Become an Eventing Nation BloggerHere’s a sill picture course walk of the Tattersall’s CCI3* course with Mike Ryan. The event was held last weekend in Ireland and William Fox-Pitt won the CCI3*, CCI2*, and CCI* divisions. Ian Stark designed the course and it’s a good look at an imposing and galloping course.
Go Tattersalls.
This is just a quick post to let everyone know about a contest our friends at FLAIR Nasal Strips are running on their Facebook page. The contest is simple and fun and FLAIR is giving away 5 nasal strips and a microfiber Strip Rag that really cleans the horse’s nose to prepare it for the strip. Simply to add your own FLAIR competition photo (you must own the rights to the photo) onto the FLAIR Facebook page. Click below to enter:
The photo with the most likes wins. The winning photo will also be the FLAIR featured photo on the FLAIR website website. The contest ends at 5:00 p.m, CST Thursday, June 9, 2011. All contest rules are posted here. As always, one of the best ways to support EN is to support our sponsors, and what better way to support a sponsor than entering to win 5 FLAIR strips. The Chinchillas need your photos Eventing Nation.
Go FLAIR.
Just one of the many tributes at True Prospect Farm
Dear Coren,
I am posting all of the cool links from Wednesday afternoon to make it hard for you to find links for Thursday news and notes. May the Force be with you.
Sincerely, People with cool plans for Wednesday night
Now for the links…
Boyd has posted a touching thanks to his supporters on his blog–Needless to say this is worth a read. Boyd makes several important notes including that he believes all of the recovering horses will live but that Catch a Star has burns that cover most of her body and Neville is on assisted breathing. Boyd also hints at an incredible story that will be told later–that he and Phillip ran into the burning barn against the orders of the fire chief and dragged Neville out.
Lillian has written a very nice post on her blog about the past two days
Eventing Radio Episode 144
Thanks to the Philadelphia Inquirer for the EN mention
Meg Kep writes about her friendship with Lillian
A nice tribute from Horse Junkies United
Eventing is a sport with a soul
Caitlin and Catch a Star, photos courtesy of Boyd
Go eventing.
Neville getting some grass, photos courtesy of Boyd
I spoke with Boyd this morning and I could instantly tell from the sound of his voice that 24 hours of support from the local and worldwide eventing community as well as good news about the horses at New Bolton had improved his spirits. Boyd said that everyone from the entire community came over for dinner last night and he emphasized how much that time meant to him and the entire team. He talked about the bouquets of flowers that had been sent and now surround the barn, and the countless other gestures of kindness that have helped everyone get through the past 36 hours. It never fails to amaze me how strong, gracious, and thankful eventers can be at the most tragic moments in their lives.
Boyd particularly mentioned the strength of the horses’ owners and said: “Each and every owner has been amazing in the way they have handled the tragedy. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do is to ring each owner Tuesday morning, wake them up, and tell them that their horse is gone.” Boyd, Phillip, their students Randal Pearre Jackson Roberts, and and Charla’s owner Densey Juvonen buried the horses that passed away this morning at True Prospect Farm.
But the burden of that hardship is lightened with good news from the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, where the five surviving horses were taken after they were saved from the fire. The horses all inhaled a considerable amount of smoke and the damage to their throat and lungs seems to be the principal concern rather than external burns. Boyd said that it is hard to know the extent of the lung damage for 3 to 5 days so no one knows a complete prognosis on all of the horses.
Here is a quick update on the recovery of each horse:
Neville and Bonnie Stedt, who owned Cagney Herself and also owns shares Neville and Otis
Neville Bardos: Boyd said that Neville looks the best on the outside but his blood work shows that he inhaled a lot of smoke and scans of his throat show considerable damage. Boyd told me: “Typical Neville, the vets can’t believe how happy he looks with his blood work. He’s bright and active and still eating and wind sucking.” That’s the toughest horse on the planet and nothing can keep him down. Neville was the last horse to get out of the barn.
Ambassador’s Rose: This young horse looked great after staying at New Bolton and getting fluids overnight. He was discharged this morning and is back at home now.
Catch a Star: Caitlin’s horse has external burns but the oxygen levels in the blood work look look good and the doctors are very optimistic.
Otis and Densey Juvonan, who owned Charla and also owns shares in Otis and Nev
Otis Barbotiere: Otis received fluids yesterday and his prognosis looks really good. The vets hope he can leave New Bolton in a couple of days.
Min
Minotaure du Passoir: Min was rescued from the blaze and originally taken to Boyd’s new farm just a few miles away from True Prospect. He started coughing there and was taken to New Bolton and admitted to intensive care for smoke inhalation where they are closely monitoring him to figure out the extent of the damage.
