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Go eventing.
Rebecca Howard is one of my favorite riders because she treats eventing like a true sport and focuses on the psychological, nutritional, cross-training aspects as well as her riding. With a win in the Jersey CIC2*, Rebecca and Roquefort are on the fast track to the Pan Ams for Canada. Rebecca was kind enough to send us a few quick thoughts on what Bromont means to Canadian eventing as well as a shout out to Omega Alpha, who sponsors both Rebecca and Eventing Nation.
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Rebecca and Rocky winning the CIC2* at Jersey
From Rebecca:
As a Canadian kid from the west coas, Bromont was the first “big east coast event” that was in my conscience. It was a competition that I knew some day I wanted to ride in. Over the years I tried to get a horse here a few times, but the stars did not align until last year.
For us Canucks riding at intermediate and above, we do not often get to compete in our own country. It was not always the case, but currently Bromont is the only CCI at any level we have and, with the CCI3*, Quebec gives us the only advanced course currently in the country.
So this weekend feels special for a few reasons. Not only is it great to be back to the homeland with my horses, it is great to compete at such an exceptional event. The facilities, courses, footing (and poutien!!) provides such a top class week end for our sport.
Over 150 horses entered Bromont this year and one of the big reasons is that Derek Di Grazia designs wonderful cross-country courses for the event.
I have Roquefort (Rocky) with me this trip for the 2* and I am really excited for Bromont #2!…. Aller concours complet!
My horses have been using Omega Alpha products for almost 2 years now. The Gastra FX is my favorite product. It goes in my horses feed and also syringe to them before rides and long trips, such as the 18 hours to Bromont! My horses literally attack the syringe because it tastes good. I like it because it really helps to coat and keep their tummy’s happy through the stress of competing and traveling.
Update: what is poutine?
Today already has the makings of a busy day here at the Bromont three-day. The rings are packed with horses and coaches, the wash racks are busy with grooms cooling horses off, and the great crew here at Bromont is busy making a final few preparations for the start of the event. It’s hot and muggy, with highs predicted to reach 90 Fahrenheit, 32 Local. The weather is expected to cool dramatically for the weekend with light showers Saturday and Sunday.
But, there’s a lot of fun stuff going on around Eventing Nation today, including Mary King’s 50th birthday. We would like to wish Mary a very happy birthday from all of us at Eventing Nation. Mary is celebrating today sailing with her family in Coratia, and in a H&H interview she hinted that she wants to keep riding through the Rio 2016 Olympics. The Horse and Hound has put together a nice birthday tribute for Mary:
Go eventing.
The Bromont sign Tuesday evening
After a long and arduous journey that would make a Greek mythical hero proud, we have arrived in Bromont. The barns were bustling with arriving trailers, hand walking, a few late evening rides, and workers putting up the FEI barn fence. I suppose we can always say this on a Tuesday evening, but this weekend has all the promise of a fabulous three-day. Better yet, Samantha is arriving tomorrow, so we can look forward to her wonderful reports and interviews throughout the weekend.
The competitors briefing is at 12:00pm Wednesday, and the jog is at 3:00pm, starting with the CCI*.
And, because I get yelled at by competitors if we don’t post such things…
Coren will be along shortly with news and notes and until then, go eventing.
Tiana Coudray and the lovely Ringwood Magister are making their second trip overseas in their young career together, this time to compete in the Luhmuhlen CIC3*, June 15th to 19th. Tiana has kindly offered to keep Eventing Nation posted on their travels and the competition. For more information on Tiana and her program, please visit her website. Thanks for writing this Tiana and thank you for reading.
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Tiana and Finian finishing 6th at the Boekelo CCI3* last year
From Tiana:
As I write we’re sitting in the JFK airport watching the horses getting loaded on the plane and waiting to board so we can go join them. Kelly, who’s grooming for Jennie Brannigan’s Cambalda, and Nat who’s grooming for Will Faudree’s Pawlow and Andromaque are providing great comic relief and helping the many tedious hours of bureaucratic you know what pass a little quicker.
Kelly and I left from True Prospect Farm at 3:00 this morning with Ping and Finian, on our first leg of the trip to Luhmuhlen, Germany. We arrived at JFK at 9:00 where we joined up with Nat, Will, and their two horses. After weighing and tagging all the gear and sending it off on a truck, we sat around until 2:00 exhausting every form of time passing that we could.
After loading the horses up on another truck we said good bye to Will and headed off to the main terminal to check in ourselves. After a 10 hour flight we’ll land in Amsterdam, go through the same bureaucratic you know what to get through customs there, and then be on our way, by truck, for a 6 hour drive to the event. Once we arrive we’ll have a week to rest up before competition starts next Wednesday.
Here’s to hoping for a simple and non eventful trip.
More news from Germany.
After publishing a couple of recent ‘welcome to eventing’ posts, we have received quite a few emails with photos and paragraphs about someone’s or some horse’s introduction to eventing. Here at Eventing Nation, we’re all about converting kids (and adults) from soccer, bull fighting, hunter/jumpers, sky diving, and all of the other less cool sports out there. So, although some things can seem like disproportionately good ideas after hours driving through Canadian roads, I think a new weekly EN series is in order to go along with the profiles and ears photos. Please send a photo and a brief story of your first event, your child’s first event, your horse’s first event, or conversion to eventing to [email protected]. If cute ponies are involved, I like your chances. I may or may not have spoken with Annie about this, but I know what she wants today more than anything is a flood of emails in her inbox. Let’s make it happen Eventing Nation. The official first post in the series comes from Colleen.
