) that will use the same cross-country courses as Champagne Run Horse Trials last weekend. The Pony Club Festival will continue throughout the weekend and into next week.
There are 221 riders entered in the eventing competition with 56 teams, each with a stable manager. Each rider had to complete 2 horse trials to qualify within the last 11 months; one with no XC penalties and one with not more than 20 XC penalties, as well as attend a qualifying Pony Club rally with horse management judges and no parents in the barn. The riders have to present their horse for a jog up for all disciplines and the vet box at the end of cross country is included at all levels.
The eventing jog starts at 2:30pm ET this afternoon. Dressage is Wednesday, followed by cross-country on Thursday, and show jumping on Friday. Horses in the Morning from the Horse Radio Network will be broadcasting live from the Championships this morning from 9am to 10:30am ET, and the local NBC affiliate will be broadcasting live from 5:30am to 7:00am on Tuesday, July 26th. This link has much more information and a link to the HRN show: [PC Championship Schedule, Links, and Information] There is also supposed to be live online video broadcasts of various events here.
Now for what some might call your news and notes…
–It’s The Event at Rebecca Farm week. If you hadn’t noticed, we are required by law to call it “The Event at Rebecca Farm” every time we mention it. Fortunately, we don’t follow laws very often here at EN, so you will hear me call it “Rebecca Farm” for most of the weekend and just “Farm” for short. In all seriousness, it’s an event that absolutely every loves and I am very disappointed that I won’t make it this year. Samantha is in Montana now and she will have on-scene coverage throughout the weekend. Besides, I enjoy Samantha’s live event coverage considerably more than my own. 19 horses are making the flight out to Montana this morning from BWI airport, and we’ll have more on that shortly.
–As a few numbers related to Rebecca Farm: the event is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, a record 503 competitors are entered, over 20,000 spectators are expected over the 4 days, and $60,000 in prize money is up for winning. Prize money is paid in rolls of $20’s.
–If you missed part 1 of Samantha’s exclusive interview with Alec Lochore on Monday, skip the rest of these news and notes and go read it a few posts down. Be sure to check back in later today for part 2.
–For all of the Canadian show jumping enthusiasts in our audience, Jump Canada has named their long list for the Pan American Games show jumping team [COTH]
–According to one local New York news report, an estimated 18,000 spectators came out to Stuart last weekend. I would link to said news report, but that is literally all it says. The article is three paragraphs long–I hope they are paying by the word. Seriously, this note about the article is longer than the article. Fine, I’ll link to it. [Link]
–One of the best show jumpers in the world from a few years ago retired on Sunday. Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum retired the amazing Shutterfly at the CHIO Aachen after he won the Warsteiner Prize last Wednesday. The 18 year old rocket ship most notably won bronze at the 2006 WEGs and according to H&H Shutterfly hasn’t been to a prize ceremony in 9 years because he is so spooky about crowds and loud noises. I’d bet he won’t ever have to look at anything but green grass for the rest of his years–happy retirement Shutterfly! [Horse and Hound]
–The intro photo for this post is from Germany, where a horse escaped and rampaged through the streets, causing much mayhem for several hours. The horse was later caught and returned to his thankful owner. [Daily Mail via Weird Horse News]
—Best of the Blogs: The west coast Pony Club horses arrive in Lexington
–Honorable Mention: Prelim success for Golightly
–As one last Pony Club Championship/Festival note, Jim from FLAIR will be on scene next Monday to Wednesday to give talks on horse respiratory health.
–Your bonus photo today is a one-part strange two-parts awesome prize from the Powder Basin Horse Trials two weekends ago. As you probably have already guessed, Power Basin is held in Wyoming–in the center of rodeo land. The beginner novice, novice, training, and prelim winners all get a commemorative belt buckle to wear at parties and job interviews for the rest of their lives. On a semi-related not, someone recently sent Leslie a custom EN belt buckle for selling her horse through Sport Horse Nation. I’m not nearly cool enough to wear belt buckles, but if I was I would definitely want a Powder Basin buckle.
Lastly, here’s a shout-out to Lucy and Bouncer who finished as top adult amateur for the open training at Stuart. Bounce won top Irish Draft Horse:
That’s all for now. Wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. I’m out like three-strikes. Stay classy Eventing Nation. Boom goes the dynamite.