All of the connections for the horses can take comfort in the fact that they are being cared for at one of the best, if not the outright best, veterinary centers in the world. Our thoughts and prayers continue to reach out to the horses and their families as they recover.
A photo from an EN reader in April of the freshly dragged Rolex stadium course
It is now just over 24 hours since the tragic fire broke out at the top barn in what will forever be known as the tragedy at True Prospect. In those 24 hours the story of the six horses who passed away has rippled across the worldwide eventing media, the eventing blogosphere, the national horse media, and the local Pennsylvania mainstream media.
Many people around the world will wake up today and move on from the tragedy, but in some sense moving on feels impossible. The fact is that the heroism continued well after the flames died down on Tuesday as friends of True Prospect worked together to assist all involved in the tragedy. Such heroism will continue well into the future even if it’s just someone who lost a horse finding a way to stay positive each day. I know that the sights and sounds from early Tuesday morning will be forever with those who watched that barn burn to the ground. There’s no doubt that I will remember the horses who passed and the sound of Boyd’s voice over the phone Tuesday morning for a long time. But time continues inevitably forward and so must we.
–I heard from both Boyd and Abbie Tuesday afternoon and they were extremely gracious despite their incredible sorrow. They expressed thanks for all of the support that Eventing Nation has shown and I know that with hundreds of supportive comments and thousands of silent prayers they know that we are all standing behind them.
–One thing on everyone’s mind is the condition of the horses at New Bolton. We wrote Tuesday that Neville is in the intensive care for smoke inhalation, Catch a Star is in intensive care with burns and Otis Barbotiere and Ambassador’s Rose were receiving fluids. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday afternoon that a fifth horse was taken to New Bolton later on Tuesday. The fifth horse that was evacuated from the barn was Minataure Du Passoir, known to his friends as Min, who is one of the hardest working horses I know. In all honesty, I didn’t want to bother anyone in PA with a bunch of phone calls Tuesday afternoon asking about the horses and I was trying to distract myself from thinking about the situation. We’ll have more on the New Bolton horses as we get word today. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
–Boyd is the most public of those affected by the tragedy, but I want everyone to realize how many people are affected. From the owners, to Lililan, Caitlin, and Ryan who were burned rescuing the horses and lost everything in the blaze, to everyone else who helped that night–many many people will be affected forever.
–As we posted yesterday, Denny Emerson is donating 50% of the royalties from his book sales of How Good Riders Get good to Boyd and Silva. After we posted the link the USEA store sold out and I believe they have added more books, but you can also buy it through Amazon here.
–Other businesses are following Denny’s lead. 50% of the proceeds in June from Doug Payne and Jimmy Wofford’s Riders Eye DVD will be donated to the TPF recovery fund [Doug’s blog]
–Additionally, Ecogold is donating 50% of saddle pad sales through this link to Boyd.
–The Jurga Report has posted a report on the fire that mentions that there are some positive developments in caring for burns on horses. The post also includes video from a local Pennsylvania news service. Warning: the clips of the burning barn are hard to watch. [TJR]
–In other news, the USDA has released a second EHV-1 report. There are now 75 confirmed EHV-1 or EHM cases that have been reported in 9 states, 58 of which were at the Ogden, Utah event. 11 horses associated with the outbreak have died. [USEA]
—Best of the Blogs: Olivia Loiacono is back in Virginia
–In a sign that things are still normal in the world, writers continues to criticize at the FEI for the reining warm-up debacle that I’m going to start calling reininggate. Erin Gilmore has written the latest article on Sidelines about the issue and has posted the original Epona video that started reininggate. In the video, one of the USA’s top reiners and–if one video can lead to judgment–complete ass Craig Schmersal is shown hitting Lil Miss Addy Tude in the mouth during a warm-up session before going on to place second in the competition. [Erin’s blog] I feel like even Patrick Kittel would be impressed with the idiocy in the video.
That’s all for now Eventing Nation. I’ll be back throughout the day with news from Pennsylvania and around the eventing world. We’ll try to get some lighter stuff on Eventing Nation as well if I can find the spirit to write it. Please take a second to make a quick donation to the recovery fund with the link in the EN sidebar. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.
This is a photo of Cagney Herself, sent to us this afternoon from Robin Kelly, who bred and raised her
It’s important to remember that the tragedy at True Prospect this morning affected an incredible number of people. Those who lost horses and their families will bear the brunt of the trauma, but everyone at True Prospect who was there last night will remember those moments for the rest of their lives. Indeed everyone in the eventing community feels some loss today that so many great horses are no longer with us and at the sorrow felt by their connections.
The eventing community is banding together today to help out. Everyone who can help is on scene at True Prospect and New Bolton assisting in the relocation of the surviving horses, the recovery of the injured horses, and helping everyone involved.