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From Colleen:
I thought that I would show off my lovely TB gelding displaying his love of eventing! Although he has yet to actually compete in an event, he’s been xc schooling and was a dream, so look out Area II! His name is Healing Hearts Moose because he was adopted from Healing Hearts Equine Rescue here in NC. He was plucked out of a field in Raeford in ’09 and came to be with me though a lucky (for me) turn of events. Look for him later this year making his debut under USEA rules. Go Eventing!
It’s ‘goodbye New Bolton, hello home’ for Min
There is very good news from Pennsylvania as Neville and Minotaure du Passoir are being released from the New Bolton Equine Hospital today. This means that four of the five surviving horses have been released from the hospital in the first week which is truly miraculous. Caitlin Silliman’s Catch A Star has been showing signs of colic off and on so she will stay for continued observation.
Boyd told the Chronicle that the New Bolton vets are shocked by Neville’s recovery–that’s one tough horse. The rarity of dealing with smoke inhalation cases makes a full prognosis and pace of recovery hard to gauge for the horses, but being released so soon is a great sign. Ambassador’s Rose, who was released last Wednesday, has returned to work, but Neville, Min, and Otis will be on stall rest for the next few weeks to keep them from breathing heavily.
Go eventing.
This is part 17 of Jenny’s adventure as a working student and EN guest blogger. Jenny has ambitiously decided to spend the next year as a working student in Lexington, Kentucky. Thanks very much as always for writing this Jenny and thank you for reading.
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Molson, Jenny, and her sister Natalie
From Jenny:
Hello Eventing Nation!
Well it’s busy a crazy few weeks here at CEO, and I am finally finding some time to sit down and write about them! Two weeks ago we welcomed our first foal of the year, a perfectly stunning chestnut colt with four white stockings and a star/stripe. He is by Contucci and out of a big and beautiful warmblood mare of Megan’s. The day he was born was an excellent day filled with wonderful jump schools, the addition of an exciting new young horse, the addition of some new clients (that just happen to be from UConn!!), eating like kings, and all day we were joking it was because we started the day off right with bacon for breakfast (I’m actually a vegetarian so I just watched Andrea and Megan enjoy their bacon while I ate my Lucky Charms). Therefore, when our little colt was born at 9:30 that night and completed the perfect day, it was unanimous that the baby should be called Bacon! A show name has yet to be determined, but our little redhead has already lived up to his barn name, as he is quite the piggy and LOVES eating!
While Andrea held down the fort at home, Megan and I took a few horses and clients up to Greater Dayton HT in Ohio. The whole weekend was a great experience, with the best people. We were lucky to be put in the permanent stabling and have a whole aisle for just Team CEO, so it was a very fun time! I was impressed with how laid back and relaxed Molson was, from hacking on Friday when we first got there, until the end on Sunday. He really seemed to mature throughout the weekend, and is beginning to understand his full job. He was the most supple he has ever been at a show for dressage, and put in a stellar test to receive a 34. We then had an amazing stadium warm up, even with a loose horse galloping at us at one fence! The stadium ring at Dayton is between a large judge’s stand and the tent stabling, so unfortunately my silly spooky horse lost all concentration once in the ring. I can’t blame him for he did try his best, and we had a good round with one rail, only because I completely messed up the turn to jump 3 and didn’t give him enough time to pick up his feet. I was somewhat disappointed in myself because it was a silly mistake that I shouldn’t have made, and I really wanted to prove ourselves after the silly stop in SJ at Spring Bay, but that is life! Sunday was XC and yet another learning experience for both Molson and I. The first jump was the most awkward jump I have ever experienced on Molson, as he decided to leave a whole two strides early and send me hailing a cab in the back seat. I definitely did not plan to get that much airtime over the tiny first log, but after that I was on a mission to WIN my battles with him and not let him take fliers just because the jumps were so small. This has been an ongoing battle between us, as I like to ‘compromise’ with my mounts, when really I need to be the boss, especially if I want to move up the levels. So, after establishing a pecking order after the first fence, the rest of the course ran pretty smoothly. We ended coming in with more than plenty of enough time to spare. Unfortunately, we were 8 seconds too fast to win the tie for 2nd, but were happy to end the weekend in third! Overall I was very proud of my boy, especially for how enthusiastic he was to jump everything on the course, never backing off or wiggling.
