The Badminton blog has a great post from Dominic about the Mark Todd’s road to Badminton.  The good news for all of us Mark Todd fans is that he has two fabulous horses on the 4* track.  Grass Valley will be returning to Badminton after an 18th place finish in 2010, and NZB Land Vision will be making his 4* debut after winning the CIC3* at Blenheim last year.  Dominic writes that Land Vision is Mark’s favored prospect to be part of what looks to be a very strong New Zealand team in 2012–especially if Blyth Tait makes a successful comeback.  Eventing is at least 20% more fun with Mark Todd on the hunt again for a Badminton win.  Here is an excerpt from the Badminton blog:

“Whilst Mark is extremely driven competitively, he is reassuringly commercial, and the need to keep the ship afloat financially is still up there on the list of priorities along side winning gold at London. Every horse in the yard is for sale “at some point”, all part of the original plan.”

[Badminton blog]

Mark’s video interview with Dominic:

The only USEA event this weekend is a big one–Pine Top in Thompson, GA.  Pine Top combines good footing and the perfect date to attract almost all of the top east coast horses to the advanced division.  There are over 50 advanced horses, including 3 US WEG horses (Mandiba, Neville, Paddy).  The Canadians are well represented with Port Authority in the advanced, and Exponential and Riddle Master in the intermediate.  Will Faudree’s Pawlow, and Will Coleman’s Nevada Bay and Twizzel are all also in the intermediate, so it’s good to see that both Wills have their top horses back in action. 

There are nearly 50 horses in the Advanced A division and just 4 horses in the Advanced B division because the divisions are divided by dressage test and apparently only 4 riders wanted to ride advanced test B, making test B less popular than rain on Rolex Saturday.  We have mentioned this before, but it’s worth noting that you don’t see Phillip’s top horses like The Foreman and Woodburn because they are taking it easy this spring in a year without any major international championships for the US.  I’ll be out at Pine Top on Friday when the advanced divisions will do all three phases in one day.  [Pine Top Entries]

Now for some quick news and notes:

—Morning Update: The Canterbury horse trials scheduled for this weekend at McLean’s Island, in New Zealand, was canceled this morning due to New Zealand’s massive earthquake on Tuesday. [Horsetalk]

—Badminton: Ben Hobday ups the ‘look at me’ factor

–Thanks to our good friends at the Paulick Report, which is one of the largest horse racing websites in the world, for linking to Samantha’s wonderful Zenyatta article.  Samantha has been getting some incredible interviews lately and, from the look of her schedule over the next week, it doesn’t look like that is going to change.  16 months ago I never would have imagined that Eventing Nation would have received exclusive access to Zenyatta.  In other Zenyatta news, she was bred to Bernardini on Wednesday.  [Paulick Report]

–We have a few behind the scenes business changes coming to Eventing Nation that will help us to be better at serving our readers–more on those over the next few weeks.  One change is that we are expanding our partnership with Cavalor and I will be helping them as best I can with social media development and marketing outside of Eventing Nation.  Another development is that I wrote a short article for the new and improved Eventing USA magazine.  Assuming they don’t fire me for any number of valid reasons, including delivering my article by carrier Chinchilla, I will be writing regular short pieces for the magazine in the coming months.       

–The California USEF training sessions start today.  Like the first ones, Tiana will be keeping Eventing Nation posted on all the training session coolness.  The Royal Oaks sessions are open to the public and their schedule is here.  I have been beating this drum for a while, but I don’t think west coast eventing has ever had a stronger group of horses and riders than it does this year.  Tiana is just one of several California riders who is one good weekend in April away from breaking into the big time.

—Facebook now has shopping.  Unsurprisingly, I learned about this from Ecogold [Ecogold’s Facebook]

–Two horse shows have been canceled in the wake of New Zealand’s earthquake [Horsetalk]

–The USEA now has news and notes for membership details [USEA]

–So does British Eventing [BE fresh]

–Former UK event rider Claire Lomas has given birth to a baby girl named Maise.  Claire was seriously injured in a freak fall at the Osberton Horse Trials in 2007.  She is still undergoing rehabilitation from that accident but the Horse and Hound says she is determined to walk again.  Congratulations to Claire and her family!  [Horse and Hound]

–Absurd Headline of the Day: Atomic Kitten and rugby player star in international polo event [H&H]

—Best of the Blogs: The Air Up There

A video for all the horse husbands (the horse part starts at 1:30) [via Regarding Horses]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned throughout the day for all of your eventing news and commentary.  Wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.  Go EvEnTiNg.