As part of the recovery, there are multiple ways we can all band together from across Eventing Nation to help out. If you are anything like me, you have felt a little helpless today hearing about the tragedy but not being there to help out. Here is a quick guide to the relief funds and other ways to help out, please help spread the word:
1) Boyd’s website has posted a link to a True Prospect/SCES relief fund set up through SCES that allows for tax-deductible donations. The site explains: “This relief fund is a general fund set up to help everyone at Windurra LLC and True Prospect Farm, as well as our owners and riders who have been impacted by this tragedy.” [Boyd’s blog and donation link, or click the link in the EN sidebar to donate]
2) There is also a True Prospec Farm Fire Recover Fund directly from True Prospect Farm. You can pay with either a credit card or a Paypal account. [Information on the fund and donation link]
3) Denny Emerson is donating half of his royalties from his new book “How Good Riders Get Good” to help with the recovery. Click here to buy the book.
4) PRO is putting together and online fundraising auction–we’ll have more details on that as it develops.
5) Everyone can also make donations through the American Horse Trials Foundation. Boyd, Caitlin and Lillian are already listed there, and donations are tax-deductible. As will all AHTF donations, be sure to write the riders name on a note with the check, not the actual check.
The American Horse Trials Foundation
221 Grove Cove Road
Centreville, MD 21617
Phone: (443) 262-9555
Email: [email protected]
As a final good news note, we have been getting a lot of emails checking on Remington–he was turned out overnight and is fine. Go donate.
Boyd’s website has posted a brief statement about the barn fire that killed 6 wonderful horses from his program early this morning at True Prospect Farm:
Obviously this is a difficult time, and our deepest condolences go out to everyone connected with these horses. We are grateful for your thoughts and prayers and all of the messages and well wishes that we have been receiving from the eventing community. We will keep you updated as we receive more information.
When I spoke with Boyd early this morning he was at New Bolton with Neville, Otis, Catch a Star, and Ambassador’s Rose. There will be a fund to help the recovery from this tragedy and we will have more information on that as it is released.
The USEF has sent out the following press release regarding the tragic fire:
At 12:30am on Tuesday May 31, 2011, a fire destroyed the barn Boyd Martin rented from Phillip Dutton Eventing at True Prospect Farm. There were 11 horses in the barn at the time of the fire, Lillian Heard, Caitlin Silliman and Ryan Wood evacuated five horses, four of those are at The University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center undergoing treatment. These horses are: Boyd’s mount from the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games Neville Bardos, Otis Barbotiere, Catch a Star and Ambassador’s Rose. Heard, Silliman and Wood were treated and released from the hospital. Sadly, Martin lost six horses from his program: Faye Woolf’s Call Me Ollie, Henley House Stables’ Charla, Lillian Heard’s Ariel, Kimberly Golden’s Phantom Pursuit, Bonnie Stedt’s Cagney Herself, and Anne Hennessey’s Summer Breeze W. The USEF extends thoughts and sympathies to Martin and his team during these tragic events. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
We’ll have more information as we receive it throughout the day and until then there is nothing to do but pray for the recovering horses and those coping with losses today.
I spoke with Boyd a few minutes ago and the first thing he said to me was “I’m shattered Johnny, absolutely devastated.” There are some posts I pray to God I will never have to write and this is one of them.
The top barn at Phillip Dutton’s True Prospect Farm, which was being used by Boyd Martin and housed 11 horses in Boyd’s program, burned to the ground early this morning. Boyd told me that 6 horses passed away. 4 horses are at the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania receiving care for injuries sustained in the fire. Neville Bardos is in intensive care for smoke inhalation, Catch a Star who recently placed second in the Jersey 2* with Caitlin SIlliman is in intensive care with burns, and Otis Barbotiere and a young horse are receiving fluids.
Boyd told me that the fire is believed to have started around 12:30am and that authorities currently believe it was an electrical fire. Boyd’s groom Lilian woke up, smelled the smoke, and then sounded the alarm. Lilian and the other members of Boyd’s and Phillip’s programs worked heroically over the next few minutes to save as many of the horses as possible. Boyd was staying at his new farm a few miles away and he told me that by the time he got there the fire department had arrived and firemen were restraining people from running into the blaze.
Update: PRO has just sent out a release naming the lost horses as Call Me Ollie, Charla, Ariel, Phantom Pursuit, Cagney Herself, and Summer Breeze. The release also says that Lillian Heard, Caitlin Silliman and Ryan Wood were treated and released from Jennersville Hospital. [Press Release]
The families of the horses who passed have been notified. EN writer Abbie Golden’s horse was one of those that passed away in the fire.
