The beautiful main barn at The Fork
I don’t throw this word around much, but the only way to describe the weather today at The Fork in Norwood, North Carolina is ‘splendiferous.’ Cloudless skies and a warm sun welcomed the arrival of the competitors, the US and Canadian training sessions, and the first horse inspections.
The Canadian training sessions were canceled yesterday in Ocala due to tornado warnings, so the fighting maple leafs were making up lost time today. Mark taught on one side of the huge main arena and David on the other side throughout the afternoon.
Between the wind, military planes and helicopters sporadically flying overhead, and shotguns popping in the distance, some of the horses were a little wound up this afternoon. Arthur and Exponential both looked a bit tense, but much calmer by the end of their rides.
The jog was held behind the barns at a secret jog strip I didn’t know about until today. The strip was quite firm and sloped, but I think the Sunday morning jog will be held at the more forgiving main jog strip.
The lonely jog
The cool thing about The Fork is that it is much much more than an equestrian center. Sure, the facility is the wonderful home base of Canadian Rebecca Howard’s program, but it is also a top notch shotgun sporting clay facility, a conservation center, and a farm. They held a sporting clay competition today and then the shooters mingled with the riders at a wine and cheese party. I’m told more damage was done to the wine than the cheese.
A look from inside one of the clay pigeon shooting spots
At the end of the day, I took a quick walk around the cross-country course with Emily Daily of the USEA. Josh Walker is staying home for the weekend, so we will miss his videos greatly, but Emily will have great photos and coverage for the USEA all weekend long. Samantha will be along with XC photos on her blog and here at EN tomorrow morning.
Dressage starts tomorrow at 8:30am. Go eventing.