This morning, PRO held a conference call in response to Monday’s post about Sinead’s blog entry.  The meeting was held at 8:30am.  Here is the email from yesterday afternoon announcing the conference call from Samantha Lendl sent to all members of PRO:

“We would like to hold a early morning conference call regarding an action plan for communication in regards to the recent EN uproar.  West coasters please feel free to email ideas or call me at a more convenient time. We hope you can make it and if not please email your thoughts on how we can improve our communication to the public concerning what PRO stands for and what we are trying to do…”

From what I have heard, the meeting focused on streamlining PRO publicity by sticking to a positive message and trying to get the world out about positive PRO initiative such as the training level grant. 

My first reaction is to be amazed that PRO seems to be surprised or caught off guard by the reaction from the public.  Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised that 55% of people thought that PRO was good for eventing and many of the 73 comments to the post were positive about PRO.

The other point I want to make is that anyone who reads EN knows that we are not anti-PRO.  Our readers are a vast majority of the eventers in North America and a good portion of the worldwide eventing community, and their comments on Will’s post reflect public opinion.  We don’t always give PRO quite as much attention as they might want, but we always try to be fair and we give PRO more positive attention than negative–we were one of the first to write about the PRO training level scholarship, for ecample. 

Indeed, the “EN uproar” started with very positive comments by Will Faudree about PRO in Samantha’s interview on Friday, and then a response by Sinead to some critical comments on that post.  Many of the PRO riders are good friends of mine and all are acquaintances, and they all know that we support the cause of riders who try to make a living by eventing here on EN, whether that is through PRO, the PHC, or elsewhere. 

As we have always said, PRO has some good ideas and the potential to be a really strong influence on eventing, but for now lots of people are not buying in.  Whether that changes or not depends on how PRO is able to influence public opinion and whether changes to be more egalitarian are seen as genuine steps or publicity efforts.  

The decision was made recently to retire one of the best event horses in the world.  Phillip wrote about Connaught’s retirement on his first Rolex blog, and I recently spoke with with him about his thoughts about the decision and Simon’s career.  Phillip told me that Connaught “Simon” is retired from upper level competition but will still do some lower level competitions with his step daughter LeeLee Jones.  Phillip spoke about the many incredible people who helped Simon achieve so many successes:

“Throughout his career Simon gathered some people around him that truly loved and believed in him. Carol Gee in Ireland to this day still checks in to see how he is.  Julie Richards imported him and always believed in him even when things weren’t going well.  His two grooms, Sara Richardson and Emma Ford, both dealt with his idiosyncrasies and always kept him at his best.  Bruce Duchossois, his owner, was so loyal and committed to Simon even in the first year together when nothing seemed to go right for both of us.”

[Connaught (right) with groom Emma Ford]

Connaught, a 1993 Irish Sport Horse, should probably be remembered as the ‘King of Rolex.’  He placed 4th in ’06, 2nd in ’07, won in ’08, and was 7th at Rolex in 2009–4 straight years of top 10 Rolex performances including a win.  As Phillip said, “April seemed to be Simon’s month.”  Connaught also represented the US at the Beijing Olympics and, together with Phillip, he was part of one of the most formidable eventing pairs over the last 6 years. 

I know that all of Eventing Nation is disappointed that we won’t get to see those fabulous gaits in the dressage or that absolutely incredible jump at Kentucky this year.  I’ll always be grateful for the many wonderful performances I got to watch from Simon and to have known him in the barn at home as well as at competitions.  Phillip was clearly saddened by the retirement, as we all are, and told me:
 

 “I truly believe Simon loves to compete.  I think this really shows in his exuberant jump especially on cross-country.  I will never forget that feeling, and I’m now looking forward to watching Simon with LeeLee.”

Go eventing.