There is ultimately nothing that anyone can say or write to assuage the grief from such a terrible event. But words and written letters point to a deeper reality and that reality is that all of the Eventing Nation family stands behind Abbie, Boyd, Silva, and all of those affected by this terrible twist of fate. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
A barn fire started early this morning at a True Prospect Farm barn housing 12 horses from Boyd Martin’s program. Several horses passed away and several more are receiving care at New Bolton Center right now. We’ll have more shortly and I can’t begin to express the sorrow that I feel and I know Eventing Nation does as well this morning.
As I wrote about earlier this morning, eventing lost a great rider and a true legend over the weekend when Bill Roycroft passed away at 96. The Sydney Morning Herald has a great article about Bill’s life and many eventing achievements that is a good look back at a very different era in our sport. [Sydney Morning Herald]
Go eventing.
Katherine Erickson, of the Grey Brook Eventing Blog that we often link to on EN, has been kindly sent us a report from her experience at Tattersalls in Ireland over the weekend. Thanks for writing this Kate and thank you for reading.
—-
I’d always heard that the Irish take their riding across the country pretty seriously. Well, if my time at the Tattersalls Three Day Event just north of Dublin this past weekend taught me one thing, it’s that that reputation is very well founded! I arrived on Friday night in time to take a spin around the CCI*** course, and it was MASSIVE: huge (and extremely prevalent) ditches, beefy tables and hedges, and man-made mounds that broke up the otherwise flat terrain by rearing improbably upwards and then falling viciously away. They say that Ian Stark is the new Frank Weldon, leading the way back to more ‘old-fashioned,’ bold, and attacking styles of courses, and I could definitely see where that reputation comes from. His tracks were certainly not for the faint of heart.
The next morning the cross country started bright and early at 8:30 and ran continuously without a break longer than 20 minutes until nearly 7 that night, making it the longest day of nonstop FEI-level competition I’ve ever seen. The CCI* alone ran for almost five hours, fitting in over 100 riders between the open, junior, and pony divisions. My favorite of these were obviously the ponies, who pinged around the horse-sized CCI* track (with their equally pint-sized jockeys!) and made it look easy.
The corner at 14
The CCI* ran until about 1:30, and then it was time for the big class: the CCI***. I was especially eager to see how fences 13abc and 14, the mound complex, would ride. It involved a big bounce bank up onto the mound, three attacking strides to a huge trakehner (made even more intimidating by the fact that it seemed to suspended in mid-air way up on top of the berm!) then landing sharply downhill in another forward 3 strides to a massive brush corner. It was one of those fences that, when I’d walked it the night before, I knew I was going to have to see to believe.
The riders clearly had been thinking the same thing, because nearly all of the first who attempted it went the long route. Only when it became clear that the time would be hard to make without going straight did people start to risk going straight. It was thrilling to watch the likes of William Fox-Pitt and Polly Stockton blast through the direct route (though not without some defensive riding on both their parts!).
The corner at 7
The other rider frightener of the course was at fence 7, a massive open corner suspended over an equally massive and water-filled ditch. It looked straight out of a thrills ‘n’ spills video from the early 90s. In general it ended up riding pretty well, but did cause one notable crash when Andrew Nicholson’s horse tried to leave a stride out and ended up demolishing the whole thing. Fortunately both horse and rider were fine, but it resulted in a lengthy hold as the jump was reconstructed.
Besides the jumping itself, the entire event was also just superbly run. They had a great team of announcers who I’m assuming had their training in race calling, because they announced all 10+ hours of cross country with the sort of fast-paced, fervent intensity that would have fit in at the Kentucky Derby. They also gasped, clucked, groaned, and cheered as they followed the horses around, and of course used those British/Irish riding phrases that I can’t get enough of like, “She must be over the moon with him” and, “Oh dear! He’s lost all his knitting!”
Show jumping dawned brighter and sunnier than the day before, but also significantly windier and colder. I unfortunately only got to stay for the first few divisions and had to leave before the CCI***, but had the pleasure of watching William Fox-Pitt rack up two thirds of his dominating performance of the weekend. I’d only been able to see him ride in person twice before this weekend, and it’s just impossible to believe how good he is: totally in a league of his own. His one star horse looked a bit wobbly and probably wouldn’t have jumped a clear for a mere mortal jockey, but William made it happen. It’s easy to see how he’s achieved the unbelievable achievement of winning over 40 three days, with three more to add to his tally after this weekend alone.
In a few moments I’ll get to the eventing news and notes from a great weekend around Eventing Nation, but first I want to take a moment to talk about something much more important. Today is an opportunity to express our eternal gratitude for the men and women who have given their lives in service to the USA. As always, nothing we can say can compensate for the sacrifices made by so many brave soldiers, but know that we are thinking and praying for you today. Please take a moment today to remember our soldiers.
