Here are a few notes about stories we are keeping an eye on around the eventing world today from a McDonald’s parking lot somewhere along the road to The Fork:

–The Horse and Hound is reporting that Point Two has been reprimanded for “misleading” adverts in Great Britain.  The British ads in question had to do with the proper ratio of protection between Point Two airjackets and traditional body protectors.  According to the article, after review, Point Two agreed that the claims in the British adverts were inaccurate and withdrew them.  Point Two sponsors both the Horse and Hound and Eventing Nation, as well as numerous other publications.  Read the full article at [Horse and Hound]

–In some unfortunate news, Phillip Dutton’s The Foreman has been withdrawn from Badminton.  This leaves Buck and Ballynoecastle, Karen and Mandiba, Kristin and Cavaldi, and Jennifer with The Good Witch as the 4 remaining US entrants to Badminton.  William Fox-Pitt has withdrawn Macchiato and Idalgo from Badminton.   Idago is still entered at Rolex according to the Rolex entries this afternoon.  [Updated Badminton Entries PDF]

—The US Naval Academy’s equestrian team is thriving

—The FEI has announced the resignation of its CEO Alex McLin

–Rolex will be aired live on NBC Sunday, *May 1st from 2-3pm ET.  The broadcast will feature the conclusion of show jumping as well as dressage and cross-country highlights.  As we get closer to Rolex we’ll keep everyone updated about the online and TV broadcast schedules and options.  [USEA]

—Kate Chadderton blogs about interesting winter travel statistics

Go eventing.

This photo has nothing to do with the post, but I just thought it was awesome.  If you send a cool EN photo to Annie along with your eventing profile, I’d bet it would have a great chance to get published.  Just brainstorming here. [via ML]

Today is a momentus occasion around the equestrian world because it is the second day that the FEI’s new prohibited substance list is in effect.  The new list closes the book on an embarrasing chapter in the FEI’s history when the infamous ‘progressive list’ was approved in late 2009 to allow low levels of NSAID’s in competition.  The progressive list was retracted soon after it was released and the new zero-tolerance list was approved unanimously last November at the FEI General Assembly.  Doping is still a murky subject in equestrian sport, but the FEI is taking some big steps to making the rules more sensible. [Horsetalk]

Now for your NSAID free eventing news and notes…

–Stephanie Diaz has a great article in The Pilot about Charlotte, NC resident and Rolex entrant Susan Beebee.  Susan was the only rider at Southern Pines two weekends ago to make the time with her speedy horse Prowler.  Susan has a very interesting story about making eventing fit with the rest of her life.  From traveling around the US and Central America to bar tending, Susan’s career has taken many turns  but it has put her on track for The Fork and then Rolex.  [The Pilot]

–Cornell Equine Hospital has been voluntarily quarantined after a case of EHV-1 was detected.  The quarentine began on March 20th, and they are working to track down horses that could possibly have been exposed and released but officials are not considering this an outbreak.  EHV-1 is a very contagious virus that causes a variety of problems including respiratory and neurological diseases.  [TheHorse.com]

–The CW Event Team will have a jumping derby for starter level through preliminary April 19th at Carriage Station Farm.  Read about all the details: [USEA]

—Love riding horses? Get an interest-free loan to buy one…in India [via JER]   

–Edward Gal has named Totilas’ first British foal.  He named the black colt ‘Te Amo’ after the song by Rihanna, which is not Rihanna’s best work to say the least.  Gal passed up on numerous Rihanna song titles that obviously would make great horse names, including ‘Whats My Name,’, ‘We Ride,’ and ‘Rude Boy.’  [Horse and Hound]

–Lainey Ashker has written a great blog post about the Katie Prudent training sessions and looking ahead to The Fork and Rolex.  One paragraph from the blog struck me as particularly important: 

“Looking back on both days’ lessons, the common reminder that Katie would unhesitatingly shout was “THINK through your course.” There is never any excuse to miss a distance or approach a fence unbalanced and that although we have the tools to execute a clean show jumping round, eventers (or other normal human beings) lack the actual PERCEPTION to deliver.”

It’s amazing how many times [Lainey’s blog]

–I want to give a big thanks to Coren, ESJ, Ali, and Annie for holding down the fort at the EN compound on Monday.  We had one of the best days ever on Eventing Nation and I didn’t write a single post.  This is really exciting for me and shows what a fantastic team we have assembled.  Today I will be traveling down to The Fork but I’ll be keeping an eye on things all day.  Samantha and Annie will be along with a couple of posts for your reading pleasure and then its all The Fork all the time through the weekend.

—Lucinda Green is going strong this year.  She was second in the Open Intermediate at Belton last weekend. Here’s a quick video showing that the great one still has all the skills.
 
–Whatever you do, don’t Yutube search “Funny Talking Animals.”  You’ll never get work done again.

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to click on the banner below to enter to win a free iPad from our friends at Pennfield. Keep your radio dial tuned to Eventing Nation for the latest Tuesday eventing news, commentary, and ridiculous. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.

It feels slightly anticlimactic to have the weekend’s US CIC3* wrapped up Saturday night, but nonetheless there is still great eventing action going on this Sunday around Eventing Nation.  Coren’s post has links to all the live scores, so scroll down for your viewing pleasure. 

Here is a video from Saturday at Morven Park when Sally Cousins and Robber Barron rode through a freak hail storm that cropped up in Virginia.  Rain, snow, or hail–nothing can stop Sally Cousins and The Robber Barron.