Steve Jobs’ homepage is Eventing Nation

February on Eventing Nation is now officially named ‘Reader Appreciation Month.’  In the past few weeks we have given away a free Point Two, $330 in Ecogold saddle pads, 2 FLAIR Nasal Srips, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Today, we get to introduce a brand new contest from our friends at Pennfield with the grand prize of a free iPad.  And for anyone who asks what an iPad has to do with eventing, the easy answer is that it will let you visit Eventing Nation from anywhere, whether on the subway, in a taxi, at a restaurant, or while riding, although I am required by the EN legal Chinchilla to say that we discourage jumping and looking at EN on your iPad simultaneously. 

All you have to do is click the link below and register for Pennfield’s new rewards program called ‘Promise Points’ using the promo code ‘ENation.’  Promise Points won’t be “just like any other loyalty program” but will have some fun differences that fit what Pennfield stands for.  Not just logo’d gear, but NICE logo’d gear, the opportunity to donate your points to horse rescues for Pennfield to send them feed, and cool art for the home.  When the registration period ends, a winner will be randomly chosen from all the people who used promo code ‘ENation.’

Click here to sign up to win a free iPad

Remember to use promo code ‘ENation’–you need to use the promo code to be eligible to win the iPad.  Now for your eventing news and notes:

–The world famous superstar show jumping stallion For Pleasure passed away.  According to the announcement from his farm, For Pleasure spent the later years of his life with his pony friend Max and passed away peacefully in his field.  For Pleasure was 25 years old.  [Sportpferde]

–The New Zealand eventing season is supposed to get underway in Canterbury this weekend, but New Zealand was hit with a massive earthquake on Tuesday. Eventing Nation wishes the best to the horses and people of New Zealand recovering from the earthquake and hopefully life will be stable enough to worry about things like eventing soon. With world news like earthquakes and massive unrest in the Middle East, it’s hard to imagine that halfway around the world our biggest concern this week is preparing for a horse trials.

–Dates for XC schooling at the Kentucky Horse Park this year have been announced.  Schooling costs $35 and is available on May 15, June 1, June 29, August 13 and, September 10.  As an interesting offer, participants can help clean up the horse park in exchange for the schooling fee–participants are asked to pick up one 32-gallon trash bag of litter and they get a free schooling session in exchange.  [MSEDA]

–The Aiken training session ride times for today have been adjusted slightly.  Kim has traded her last ride time for Boyd’s first.  The order for the morning schedule is now Phillip, Kim, Phillip, Kim, Boyd, and Boyd.  If you are planning to get out to Three Runs plantation to watch any of the rides, this morning would be a good time.  In the afternoon they move to Paradise farm for some XC schooling.

–Eventing Worldwide has posted a report from the Hartbury International Eventing Forum earlier this month.  You might have remembered that we linked to William Micklem’s Chronicle report from the same Forum.  The Eventing Worldwide report sites several key points from BE Safety Committee Chairman Jonathan Chapman, including the interesting point that helmets should not only be replaced after serious falls but also after 3 years because the foam begins to degrade.  [Eventing Worldwide]

—Cleaning out the Attic: A 2010 Kyle Carter clinic report [Shoes and Horses]

–Rachel Alexandra was bred to Curlin on Monday.  This is no surprise because the same owner, Jess Jackson, owns both horses.  Bruce always says that the upside of the foal is limited by the mare, and in this case the foal will have virtually no limitation from either parent. [Paulick Report]

—George Washington was the father of the USA’s appreciation for mules [TJR]

–Dear Brittany Spears: I feel that you should be made aware that some idiot is making bad music, putting you name on it, and broadcasting it all over the radio.  Sincerely, America

–Woodzy scored an 18.1 this past weekend at Paradise [Ryan’s blog]

–Holly Hudspeth writes in her new blog that Last Monarch’s planned schedule is Pine Top advanced this Friday, Southern Pines II, The Fork CIC3*, and then Rolex.  That’s a great path that I think you will see many of the Rolex Horses will take this spring.  Most of the rest will head right to Red Hills after Pine Top.  Of course, Boyd will be riding Stewie.  [Holly’s blog]

–There’s an app for that: dressage tests 

–Our good friend Monty at the Talking Horse Blog has posted two great interviews–a video interview with Nick Turner, coach of the Brazilian Team, and an audio interview with Andrew Hoy. We will embed part 1 with Nick here, and [Andrew’s Interview, Nick’s Interview]

That’s all for now.  It’s the first day back after a holiday weekend, so you can expect a flood of articles being published from the media.  For links to all the good ones and our own Eventing Nation news and commentary, keep it locked right here all day long.  Wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.