Now for your eventing news and notes…
–If this weren’t Memorial Day, then surely William Fox-Pitt would have won this post being named after him. After all, he won everything else this weekend. William won the Tattersalls CCI3*, CCI2*, and CCI* in Ireland. That’s not quite as impressive as winning first and second at Rolex, but it is undoubtedly one of the most impressive eventing performances of 2011. William won the three divisions on Oslo, Bay My Hero, and Lady Voltaire respectively. Oliver Townend was second in both the CCI3* and CC2*. The Brits dominated the entire competition, finishing first through third in the 3*, and first and second in the 2* and 1*. [Update: Zara Phillips was first and fifth in the CIC3* after the show jumping. Sadly, she fell and retired on the XC, which ran after the show jumping.] [SportingLife, Results]
–It was a busy holiday weekend of eventing here in the US, and still is. Fair Hill ran novice and training level yesterday and the prelim and intermediate divisions run today. Phillip’s Young Man, William Penn, and Mighty Nice are back in action in the intermediate, Ringwood Magister is entered in the intermediate to prepare for their trip to Luhmuhlen, and Tipperary Liadhnan is making his debut with Nina Ligon. I love eventing on Mondays–good luck to all of the competitors. [Fair Hill Live scores]
–Robin Walker placed first, second, and fourth at the Open Prelim at May-Daze in Kentucky, finishing on his dressage score with all three horses. Megan Lynn and Hoosier Daddy won the prelim rider division on a 24.2 and I’ll bet they are University of Kentucky fans. The low score of the weekend at May-Daze goes to Lisa Mendell and Ripplin’ Waters with a 23.2 in the training horse. [Final Scores]
–It was a good weekend for everyone with the last name ‘Walker’ it seems. Kristi Walker won the advanced at Woodside in California. [Woodside Scores]
–Texas Lions Camp Charity H.T. at Meadowcreek [Live Scores]
–Mystic Valley Hunt Club H.T [Website]
–Alec Lochore, of the Eventing Nation favorite Lochore family, is the London 2012 eventing manager. He told BBC radio that preparations for the test event are well underway and that the British riders are under a lot of pressure to do well. Listen to the interview [here]
–Australian eventing’s Bill Roycroft has passed away. Bill was a 5 time Olympian and member of the Equine Australia Hall of Fame. Bill competed at his first Olympics in Rome, 1960, when he was 45…do the math about when he competed in his last. He competed at Olympic Games alongside with each of his sons, Barry, Wayne and Clarke. Bill was 96. Horsetalk includes this absolutely epic story about Bill from the Rome Olympics:
…after [Bill’s] horse, Our Solo, somersaulted over a jump and fell on him during the cross-country.
He remounted, suffering concussion, bruising and muscle damage, and completed the course. He was then flown by helicopter to a hospital near Rome. But the problems began for Australia when team-mate Brian Crago’s horse was injured and out of the competition. The team already had Laurie Morgan and Neale Lavis ready to jump on the final day, but they needed three riders to complete the event to take the gold medal.
Doctors would not let Roycroft out of hospital but he signed himself out.
Harry Gordon, Australian Olympic Committee historian, said: “He was 45, laced heavily with pain killers, unable to bend, and his comrades had to dress him for the last ride. He was virtually folded onto Our Solo, and the reins were placed in his hands.
“Stiffly yet flawlessly, he completed the round, ensuring team gold for Australia.”
–Our friends at the Horse Radio Network are putting together a great radioathon fund raising drive to benefit the people and horses affected by the recent flooding and tornadoes all throughout the country. It’s on June 6th and We’ll host the radioathon player right here on EN for you to listen to and hopefully donate. There is also a giving back retail day June 7th where 5% of purchases at many equestrian retailers goes to supporting the disaster relief. [Details]
–The FEI is embroiled in yet another warm-up horse abuse mess, this time involving reining. I confess that I don’t know enough about reining to feel like I completely understand the situation, but the pictures do not look good. Epona TV wrote yesterday that the FEI is changing their story about what happened in the warm-up in question. [Epona TV]
–An EN annual tradition Memorial Day video: please take a moment to check out this video to remind yourself what today is all about.
–That’s all for now. We have a busy week here on Eventing Nation leading up to Bromont week next week and then Luhmuhlen. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. Stay classy Eventing Nation.
“Ian had offered to weatherproof the judges’ huts for the two-phase this weekend, and that’s what he was busy doing when his heart stopped. Ian was a dedicated and reliable volunteer, always ready to help in any capacity. He had been a fence judge, area steward, chief timer, controller and announcer for us, and he rarely missed an Organizing Committee meeting. Groton House was important to him and he was important to us. We will miss him.”