Next up was May Daze, which I have been looking forward to for months now not only because it is at the KHP, but because my family came to visit and watch for the weekend! I’m not sure if Molson could sense the excitement in me the whole weekend because I finally got to see my family for the first time since Christmas, but he sure was excited the entire weekend as well–and let everyone in the park know it! I was a little weary about how dressage would go since the rings were held in what normally are the show jumping rings, which Molson tends to get pretty hyped up in. However, he was completely relaxed and lovely in warm up. Then came show time, and while we trotted around the ring waiting for the bell, Molson decided that screaming his big heart out for the whole world to hear was what we were there to do. He also found the rocks that held down the corners of the rings to be quite terrifying, and as we spooked (almost) into the judge’s car (before the test started), the judge poked her little head out and said “Dear, the rodeo is across the road.” Trying to just laugh off his silliness, I look up and sure enough there are a bunch of cowboys warming up their rodeo mounts in the rings across the road. I knew right then it was going to be an interesting test to say the least. Despite what happened before the bell rang, when we entered the ring Molson put in a good test. Now that does not mean he wasn’t screaming the ENTIRE time we were in the arena, but at least while he was exercising his vocal cords, he was also completely on the bit and as attentive as one can be while belting out notes that I didn’t even knew existed at the top of his lungs. All joking aside, I was very embarrassed by Molson’s rather loud performance, but the judge seemed to have sympathized and still gave us a 31. Next we did XC, and since the last weekend I had gone too fast and ended up costing us the tie for second, I figured I would demand Molson’s respect for my half halts and practice taking it slower and coming in closer to optimum time. With that attitude, I had the best XC ride to date, winning every single battle for every take off spot before every fence. However, I made yet another silly mistake when I looked down at my watch and seemed to think I was still too early to be close to optimum time, so I circled to eat up some time. Unfortunately, math was not my best subject in school, and I miscalculated, getting a bunch of time penalties! Never did I think we would get time penalties at novice, especially since I am usually worried about speed faults! After feeling quite stupid about circling when I shouldn’t have, I went into stadium on a mission to go double clear. We sorted out our control issues in warm up, and ended up having a great double clear round! Overall I was thrilled with Moo. We had a huge breakthrough with who exactly was driving the ship (who knew it was supposed to be me all this time!?), and if it weren’t for my silly lapse of judgment to circle in XC, we would have come in second! After the event, the courses were open to school, so Megan had us go around the training course as if it were a competition, so that we could practice before our training debut at Midsouth. That was the most fun I have ever had with Molson, and it made me so excited for the move up! He jumped the entire course so easily and we never argued. The bigger the jumps, the happier he is and the more he respects them and me. He did both waters flawlessly, never thought twice about doing the skinny angled brushes anything but perfectly, and eagerly jumped through the coffin. The weekend ended a perfect one, and I was so happy to be able to have my family there for support.
Now it is back to the real world, as we attempt to continue our daily schedules in the sweltering heat. Is it bad that I’m already wishing it were winter again?
Until next time!
xo, Jenny
Will, Pawlow, and Andromaque having a morning graze on the little bit of grass they can find at JFK
Today at 6pm, an airplane with 4 very special passengers will leave from the JFK Airport in New York and head for Amsterdam. That plane will take Will Faudree’s Pawlow and Andromaque, Tiana Coudray’s Ringwood Magister, and Jennie Brannigan’s Cambalda to Europe for the Luhmuhlen CIC3* and CCI4* June 15th to 19th. Pawlow “Ernie” and Andromaque “Missie” started their journey from North Carolina yesterday and they are currently resting at the JFK quarantine. Ringwood Magister “Finian” and Cambalda “Ping” left True Prospect Farm at 3am this morning and should be arriving at JFK shortly. Once they land in Amsterdam, the horses will ship to Luhmuhlen, Germany. Nat wrote about her trip to JFK yesterday in her latest COTH blog.
Finian and Andromaque will compete in the CIC3*, and Jennie will ride Ping in the 4* along with Will and Ernie. Jennie will be staying at True Prospect Farm until Wednesday to help hold down the fort there while Phillip is in Bromont and then she will join Tiana, Will, and the rest of the team in Germany on Thursday. I spoke with Jennie and she sounded very determined and confident. It has obviously been a tough and distracting week for Jennie along with everyone at TPF, but Boyd gave Jennie his helmet cover for the Luhmuhlen XC and she said that that gave her a lot of encouragement.
It’s worth pointing out that Andromaque and Ringwood Magister were both part of the successful team silver medal CCI3* Boekelo trip to Holland last year. They finished with clean rounds there and hopefully the traveling and competition experience will serve them well in Germany. Tiana was busy packing Monday afternoon, but I spoke with her just briefly enough to confirm that she will be sending us updates throughout her trip to Luhmuhlen.
After what will hopefully be a successful competition at Luhmuhlen, Will Faudree’s horses will stay in Europe through Burghley in September. I spoke with Will Monday afternoon about his plans for Luhmuhlen and beyond.
Following Luhmuhlen, Pawlow and Andromaque will ship to England with British based US rider Julian Stiller while Will returns briefly to the US to bring two more of his horses to Europe. Will plans to ship his two younger horses DHI Color Candy and Riesling DeBussy over to England, giving him four horses to campaign through Burghley. DHI Color Candy will compete in the Olympic test event at Greenwich Park (July 4-6). Riesling DeBussy plans to compete at the Barbury horse trials (July 7-10) in the British novice division. From there, the two horses will do a three-day at Hartpury. Pawlow and Andromaque will stay active and competing at events through July and August and both of them will hopefully compete in the Burghley CCI4* September 1st to 4th.
Will’s 3 month, 4 horse trip to England is unprecedented in its size and scope. Two good runs at Luhmuhlen and Burghley will put Will in perfect position to make the London 2012 squad on either Pawlow or Andromaque. Nat will travel back and forth to the states along with the working students to help maintain their program back home. As Will told me, such a journey is only possible with his incredible support team of groom/manager Nat VC and his working students back home, as well as his extraordinarily supportive owner, Jennifer Mosing. Will said: “I feel very blessed and fortunate, this is a huge testament to Nat, our team, and Jennifer Mosing.”