A UK newspaper ‘The Independent’ has posted a report from an inquest at the Cheltanham Coroner’s Court regarding a rotational fall that resulted in the death of 15 year-old Jade South in October of 2008.  The tragic accident occurred at a Pony Club cross-country rally.  The case is complicated by the fact that the rotational fall happened over a portable jump that was lifted up 10 inches by the horse’s front legs.  A government safety inspector said the jump should have been fixed to the ground, but the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.  JER originally posted a link to the article on the Chronicle, and here is an excerpt:

Jade was riding her new horse, which her parents Paul and Claire had bought her around six weeks earlier, and was among a group of experienced teenage riders.

Karen Slaughter, an instructor for the South Hereford and Ross Harriers Pony Club, was in charge of Jade’s group and described to the inquest how Oz had briefly hesitated as he approached the 2ft 6in fence.

Mrs Slaughter, who was on foot about 15 metres away, said: “The moment before the jump Oz hesitated and Jade ‘pushed on’, which is the correct thing to do.

“Oz’s momentum took him over the fence.

“Oz’s leg clipped the jump and his momentum took him over the fence.

“I saw him somersault forwards over the fence and Jade remained on the saddle.”

She said that Oz then landed on top of Jade with the teenager still on the saddle.

Mrs Slaughter added: “It was a very solid jump but it just lifted up about 10 inches with the horse’s front legs.

“If he had been further away he would have cleared the fence.

“It was the moment of hesitation that brought him too close.

“Jade was an extremely competent rider who was confident riding Oz.

“I don’t think Jade could have done anything else to tackle the jump.”

The hearing was told that Jade had ridden the course before but on a different horse and it was the first time Oz had been round it.

Keith Lesley, a health and safety inspector for the Forest of Dean District Council, said the fence was movable and should have been fixed to the ground.

“It is clear that the best practice dictates that the fence should have been fixed to the ground and it was not,” he said.

“Although the use of the fence fell short of best practice it did not contribute to the cause of the accident.”

Mr Lesley confirmed there were no breaches of the health and safety regulations.

[The Independent]

One of the complications in looking at whether the jump raising up contributed to the fall is the difficulty of knowing if the jump moving was actually a good thing in the sense that frangible technology suggests that a jump being fixed in place and rigid is not always a goof thing.

Good morning Eventing Nation and happy Presidents Day.  For our US readers, Presidents Day was originally known as ‘Washington’s Birthday’ to honor the birthday of our first president.  However, as with anything our government attempts, the holiday is complicated by the fact that it never actually falls on Washington’s birthday–Washington was born on February 22nd, and the third Monday in February falls between the 15th and 21st.  Being early is an EN first for birthday wishes, so I suppose we should count our blessings.  Now for your Monday news and notes:

—Jan Byyny’s return to eventing continued in wonderful form this weekend with a win in the Paradise Horse Trials Open Preliminary A division aboard Why Not.  Jan and Why Not finished on their dressage score.  Phillip Dutton, who was tremendous in helping Jan’s program and horses while she recovered, finished second and third in that division.  Everybody from the Aiken crew was out at Paradise.  Jennie won the OP-B aboard Indie, developing B list rider Arden Wildasin took the top two places in the JYOP, and Candace Tribe won the Preliminary Rider division aboard Catalina. [Paradise Scores]

–All the way across the purple mountains and fruited plains, James Alliston and Boston won the Open Preliminary at Ram Tap.  The 2010 Rolex pair Kristi Nunnink and R-Star competed HC in that division as well.  Dana Chase and Aerolite moved from 9th to 1st to win the preliminary rider division. [Ram Tap Scores]

–All the way back in Florida, the lower levels completed the cross-country at Rocking Horse on Sunday.  EN’s own Annie Yeager placed 2nd, as did Leslie Law.  An intermediate horse I rode for 7 years and recently sold is obviously happy to have a new young rider (who is clearly more competent than myself) and placed 4th in the training level.  [RH Results]

–If you were busy at a horse trials on Sunday, Samantha wrote an article about Jock Paget’s WEG horse Clifton Promise being for sale.  Looking at the Clifton Promise sale, the good news here is that, unlike the Henny and Sam dabacles, the owner and rider seem to be completely on the same page.  One big reason for this is that Jock will of course be continuing his employment with Clifton Eventers and they have already sent him three new horses.  Clifton Eventers is very much a business, and if you ride for them you have to be ready to accept that.