I am told by Ian’s friends in Area I that he was originally from the UK, and has been a member of the Area 1 eventing scene for many many years. With his beautiful English accent, he was widely sought after as an announcer for local events and schooling shows. He dearly loved his chestnut draft horse Dougal. Ian also enjoyed filming horse trials and building XC fences for Apple Tree Farm, where he took lessons. He will be dearly missed, but there is solace in the fact that Ian died doing what he loved and in the place he loved.
Go eventing.
We ask our wonderful EN readers to do certain things from time to time, whether to enter a contest to win a Point Two, to check out a sponsor’s website, to vote for Sinead on the athlete of the month voting, or to be safe on a Friday night. Eventing Nation has tens of thousands of readers and when we get together behind and idea, powerful things can happen. This memorial day weekend I want to ask you to serve those who serve us each and every day. This weekend’s EN challenge is to make a small act of kindness toward an active duty serviceman or woman or a veteran. Take a soldier you know out to lunch, buy someone in uniform a drink, walk up to someone in uniform at the mall and say thanks, or just call a relative who served and tell them how much you appreciate them. I stopped at Steak ‘N Shake for lunch earlier today and while I was getting my takeout order I bought lunch for a soldier named Justin and his family. I can guarantee that if you buy lunch for a soldier you will feel like it was the best money you spent all weekend. Go soldiers.
It can happen to anyone. One moment you’re riding your horse around as the rodeo queen at a Utah rodeo, and the next moment your horse gets taken away because of a EHV-1 outbreak and you have to ride a stick pony around. A Salt Lake City television station is reporting that contestants at the Davis County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse Junior Queen Contest had to trot around the arena with stick horses as in place of their normal show ponies for the contest on Thursday night. Former queen Savanna Steed is quoted as saying: “It’s kind of weird, but you can’t really help that the disease is going around.” Safety first Savanna, and that goes for you too Eventing Nation. [KSL.com via The Utah Trotter]
Now for a quick look at your other Friday night notes:
Max Corcoran: remembering Teddy
Jennie Brannigan’s Walkabout was injured at MCTA
Zara Phillips teams up with David Beckham to represent Samsung
Nominations are now open for the USEA Board of Governors–it’s “John” with an “h”
The USDA has released an EHV-1 update and reports new cases of the disease
Kim talks to the Chronicle about selling Paddy
For the record, the person Max alludes to in the first paragraph of the blog is your truly–and her advice that day was much appreciated, as always. That’s all for now. If you’re going out tonight be safe and have fun. Stay thirsty my friends and go eventing.
This post should be filed under the “organizers are amazing and deserve a special section of heaven all to themselves” category. Colorado’s organizer, Deeda Randle, sent out an email to all of the competitors earlier this morning announcing that due to the EHV-1 outbreak out west the Horse Trials component of their June 3-5 event has been canceled along with the COJA Jumper Show and the Dressage Show that was supposed to run simultaneously with the event. However, because the Colorado three-day is the last chance for several young riders to qualify for the North American Young Riders Championship, the organizers have announced that the CCI* and CCI** portion of the event will continue. They are going through all of this effort for less than 20 horses, which is an incredible testament to dedication to our sport from the folks at the Colorado Horse Park.
I spoke with Deeda this afternoon and she told me that after long consideration the event’s FEI veterinarian had determined that it would be too risky to try to manage so many horses on the property with the horse trials, three-day, dressage competition, and jumper show all running together. The veterinary staff is comfortable that the small number of horses in the three-day divisions will provide a very manageable number of horses for the vets to monitor throughout the weekend.
Deeda told me that the Colorado Horse Park’s founder, Helen Krieble, has been a “long time advocate for the young rider program.” Thank you Deeda, Helen, and all of the fine folks at the Colorado Horse Park for going to such lengths to host an event for so few horses so that they will have the opportunity to continue with the rest of their season. Go eventing.
Update: The USEA has issues a press release about the cancellation
It’s a quiet Thursday afternoon around Eventing Nation. It’s Memorial Day weekend in the USA and there are just 5 USEA events this weekend, which means that this will be one of the quietest weekends of the past few months. Here are a few quick notes we are keeping an eye on around the eventing world today:
A woman driving a horse and carriage was turned away from a McDonald’s as a “health and safety hazard”–Let me just say for the record that deem McDonald’s food to be a considerably larger health and safety hazard than a horse and carriage. Still, it is delicious. The woman simply went across the street to KFC, where she was greeted by employees as their only customer of the day.