Jennie, Will, and Tiana are all going to be representing the US internationally for a long time and it will be exciting to follow their next step towards their goals at Luhmuhlen. I want to wish all of the horses, riders, and support team members a very safe and relaxing trip to Luhmuhlen. We are all very proud of what you have and will achieve and we’re all rooting for you–no pressure, right?
By the way, some day someone is going to have to answer why every single eventing flight from the US to Europe lands in Amsterdam, but that’s a question for another time. Go Luhmuhlen. #Luhmuhlen
Only one thing left to load
4:20am Holland, Michigan: I am convinced that every barn looks the same at 4am. There’s something about the sound and smell of a barn through that still half asleep daze that never fails to get me excited for the day to come and yet also makes ask myself “I could be in bed right now, why am I doing this?” I will never be a morning person.
This year’s trip to Bromont began at the beautiful Great Lakes Equestrian Center in Holland, Michigan. Erika Treis Petersen and her husband Dave have kindly allowed me to hitch a ride with them for the 760 mile, 12+ hour trip. Last year, I left from Virginia and drove the 12am to 6am shift through upstate New York, so I consider myself lucky to be traveling by day.
One anxiety whenever going to Canada is the horses’ paperwork–coggins, passport, health certificate–because, as nice as Canadians are, they will turn you away at the border if things are not in order. I let people smarter than me worry about that and I just hide all of the massive amounts of produce I am bringing into Canada, because for some reason they always ask about that. “No sir, I do not have an apple tree in my suitcase…this time.”
I was guaranteed by Verizon that my wireless internet card would work just fine in Canada. But, if you think about it, that’s only slightly better than being guaranteed by Sprint, which is only slightly better than being guaranteed by AT&T. So we’re not starting with much. The moral of the story is that I’ll be around throughout the day as much as possible, but no promises until we arrive at Bromont.
Last year, I provided photos, updates, and poetry recitals throughout the trip to Canada and I will try to update this post once or twice during the journey today. Until next time, stay classy Eventing Nation.
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8:05am Border Crossing, Port Huron, Michigan: Passport–check, apple tree–check, why we are coming to Canada–check. Literally the road is so bumpy that I can barely type this, much less drive the truck and trailer at the same time. Joking. Next up is 8 hours of southern Canada countryside.
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11:56am Oshawa, Ontario: Well the good news is that my wireless card works in Canada. The bad news is that it means I get to spend the day doing exactly what I would if I was at home. It’s amazing how similar Canada looks to the US when I’m working on the computer. My cell phone is thus far a complete epic fail–thank you Sprint, so sorry if you have been trying to call Mom, all is well. I’m pretty sure we just passed a canoe museum. 6 hours to go, God willing.
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4:08pm Somewhere north of New York and south of the North Pole: The good news is that we found a McDonald’s. The very good news is that they had something called the ‘double Big Mac’ which is exactly what it sounds like. The country side is endless and beautiful. Chinchillas getting restless in their cage. Back to emails.
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4:43pm Somewhere in Quebec: One observation I haven’t made is that it is hot in Canada–88 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact. I haven’t seen a weather forecast for the weekend, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this warm. It feels like I am back home in VA.
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6:05pm Montreal: I wish my camera was working because then I could take a picture of all the backs of cars sitting stopped in front of us on the highway. Montreal traffic is less than ideal at rush hour. Things are moving more smoothly now and we are an hour from Bromont!
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7:15pm Success! We have arrived at beautiful Bromont. I have this feeling that I get after long drives where I both want to sleep and run a marathon. Instead, I think I’ll see who is here.
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Go Bromont.
As I wrote this morning, the Horse World Gives Back radiothon starts at 6:00pm ET tonight and will run until 9:00pm. The radiothon will raise money for the equestrian victims of the recent floods and tornadoes that have struck the US. Money raised will be given to the US Equine DIsaster Relief Fund and the Red Cross. Click the link below to listen in to the radiothon and please consider supporting the great cause.
Go eventing.
Quinn Himself
The stories of generosity, strength, kinship, and recovery continue to pour out of True Prospect. This afternoon, I’m very happy to tell several of those stories to Eventing Nation.
A few weeks ago, Boyd looked at a 4 year old for sale at Phyllis Dawson’s Windchase farm. He loved the horse and when he left he told Phyllis that he would work on putting together a syndicate. A few days later at a clinic in New York Boyd mentioned to Bonnie Stedt that he had found a really nice horse in VA. Then the fire happened.
Just a few days after Bonnie lost the beautiful Cagney Herself in the fire, she rembered what Boyd had said. Bonnie contacted Phyllis and arranged to buy the horse for Boyd to ride. But, she kept the purchase a secret from Boyd. Then on Sunday at Waredaca Boyd saw the horse on Phyllis’ trailer and walked over to pat it, still completely in the dark. Phyllis walked the horse off and handed him the lead and said “this is a present from Bonnie.” Boyd’s groom and working students had been in on it, but it was a total surprise to Boyd.
An EN tipster told us about the story but I spoke to Boyd about it this afternoon. He told me that the horse is 25% Irish, 75% TB and will be named Quinn Himself. The moment he received Quinn was a big turning point for Boyd: “I thought to myself ‘OK, it’s time to get on with it.'”