On an unrelated note, Ali’s win at Galway was one of the more interesting scoring reversals in recent memory because it was related to the application of national versus FEI rules rather than an interpretation of the rules.  Under national rules (which were originally applied), Ali would have been given 2 time penalties for a false start.  However, since the competition was a CIC3*, FEI rules applied, and they don’t have a false start penalty.  An EN reader looked up the FEI rules and posted them in the comments to Coren’s post:

FEI rules – article 529 (1.1) and (1.3)

1. Starting
1.1 ATHLETES at the start of the Cross Country Obstacles phase must be
under the control of a starter and may not deliberately start until instructed
to do so, under penalty of elimination, at the discretion of the Ground Jury.
The horse does not have to stand absolutely immobile, but the athlete must
not get any advantage from a flying start. Each athlete should be given
reasonable warning before the time he is due to start, but it is the athlete’s
responsibility to ensure that he is ready to start at the correct time.

…

1.3 IF AN ATHLETE starts early on Cross Country, his time will be
recorded from the moment he crossed the start line.

For the full rules on starting see page 51 and p.52 or the FEI rules

[2011 FEI Eventing Rules PDF]

For me, the key point is that the rules were properly applied in the end, and everyone can go home feeling like the person who won should have won.  The fact that it took the scoring an hour and a half to reflect that is a lot better than getting things wrong permanently. 

Some of the confusion was created when the online scores went from provisional to final and then back to provisional.  Scott from StartBox scoring explained to me that there is an automatic timer on the online scores to set them as ‘provisional’ until 45 minutes after the last score is posted.  After this period for inquiries, the scores go to ‘final’ and if any changes are then made they automatically go back to ‘provisional’ for another 45 minutes, which explains the live scores happenings of Saturday afternoon.  StartBox does an absolutely brilliant job with the live scores and I appreciated the explanation from Scott.

Go eventing.

   
It was a tie for Chelan’s best dressed award at Galway’s Thursday jogs

The Galway horse trials and CIC three-day starts competition today with dressage and show jumping for the CIC divisions.  As a quick jog report from Thursday afternoon, Chelan said that there were no holds in the CIC3* and 14 riders move on to the dressage.  The WEG pair of Hawley Bennet-Awad and Ginny lead a great group of competitors today in California eventing.  Chelan will keep us posted from Galway on the ground and we will have complete recaps each day and link to the best Galway coverage throughout the interweb.  

[Galway live scores, Thursday press release]

Now for some quick news and notes:

Morning update: Boyd Martin fancies a feline

Ben Hobday’s latest Badminton blog

–In addition to Galway, there are 4 other USEA events this weekend.  The Feather Creek horse trials in Oklahoma start today, and the link to live scores is below.  Area 2 gets back into action with the Morven Park spring horse trials.  FENCE horse trials in South Carolina and Rocking Horse in FL round out the weekend’s schedule.  Most of the 3* and 4* horses have the weekend off waiting for The Fork next weekend.

[Feather Creek live scores] 

—“‘Horsey’ makes your bicycle look like a horse”…and you look like a tool [via @carrotsandbute]

–People who know me know that I am not exactly a bark-wearing naturalist, but I love animals and also simple solutions to problems. TheHorse.com has a cool post about installing bird houses and using Swallows to control the insect population in your barn. Cheap, natural, animal friendly–I like it.  [TheHorse.com]

–Buck Davidson Texas clinic report [USEA] 

–Dressage rider Simone Stanzel-Kunze tragically took her own life Friday, March 25th near her home in Bad Nauheim.  At 42 years old, Simone was one of Germany’s most successful small tour dressage riders.  [Eurodressage via B]

–Mary King and her daughter are on ERS this week.  [ERS]

—Best of the Blogs: Bringing the horse back to *work after rest*

How to catch a hard to catch…mini (?):

–Good luck to all of the competitors around the world of eventing today.  Have fun and keep the hoof side down.  Stay tuned throughout the day for Galway updates and all of your other eventing news, commentary, and ridiculousness.  As always, wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.

Photo from Holly’s blog

One of Eventing Nation’s favorite horses, Holly Hudspeth’s Last Monarch aka “Stewie” will be withdrawn from The Fork and Rolex.  Holly has just posted on her blog that Stewie will have some time off because vets have found two small chips in his knee following his tumble at Southern Pines this past weekend.  From Holly’s blog: 

“…Since [Stewie] horse was in PA, Boyd’s vet Dr. Kevin Keane took over keeping an eye on Stewie. While he looked good trotting up, a minimal amount of swelling had developed around his left knee. So today we decided to xray that too, just to be safe. Unfortunately we saw 2 small chips at the top of his cannon bone. Kevin is sending the radiographs to Dr. Dean Richardson, the same vet who worked on Barbaro. What we are now waiting on is to see if we should have them taken out or let them heal on their own. Either way Stewie will make a full recovery. I feel very confident between Dr. Daniels, Dr. Keane, and Dr. Richardson, he will be receiving the best care possible.

While I am sad Stewie’s spring has ended soon, I am grateful he and Boyd will see another day. Like I said in my last blog, a horse show is just a horse show. They happen every weekend all over the world. Boyd is an amazing rider, and Stewie is an amazing horse. He can now come home and plump up along with his mother! Good luck to everyone the rest of the spring.“

Read the full post at [Holly’s blog]

From the names in Holly’s blog–Dr. Keane, Dr. Daniels, and Dr. Richardson, Stewie has the absolute best in the business caring for him.  The young little fire ball has wowed eventing fans at big events around the US with his huge athleticism, enthusiasm, and bravery.  He was one of Eventing Nation’s earliest “watch this horse, he’s going to be awesome” picks and he has proved us 100% right.  I had a horse with a similar injury a few years ago and the surgery to remove the chips is arthroscopic and prognosis is usually excellent.  I can’t wait to see Stewie back in action soon.  Go Stewie.