UK Jockey Isabel Tompsett, who was seriously injured in a fall on Sunday, is improving
Jessica Phoenix’s Exponential was named the Omega Alpha Horse of the Month for April
Become a fan of the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation on Facebook
Remember, no matter how annoying your Thursday afternoon is at work, it isn’t this bad. An oldie but a goodie:
Boom goes the dynamite.
Friends, I can now retire from writing for Eventing Nation and ride off into the sunset happily. Earlier today, veterinarian and EN reader Dr. Laura Szeremi gave Eventing Nation a very special shout out. Laura talked about Eventing Nation on her “Ask the Vet” segment on the Texas Today morning show for KCEN, Chanel 6 in Temple, Waco, and Killeen, Texas. Today’s shout out will go down as a great moment in EN history because, like anything else, you haven’t made as a website until you have made it onto local TV. Check out the shout out at 1:40, pardon the intro ad:
If for some reason the embed player doesn’t work in your browser, click here.
I can’t say thanks enough Laura, this made my day and probably my week. Now, more than ever, go eventing.
A few great Jersey videos from Videos by Patrick:
Go Jersey.
The great Buzzterbrown took his video skill to the Virginia Horse Trials last weekend to film the Classic Preliminary Three-Day event, hosted by organizers Brian and Penny Ross. Sadly, there were less than 10 entrants and, although the long format looks likely to thrive at the novice and training level, the long format looks like its days are numbered at prelim. As always, thanks to Buzzterbrown for his amazing videos.
Hickstead is easily one of the most amazing horses on the planet and in some sense Eric is one of the craziest riders as well to ride such a powerful jumper. In the below video, Eric and Hickstead win the La Baule CSIO 5* Grand Prix after finishing the jump off in 37.22 seconds. But, this is Eventing Nation, you say, who cares about those sissy show jumpers? Around minute mark 3:00, Eric cuts the turn so tight during the jump off that Hickstead quite literally jumps the standard of the jump. Pardon the ad at the beginning of the video and the annoying French announcers, it’s well worth enduring, I assure you:
[via Lindsey Rairden]
Click here to view the video if the embedded video won’t play in your browser.
While I am mentioning Hickstead, I should also probably give a shout out to EN sponsor Cavalor. Hickstead is such a picky eater that the only grain in the world he will eat is Cavalor Performix. Go Hickstead.
The big news from Tuesday evening is that Kim Severson’s Tipperary Liadhnan has been sold. “Paddy” is set to get right back in action this weekend and is entered with Kim’s student and Olympic hopeful for Thailand, Nina Ligon, in the OI at Fair Hill. I still think Fernhill Fearless is the top Olympic prospect for Nina, but my guess is that we’ll see Paddy at Pau perhaps and then another 4* in the spring. The good news is that now I can and will rant about Kim being one of the best riders in the US and not having a 4* horse, which is absurd. Kim mentions in her blog that she only has the funding to buy a young prospect. That’s the equivalent for the US of Shaun White having a crappy snowboard. Surely there is an owner out there that wants an instant shot at winning medals. [Kim’s new blog]
Paddy isn’t the last high profile horse that will be sold this year. There are quite a few folks out there looking for Olympic horses that are great on the XC. Some of the suitable horses are old enough that they are really only valuable at a high level if they are sold this year to Olympic hopefuls. There are even people who want Olympic prospects who are great on XC, can go under 55 on the flat and finish on that, and the list of those horses that are available can be counted on one hand and the asking prices are high six figures.
Now for some eventing news and notes…
–Not to state the obvious, but New Zealander Clarke Johnstone is having a great spring. At just 24 years old and with WEG team bronze under his belt from last year, he has been tearing it up with two wins so far in the FEI World Cup eventing competitions, one in New Zealand and the other in Australia. Today he leaves with 5 horses to fly to England to campaign through the London Olympics. He is taking Orient Express, KS Secrets, Incognito, Regal Romar, and Viper SL. According to Horsetalk, Johnstone is looking at Aachen for Orient Express in mid July, Burghley for Secrets and Incognito in September, and Blenheim for Orient Express. He said that he will only go to the final leg of the World Cup league in France in late August if his lead is challenged. Clarke is just one of several reasons to fear the Kiwis in 2012. [Horsetalk]
–The Davidson family has 11 horses entered at Fair Hill HT [Fair Hill Entries]
–A UK woman who broke her neck in a horse fall has been awarded 60,000 Pounds in damages (the money, not the weight) after her horse fell while schooling over an unfixed portable jump at the Whitmore Riding School. The woman’s lawyer said: “The jump was inherently dangerous and, for a professional establishment to use such a fence, shows a lack of awareness of the risk.” In some sense, I feel like any jump is inherently dangerous. This is one of several court cases in the past few moths involving portable jumps that fell over while the horse was jumping them. In terms of whether or not to secure a jump, I haven’t heard of anyone being sued for a jump not moving, so that might be the simplest answer for a builder. [Horse and Hound]
—10 USEA events opened on Tuesday— Chattahoochee (GA), Cobblestone Farms (MI), University of New Hampshire, Wayne DuPage H.T. (IL), Coconino Summer I H.T. (AZ), ENYDCTA/Old Chatham (NY), 35rd Annual Whidbey Island Pony Club H.T. (WA), Genesee Valley (NY), Powder Basin H.T. (WY), The Maryland H.T. at Loch Moy Farm I (MD). That pretty much means that Annie is going to have a busy Saturday night writing the links post for July 9th.