The good news also continues to come out of New Bolton, where all three of the remaining horses are recovering. Boyd said that the vets are optimistic that they will be releasing both Min and Neville soon.
It also seems as though Boyd has a new owner–Katie Prudent, show jumping legend and the US eventing team’s show jumping coach. Katie called Boyd up a few days ago and, as he put it “gave a good tough motivational speech.” Then Katie told Boyd that she wanted to help with the recovery and that he needed to be riding as much as possible. She said that her contribution would be to send him one of her horses to ride and train at full rate for two months. As Boyd said “talk about a tough owner!” The horse arrived at Boyd’s farm yesterday.
Lastly, the healing continued at True Prospect this morning when everyone from the disaster met in a group session with a counselor. Everyone spoke about the fire and the counselor’s biggest point was that the tragedy doesn’t define anyone–it’s a terrible thing that happened, but it can’t dictate the rest of anyone’s life. Update: The counselor, Dr. Dick Johnson, is a parent at Mary and Olivia Dutton’s school and he cleared his morning and donated his time to help everyone out. One of the many generous acts of kindness.
It’s going to take years for the wounds from the fire to be fully healed and some wounds will probably never heal completely. But with the help and resolve of those in the eventing commnuity, the sun is shining a lot brighter in Pennsylvania today. Go Quinn Himself.
Chelan sent us this photo and I want to give a big Eventing Nation welcome to eventing for Aleyna, age 8, and Tuffy, who is 11 hands. Alayna is the younger sister of one of Chelan’s students and participated in her first ‘event’ last weekend. She did her dressage test from memory. She had a couple of ‘do overs’ in SJ, rocked the XC, and Chelan tells me she is officially hooked. Aleyna competed at the Golden Ears Pony Club schooling event in Maple Ridge, BC. Aleyna’s Mom Joanne said that Aleyna asked 30 plus times about the riding before she let her do it, just to make sure she really wanted to, which I think all eventing parents can relate to. Go pony eventing.
Stadium jumping judge Kathy White brought her cat Sundance with her to Waredaca [via Neal]
Good morning Eventing Nation and welcome to Bromont week! This one week, more than any other, the North American eventing community turns our attention to beautiful Bromont, Quebec for the training level up to CCI3* action. Bromont is one of only two remaining possibilities for US and Canadian riders to show off to the selectors for the Pan Ams at a CCI2* (Rebecca Farm is the second). More than that, it’s a great event at a wonderful venue. Let’s just all keep our fingers crossed that the snow has melted. I haven’t settled on a CCI3* pick yet, but Loughan Glen jumps off the entry list as a young but very talented horse. Rehy Lux and Mar de Amor have wins under their belt this year and look very promising as well, and it’s hard to ignore Titanium with that 4* experience but he will probably have to come from behind to win. [Bromont entries]
It’s been a busy weekend so here’s a quick trip around the eventing world:
At Waredaca, Sally Cousins made a Pollard sandwich in the open intermediate, finishing 1st and 4th. It’s good to know I have officially gotten the weirdest EN sentence of the week out of the way early, isn’t it? Michael Pollard took 2nd with his new ride D.V.8 and his wife Nathalie was 3rd with Driving Ambition. True Prospect showed their strength at Waredaca, winning 4 divisions between Jennie and Phillip. Boyd finished the weekend on 4 horses, and Ryan Wood finished in 5th in the OT-A. Sharon White won a division, taking advantage of some EN Karma after we published her first guest blog post Saturday evening. [Waredaca Results]
Shanon Baker and Cordonelli stepped their game up and won the open prelim division at GMHA in Vermont. You might remember Shanon and Cordonelli as the pair who had a tough fall at Jersey Fresh CIC2*. It’s great to see them make a successful return to eventing. [GMHA Scores]
Competitors at the Indiana Eventing Association T3DE and Horse Trials suffered from the June Indiana heat this weekend. Decon Gaines and Ginger Spice won the IP. Erika Treis Petersen and Crimson Tide won the OP-A with the only clean show jumping round of the division. Jamie Price and Overdraft won the OP-B by adding just 2.4 time penalties to their dressage score. Sara Millett won the Training 3 Day with Shawshank, and my former coach during my high school days, Dorothy Crowell, finished two horses in the top 6. Update: As Lauren pointed out, we should show some EN love to the novice three-day, which Susan Martin and Loughnatousa Spaniard won on a 30.9. [IEA Results]
If it was hot in Indiana, it was even hotter in Georgia for Poplar Place. Sydney Elliott and Pancho Villa perservered to win the open prelim on a 30.8. Candace Tribe took second with Catalin and Werner Geven was third with Vilas County. [Poplar Results]
As we all know, due to the EHV-1 scare, the Colorado horse trials was canceled and the event ran only as a three-day. The last scores that were posted online have Julie Wolfert and Buenos Aires winning the CCI* before the show jumping and James Atkinson and Gustav leading the CCI2*. We’ll update those final results as soon as they are posted. [Colorado Scores]
Update: The Carriage House combined test was also held this weekend in Hugo, MN. [Carriage House Website]
Going international, Kathryn Morgan and Vishnu won the prelim at the MREC horse trials in British Columbia. There is no word yet if there was an industrial sized margarita blender at MREC, which might be because everyone is still working off the effects of said blender. [MREC Results]
Last, but not least, Kai Ruder of Germany won the Bramham CCI3*. You can check out Kate Erickson’s report below and also read about Samantha’s interview with 12th placed U25 finisher Laura Collet. [Horse and Hound’s recap]
Today the Horse World Gives Back radioathon kicks off at 6:00pm ET. The radioathon is organized by the HRN with the purpose of giving back to equestrian victims of the recent floods and tornadoes. The True Prospect fire has stolen the attention of the eventing world over the past week, for good reason, but we’ll be hosting a link to the radioathon this evening so stop by, take a listen, and learn about supporting a good cause.