–The more exciting news that Samantha reported is that Blyth Tait is quietly making a comeback and has moved to England to train.  Blyth is perhaps one of the most decorated international competitors in the history of eventing with two team and two individual World Championships, and an individual Olympic gold.  If Blyth and Mark Todd can be ready to go in time for the Olympics, it’s hard to not make New Zealand instantly one of the favorites.  And before anyone goes playing the age card, Blyth is just 49 years young. 

–Diana Burnett has written a Canadian training session report from earlier this week for Ecogold.  We’ll see Diana, along with most of the other US and Canadian team riders at Pine Top this coming weekend.  Here’s a quick excerpt from Diana’s blog:

“Tuesday was jump day and it was great!! We started with the raised pole to a vertical, then moved on to a single oxer, where David was making us focus on getting deep to make the horses work (especially Manny). We followed this by putting a course together. The most difficult line was a large square oxer, 5 forward strides to a triple (oxer 2 strides to oxer one stride to vertical). We did this line both directions. This is the type of line that Manny likes to take over in and then jump flat, so we usually end up adding strides. Not on this day!!”  [Ecogold blog]  

–The US training sessions resume today in Aiken.  The pressure will be on the riders to show Mark how well they practiced his suggestions from the first training sessions.  On Tuesday some of the riders will be cross-country schooling with Mark.

–Our EN Point Two contest closes sometime today, I think around noon, so be sure to enter–you can’t win if you don’t sign up.  [Enter Here]   

—The British Horse Society promotes riding without horses [Horsetalk]

—‘Clever Hans’ cited in drug dog experiment [Horsetalk]

—It was not Rodrigo (Pessoa’s) day [On The Line]

—Best of the blogs: Dressage in a juming saddle

–This almost deserves it’s own post, but Horse and Hound has written about two horse sports that I have never heard about before–Horse Surfing and Horse Boarding.   I think I should let the videos explain:

and…

[videos courtesy of the British Horse Surfing Association]

That’s all for now.  We will officially be converting Eventing Nation into ‘Horse Surfing Nation’ for the remainder of the day so stay tuned for all of your horse surfing news, commentary, and ridiculousness.  Wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.  Go eventing.

As Annie linked to this morning, the USEF High Performance Facebook page has published the schedules for the Aiken training sessions Monday and Tuesday of this week at Three Runs Plantation.  This series is the second of the Aiken sessions, and they will be very important as many of the horses will be running their first advanced of the year at Pine Top this weekend.  Will Faudree will be making his first training session appearance.  [HP Facebook Page]

Monday February 21 at Three Runs Plantation

8:00am Will Faudree (HP B)
8:45 – Kim Severson (HP A)
9:30 – Laine Ashker (HP B)
10:15 – Kim
11:00 – Boyd Martin (HP A)
11:45 – Jennie Brannigan (HP B)
12:30pm –  Boyd
1:15 Lunch
1:45 – Will Coleman (HP B)
2:30 – Phillip Dutton (HP A)
3:15 – Allison Springer (HP B)
4:00 – Phillip
4:45 Lynn Symansky (Developing B)

Tuesday February 22

8:00am Phillip – Flat at 3 Runs
8:45 Boyd – Flat at 3 Runs
9:30 Phillip – Flat at 3 Runs
10:15 Kim – Flat at 3 Runs
11:00 Boyd – Flat at 3 Runs
11:45 Kim – Flat at 3 Runs 

12:30pm Move to Paradise for XC Schooling
1:15 Will C. /Jennie
2:00 Boyd/Will C
2:45 Allison/Laine

Go eventing.