–The first of your daily EHV-1 link says that the case total is holding steady, but from reading the article it sounds a lot like people don’t really know what the case total trend is doing. It’s fine, the spread rate of infectious diseases isn’t really that important anyhow. Dr. Emerson has a good blog post for Sidelines about the issue, saying that we are winning the war against EHV-1.
–I was going to beg for an extra few Twitter followers in exchange for EN Karma to get us to 1,000 followers, but we hit it as I was writing the intro to this post. Thanks Tweeps, as the Twitter lingo goes. I am a long way from being a Twitter elitist, but I do cringe when people use the term ‘twittering.’
–Holly Hudspeth is getting very close to becoming a mother indeed, but that hasn’t stopped her from getting her blog on. Holly writes about getting a new horse for a client and helping Cavalor to open at Triangle Horse Sports, a huge feed store in the Raleigh, NC area. What’s good for Cavalor is good for EN, so thanks Holly. [Holly’s blog]
—Using Vermont draft horses to bring fiber optic cables to remote locations
—Trish Bosch shows more love for Johvale
–James Alliston had one of the best weekends of anyone at Rolex, with great rides on two first time Roles horses. He writes about his experience for the [PRO blog]
–As usual, Courtney Cooper has a busy summer show season [Courtney’s blog]
—Is it unhealthy for horses to eat bedding? Apparently not, if you consume it in small enough quantities, which I could have told you from my personal experience. [SmartPak blog]
Best of the Blogs: Sinead Halpin
A video recap of the jumping at the Australian Equestriad last weekend:
That’s all for now Eventing Nation. I’ll be along throughout the day with all of your eventing news and ridiculousness. As always, wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. Stay classy Eventing Nation.
Our friends at SmartPak are running a cool promotion this week to give free shipping on their Wellfleet bridles. They were kind enough to send me a Wellfleet eventing bridle to try it out and tell Eventing Nation a bit about it–one of the perks of writing for Eventing Nation.
I decided to use the horse in the above photo for two reasons. First, he has a cute face and a great smile. Second, he’s a horse that was vetted for the Pan Ams after Jersey and has a good shot at going to the Pan Ams if the rest of the year goes as well as it could for him. I’ll let you guess the horse. That being said, he has a pretty small face and I would suggest using the smaller size Wellfleet for horses with smaller heads–I only had a regular size that SmartPak sent me to use.
Pros:
Quality–Just from feeling the bridle, you can tell it is well put together. The leather is soft and thick and the stitching is very tight.
Comfort–It’s no surprise, but SmartPak was obviously thinking about the horse when they made the bridle. Every point of contact with the horse, including the noseband buckle is padded and very soft. The flash of course is not padded but it is still very soft. If I was a horse, I’d definitely want to wear this bridle. The crownpiece in particular is padded really well and the cheekpiece is integrated into the padding, which is a really nice detail.
Reins: The reins are rubber with the perfect width and feel. Some rubber reins are too small, some are too thick, these are just right for my hands. Also the bumps are just the right diameter.
Flash: Nothing fancy there, but it is thick, well stiched, and I don’t feel like it would stretch out too much like thin flashes.
Cons:
White stitching: This is a personal preference and all stitching ends up brown in the long run, but I like brown stitching better than white.
Raised reins: Again, a style issue, but I like reins that have flat leather rather than raised as I don’t really see the point of raised leather on reins. Anyone who knows me knows that there’s no point in me even trying to be fashionable, so I don’t try with my tack either–it’s function over form for me.
Brand name: If you have to have an brand name bridle, this isn’t an ultra brand name bridle. But, it makes up for it by being similar quality at a better price.
[Click here to check out the selection of Wellfleet bridles]
Thanks to SmartPak for making Eventing Nation part of another one of their promotions and, as always, thanks to SmartPak for their fantastic support of Eventing Nation. They signed on as sponsors and believed in us when most people hadn’t even heard of Eventing Nation and I will always appreciate that. The free shipping only lasts until Thursday. Go eventing.