If you missed it on Sunday, Becky Holder spoke with The Pilot about Call Me Ollie. It’s a great interview about a strong partnership and a wonderful horse. [ThePilot.com]
Speaking of fundraisers, Fitch’s Corner’s schooling derby was a big success on Saturday. 64 horses participated and raised over $6,000 which will be donated to Boyd through the AHTF. Thanks to everyone at Fitch’s corner for donating their time to put on a great fundraiser. [Boyd’s blog]
Dear Middleburg, Ocala, and Wellington bars,
Please install horse parking like this pub in England. I promise you that horse people are good customers for bars.
Sincerely, horse people [Horse and Hound]
Your June horseyscope [Barnmice]
I was going to link to a Belmont story, but no one cares because there isn’t a horse going for the Triple Crown.
Mark Todd, Oliver Townend, Michael Ryan, Alex Hua Tian, and Phoebe Buckley are among 14 entrants to the express eventing series opener at the Bolesworth Castle Showjumping Classic in Cheshire on Saturday. I have made my dislike of the format pretty clear. For me, it’s not worth sacrificing the traditional format of eventing to make the sport more spectator friendly, especially because I think condensing and combining show jumping with XC makes the sport more dangerous. Having not heard the horse entries, Oliver should be the favorite out of the field of riders. [Full Entry List]
Plantaion Field is hosting a rare opportunity to school their course on June 13th from 2-8pm as part of a TPF fire fundraiser. It’s $40 per horse and all proceeds go to benefit the fire recovery. Longwood Fire Company, one of the groups to respond last week to the fire has very generously donated their ambulance and crew for the schooling session. [Plantation website]
I’m just going to say this once because it could get out of hand in a hurry, but I really don’t like the Heat in the NBA. Dwayne Wade is cool, the rest of the Heat, not so much. Now I’m going to take my talents back to horse links.
Best of the Blogs: Ryan Wood’s new balcony
That’s all for now. I’ll be around throughout the day with all of your eventing news, notes, and ridiculousness. On Tuesday I will hop on my dog sled for the trip to Bromont and upon arrival I might or might not stop making jokes about it sill being winter in Canada, although in my defense, parts of Canada still look like this. Also, bring your thinking caps with you for a new caption contest later today. Wherever you may be thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day and go eventing.
Katherine Erickson, of the Grey Brook Eventing Blog that we often link to on EN, has kindly sent us a report from her experience at Bramham over the weekend–her second straight week with a report on EN after Tattersalls last week. Thanks for writing this Kate and thank you for reading.
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Wow, what a difference a week makes! Between Tattersalls last weekend and Bramham just concluding today, we enjoyed similarly cool temperatures, big and competitive fields, and impressive Ian Stark-designed tracks. And yet, between the open ditch country of County Meath and the hilly Yorkshire parkland of Bramham, Stark designed two very different courses with two vastly different results.
When I walked the course on Friday, after watching a great day of dressage where Pippa Funnell proved that she’s still one of the best event dressage riders out there, I privately thought that the track looked easier than the CCI*** at Tattersalls. There were certainly no monster-sized rider frighteners here as there had been in Ireland–though the giant trakehner on the edge of a slide at 22 came close. In general it seemed like the jumps were slightly smaller and more technical, with the rolling terrain adding an x-factor that Tattersalls didn’t have.
Well, the results clearly show that I should stick to spectating and leave the predictions to someone else! The course ended up causing a good fair share of problems, notably resulting in the elimination of the top three riders in the senior section, who all fell at different parts of the track. Julian Stiller, the only American in the competition, suffered one of the most dramatic falls of the weekend, when Enjoy Me totally misjudged the hanging log at the ‘b’ element of the first water. She looked a bit shocked, soggy, and banged up as a result, but was otherwise fine. Julian has two horses entered at the Luhmuhlen CCI**** in a few weeks, where she’ll join fellow Americans Jennie Brannigan, Tiana Coudray, and Will Faudree, and I’m sure she’ll be out on a recovery mission there.
If the senior CCI*** was a display of controlled mayhem at times, with the entire course being cleared of competitors on at least two occasions, it was doubly impressive to watch how relatively simple many of the Under-25 competitors made it look. People always talk about the incredible young talent and depth of the British program and this competition was certainly a showcase of it. These up and coming riders in general made a course that proved even William Fox-Pitt to be mortal look like a canter in the park, with many of them still still well in their young rider days. I especially love the way Georgie Spence–a girl famous for being the first teenager to produce clear rounds at Badminton and Burghley in almost a decade–rides cross-country, but she was just one excellent rider among many.