To get your Saturday started with some good news, Jan Byyny is leading the Open Prelim A division at Paradise Horse Trials after the dressage on Friday.  I said it a few weeks ago when we started writing about Jan’s return to eventing, but her recovery has been nothing short of remarkable.  Candace Tribe, Jennie Brannigan, and Arden Wildasin are the other prelim division leaders.

I wrote extensively about Rocking Horse in my recap Friday afternoon, but one thing I forgot to mention is that Eventing Nation’s favorite grand prix show jumper turned eventer, Udonna, is second in the Prelim Rider A division going into the cross-country.   I’ll have a full report from cross-country day at Rocking Horse later today.

Morning Update: I spoke with one rider who decided to withdraw from the advanced before the cross-country because the footing is a bit firm, and I would expect a few of the more experienced pairs to do the same.  Like many of the pairs at Ocala last week, they will make it a combined test and look for their first XC ride at Pine Top next weekend or in a couple of weekends.

Rocking Horse Winter II HT (FL) [Ride Times, Live Scores, Weather]
Paradise Farm HT (SC) [Live Scores, Weather]
Ram Tap HT (CA) [Live Scores, Weather]

**As a quick note, there was a typo in my Thursday post about the $30,000 Bit of Britain Jersey/Fair Hill Challenge. I wrote that a pair who won both the Jersey CCI3* and the Fair Hill CCI3* would receive $30,000 in prize money when in fact they will only win $20,000.  The ‘$30,000 Challenge’ announced by Bit of Britain refers to the possibility of different pairs winning the two CCI3*’s for $20,000 and the two CCI2*’s for $10,000.  Thanks for BH for drawing the error to our attention, and of course thanks to John Nunn for sponsoring such a fabulous challenge.  For full details, typo free, read the press release here.  Now for the links:

Samantha: John Kyle brings the voice to Red Hills and the Derby Cross

After dropping the World Cup, HSBC will keep sponsoring the Classic series–all the 4*’s minus Adelaide

Jimmy Wofford’s own books

Badminton’s date change is causing accommodation conflicts with Easter

As a quick note, new Australian Performance Director Prue Barrett chats with our friends at the Horse Radio Network this week.  Rolex Director of Competition, Christina Gray, also is on the show as well…

[Listen here]

Here are a few quick afternoon notes from the mobile EN command center on I-75 in Southern Georgia.  By mobile command center, I mean a truck parked in a McDonald’s parking lot.  Here are a few notes to hopefully keep the afternoon running smoothly on EN while I finish the drive to Ocala.

–I have just gotten word that EN’s good friend John Nunn is offering $30,000 in prize money for a CCI3* “Bit of Britain Challenge.”  **$20,000 will be awarded to a horse and rider combination if they win both the CCI3* at Jersey and the CCI3* at Fair Hill this year.  Or, if any horse and rider combination can win the CCI2* at Jersey and the CCI3* at Dansko Fair Hill International they will get $15,000, and if a pair wins both CCI2*’s, they will win $10,000 in prize money.  Like the Triple Crown in racing, it’s a cool concept to generate publicity for eventing, although the odds of one pair winning both events are very very low.  In fact, I haven’t had a look at the results from the last 10 years, but I can’t remember any pair ever winning both events in the same year.

—Accidental electrocution has been confirmed as the cause for the mysterious Newbury racecourse deaths on Saturday.  The necropsy reports show sudden cardiac arrest as the cause of death and officials have confirmed that:

“There was leakage of electricity from a cable under the parade ring in the area where the incident occurred…These findings are all consistent with the cause of death being accidental electrocution and at this stage we are not investigating any other cause of death”  [Horse and Hound]

—Jennie Brannigan has written a training session recap today in her Chronicle blog [COTH]

—Jimmy Wofford’s show jumping book recommendations [3D3W]

–The Nebraska horse processing bill has been approved by the Nebraska Senate’s Agriculture Committee.  The bill seeks to make it possible for private horse ‘processing’ plants to reopen in the state.  The bill now moves on the full Nebraska Senate for debate.  [TheHorse.com]

In the interest of making it to Ocala at a reasonable hour, here are a few more short linked notes:

—Photo’s of Bruce Davidson’s crew

—Ben Hobday is getting ready for Badminton 

—Horses that look like celebrities

—The UK’s BEF Futurity Evaluation dates have been announced

—Who’s who in Maryland eventing

Go eventing.