I was, I think with everyone else, a huge personal fan of the eventual runner up in the Under-25 section: Portersize Just a Jiff, ridden by Camilla Speirs. A part Connemara standing at only 15.2hh, Portersize Just a Jiff was the smallest horse in the competition and very arguably the cutest. He’d put in a great test at Badminton earlier this spring only to have a crashing fall at the Lake. It was great, then, to see them going so well here, even if a heartbreaking rail at the sixth fence cost them the win.
As at Tattersalls, I had to leave before the conclusion of the senior show jumping, but I did get to watch eventual winner Kai Ruder walk his course. He spent a very long time inspecting Fence 11, a brightly-colored green vertical with very light rails and spooky flower cut outs, and looked a little worried as he tested the rails in their cups. He obviously didn’t need to worry however, as he jumped a solid clear for the win. His horse was one of my favorites to watch on cross country day, and made the influential first double of corners look easy. As a German winner, perhaps he was reminding the Britons that they will contest the next major CCI****, and the next European championship, on his home turf!
Our latest addition to the EN guest blogging team is starting at a tough time to be a guest blogger. Sharon was half way through writing her first guest blog post when news of the fire hit, which obviously changed things. It is a real pleasure to welcome Sharon, who is one of the nicest, toughest, and hardest working people in all of eventing to our team of summer guest bloggers. You can learn more about Sharon and her program at her website. Thanks for writing this Sharon and thank you for reading.
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Sharon and Rafferty’s Rules at The Fork
From Sharon:
Why do we event? Could there be a harder sport? In terms of labor intensiveness, hours spent training a horse, yourself, risk of injury to horse and rider, cost, the very small chance of the sun, moon and stars lining up at the appropriate time of your destination event, if you’ve evented at any level you know what I am speaking of. It can be described in no other way than a labor of love.
On a very positive note this afternoon, I am proud to report that the True Prospect crew has returned to eventing together this weekend. I mentioned in a post yesterday that it might do everyone good to get back to what they love and I’m glad to see that they decided to go to Waredaca together. Boyd Martin is tied for first in the open training A division at Waredaca after the dressage. Boyd is tied with Jan Byyny and Ryan Wood is in third. Phillip is second in the training horse A with Kilkenny. It has to be a really emotional day for them but it’s great to see the True Prospect team back doing what they love.
[Video from New Bolton on Boyd’s blog]
Now, more than ever, go eventing.
9:00pm Update: As a lovely twist to my Friday night, the EN site nearly crashed. Apologies for the sidebar and links not working for several hours, things are sorted out now. Annie will be along later with Saturday morning links and until then stay classy Eventing Nation.
Our original list on Tuesday afternoon of 5 ways to support the recovery has grown over the past few days into a huge list. The fire at True Prospect Farm early Tuesday morning changed lives forever. The emotional damage is impossible to quantify and well beyond our powers to help. Caitlin and Ryan lost all of their worldly possessions when the barn and their apartment above it burned. Lillian not only lost all of that, but also her companion Ariel, as did Abbie with Finn. Boyd lost a big portion of his business and several companions into whom he had invested countless amounts of training and love. We can’t heal the emotional and physical wounds caused by the fire but we can help everyone to land on their feet and get back to doing what they love–riding–as soon as possible.
My personal opinion is that the best way to support the rider is to give directly through a tax deductable non-profit fund such as SCES or the AHTF. As Coren mentioned this morning, the AHTF has generously waived their administration fee meaning that 100% of the donation through the AHTF will go directly to the riders. Here is a comprehensive list of the fund raising efforts.
1) The True Prospect Farm/SCES tax dedutable general relief fund
2) Direct donations to Ryan, Caitlin, and Lillian individually via SCES
3) For the AHTF, send checks along with a note specifying the rider(s) to:
The American Horse Trials Foundation221 Grove Cove RoadCentreville, MD 21617Phone: (443) 262-9555Email: [email protected]
5) All net proceeds from the Fitch’s Corner jumping derby tomorrow are being donated
6) Overlook Farm in Berryville, VA is hosting a jumping schooling show on June with 100% of the proceeds being divided and donated among the affected riders
7) The CHP is donating proceeds from their Lumber River starter horse trials event to the recovery
8) Ecogold is donating 50% of revenue from pads they sell to Boyd until Sunday
9) Denny is donating 50% of his royalties from his book sales
10)Doug and Jimmy are donating 50% of their DVD sales through the end of the year
11) Arenus is donating 15% of the sales using promo code PRP-72378 to Boyd
12) Five Star Tack is donating 10% of their June sales
13) Photographer Amy Dragoo is giving 20% of her print sales
14) Bromont is hosting a Calcutta auction to raise funds for Lillian, Ryan, and Caitlin, whose apartment was destroyed in the fire. The Calcutta event will auction off teams competing in the Alan Shinton Team Challenge. These teams will be comprised of a CCI*, CCI** and a CCI*** horse and rider combination. The auction itself will take place at the annual Red and White Party hosted by Equine Canada and Alan Shinton. This reception will be in the Bromont hospitality tent on Thursday June 9th. The Red and White reception starts at 6pm and the Calcutta auction will begin at 8pm with an introduction to the teams and their members. Of the money raised from the auction 50% will be divided between Lillian, Caitlin and Ryan. The other 50% will go to the “owners” of the top 3 teams with a 50/30/20 split.
15) Last, but definitely not least, PRO will be hosting an online auction through eBay that will start on June 13th. The auction will be through the Southern California Equestrian Sports Foundation (SCES), meaning that donations are tax deductable. When the auction closes SCES will distribute all the proceeds directly to Boyd Martin, Lillian Heard, Caitlin Silliman, Ryan Wood, Abbie Golden and the Duttons. If you are interested in making a donation, send the following information to Samantha Lendl at [email protected]:
(1) photo – if possible
(2) detailed description
(3) value and
(4) donor info as you would like it to be listed
(5) Name, telephone number and email address
That’s all for now. If you have information on additional fundraisers, please leave them in the comment section or send them to the team at [email protected]. Go eventing.
Neville and his favorite pastime
This has without question been one of the hardest weeks I can remember for the eventing community. Despite all of the tragedy, Boyd told me today that everyone at True Prospect is coping with the tragedy in their own way but universally with amazing poise. Our Abbie Golden asked to write a tribute about Phantom Pursuit this afternoon and, although I don’t get emotional very often, it made me cry. One thing that continues to help spirits at True Prospect is that the recovering horses are doing remarkably well at the New Bolton Center.
Otis Barbotiere improved so much that he was released from New Bolton earlier today. Boyd told me that he expects Minotaure du Passoir to be released on Monday, meaning that 3 of the 5 recovering horses will be out of the hospital (Ambassador’s Rose was released Wednesday).
Neville is making amazing progress and the vets have taken him off of the breathing tubes for a bit today to let his lungs breathe on their own. Scopes of his throat look better and better and Boyd told me that the New Bolton vets say he is making a remarkable recovery. The first thing Neville did when the tubes were taken out was return to his favorite past-time: wind sucking (cribbing), as the picture shows.
Catch a Star is also looking better and better, despite a small colic scare yesterday, and Boyd said that both she and Minotaure du Passoir are in good spirits, along with Neville.
The fire marshalls and investigators are combing through the ashes today and interviewing everyone at True Prospect to try and figure out what started the fire, but the unofficial thought continues to be an electrical fire.
Boyd said that everyone is slowly getting back into a program and the happiest part of his days now is the time he spends riding because of the welcome distraction it provides. The fire took 11 horses out of the program and it sounds like the down time is hard to fill for everyone.
Boyd said that everyone will make their own decision about when to return to competition, but that Phillip suggested that showing solidarity and riding a few young horses together at Waredaca this weekend might do everyone a lot of good. So, we will likely see at least a few members of the team out having a ride in Maryland this weekend.
Boyd was very thankful about the continuing outpouring of support from the eventing community all over the world. Friends of True Prospect from all over have traveled to the farm to help out in any way possible. For the rest of us, donations through the non-profit funds such as AHTF and SCES to help replace the countless items of tack, horse care materials, furniture and food from the burnt apartment, and everything else that was lost continues the be the best way to support the recovery from afar.
Individual funds have been set up for Ryan, Lillian, and Caitlin
Go eventing.
The Horse and Hound has published a helmet cam video of Mark Todd at the Saumur CCI2*, held in France two weekends ago. Mark was riding Hezabrook and they finished 34th. Mark finished second on his other ride, NZB Campino. [Horse and Hound]
Here is Tim Price at the CCI3* Saumur track. The course was designed by Pierre Michelet. Tim is riding Sporting Hero and they finished in 24th:
Congratualtions, you are now 20 minutes closer to the end of work. Go eventing.
Well friends, it’s way past due, but it’s time to announce the winners of our Riders4Helmets photos contest. It’s been a busy spring around the EN compound and picking winners was always the one thing the Chinchilla’s never got around to–until now. Even no one sent their photo in on top of a box filled with a Point Two Airjacket, we have decided to choose three winners. The Chinchilla’s winnowed the many entrants down to a few winners and they asked me to explain how hard it was–we got a ton of great entries. The 3 winners will receive brand new Riders4Helmets saddle pads to reward them for their creativity and love of helmets. The point of this whole contest is to raise helmet awareness and remind you to always wear your helmet. Thanks to our friends at Riders4Helmets for all of their efforts and for donating the saddle pads. If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry, the next EN contest is right around the corner.
1) Cute kid+helmet+cute rocking horse=instant win.
2) I’m not sure if it was the military theme, the expression on the horse’s face, the side saddle creativity, or just the overall picture, but the chinchillas liked this one:
Stephanie send in the following explanation with the photo: This is a photo of me riding side saddle on my Appaloosa gelding, Romeo at the Conyers Christmas parade. The theme of the parade was a “Cartoon Christmas”. I am riding as Tinkerbell. Under all those flowers and leaves is a helmet. Two of the ROTC gentleman in the photo had never petted a horse before. It made their day.
Courtney wrote: My dear friend Matt thought he would be safe at all times, because those Calculus classrooms are especially dangerous 🙂
Go helmets.
Friends, can you smell the maple syrup and peace loving in the air? Yes, we are less than a week away from the beautiful Bromont CCI3*, one of my favorite events of the year. Bromont is set int he beautiful rolling hills of Quebec. It features great organizing, great footing, and great courses–making it well worth the lengthy drive. The Bromont entry list is linked to below, courtesy of our friends at the USEA.
There are currently 19 entries in the CCI3*, 37 entries in the CCI2*, 38 in the CCI1*, and just under 40 in the open training division.
Go Bromont.