Good morning Eventing Nation!  Do you usually enjoy a nice cup of Starbucks to start the day?  Personally, I can’t stand to spend $5 on a cup of anything.  As my accounting professor always told us–if you took the money you spend each day on Starbucks and put it in a savings account with 5% interest, in 20 years you would have enough money to still go broke paying for a horse.  You probably already guessed this, but the photo was taken in Texas.  Two EN tipsters sent us the photo, so thanks to LB and KM.  As usual, I’m running late getting this posted and I have an early morning so here are your quick news and notes:

–Samantha posted an absolutely fabulous interview with David Wednesday afternoon.  I have no idea who the USEF will ultimately pick to be the next coach, but you can tell from David’s interview and from speaking with him in person that no one cares about the US job more.  David will be absolutely obsessed with leading the US back to greatness if he becomes the coach, and I think that is a big plus.  Our goal is to get interviews with all of the coaching candidates that have been made public over the next few weeks.  Remember that there are 3 to 4 candidates who have not been made public–it’s a bit like watching the NFL draft and only knowing half the players.  For our one reader just returning from a month in Siberia, here is the list of 5 public applicants:

Leslie Law
Phillip Dutton and Bobby Costello
David O’Connor
Andrew Hoy
Jimmy Wofford     

–There are three USEA events this weekend.  I’ll be at Rocking Horse in Florida assuming I don’t get murdered driving through the Ocala National Forest.  Paradise Farm is the Aiken event, and Ram Tap is being held in California.

–Sinead asked on her blog ‘what is another axle actually worth?‘  The smart aleck answer is that I suppose if you don’t need another axle, it would be pretty worthless, but if you do need one it would be as valuable as the vehicle. [Sinead’s blog]

–I want to give a quick shout-out for a Ralph Hill clinic in March, hosted by Kim Meier.  The clinic is March 12-13 at Blue Merle Eventing, Kim’s farm in Worton, MD.  I have never ridden with Ralph, but people who do so consistently speak highly of him, and it should be a great time.  It’s not only a great way to clear the winter cobwebs off, but it’s also a wonderful way to support two individuals who have given much to the sport, Ralph and Kim. Interested individuals should contact Kelly Morani ([email protected]).  [via MS]

–A horse story from Montana is gaining international attention, and it thankfully does not involve an ex-professional wrestler governing millions of people.  In late January, Montana authorities airlifted massive bales of hay into a remote and abandoned cattle ranch where 700 horses were starving to death.  The owner of the ranch, James H. Leachman, filed for bankruptcy and abandoned the horses to die. Leachman has been charged with animal cruelty and over $10,000 was raised to feed the horse until a permanent solution can be found.  On Tuesday, authorities repeated the airlift to sustain the horses.  [Horsetalk, photos]

–Two British shetlands have found an ideal rescue home [Horsetalk]

–US House of Representative amendment cuts BLM budget by $2 million [TJR]

–I wrote about Red Hills on Wednesday, and as a quick note from Nunn Finer, Dorothy Crowell–one of my former coaches–will be hosting a Nunn Finer course walk at Red Hills.  We’ll have more details as the event approaches.   
—Best of the Blogs: Valerie V’s season started with a bang at Pine Top

—Check out Omega Alpha on Facebook

—I’m feeling lucky

–Equisearch has redesigned it’s website and blog, and to celebrate, our good friend Fran Jurga has posted a dramatic report about a horse rescued from a frozen swimming pool in Germany.  The horse was sedated and the pool was emptied before a crane arrived to unceremoniously hoist the horse out of the pool.  As Fran mentioned, it would have been much nicer for them to have used a sling, but the horse’s life was saved and, in the end, that is what counts. [TJR]

That’s all for now.  Keep your radio dial tuned to Eventing Nation all day for your eventing ridiculousness and maybe some news.  Wherever you may be, thanks for making eventing nation part of your day.  Go eventing.

There was some debate earlier this year about whether the Rolex featured rider blogs would be back with the changes occurring at EEI.  But, the fan favorite feature returns in 2011 with three great riders to take us on their journey to Rolex.  The first entries are up [courtesy of KMD]:

Phillip Dutton post #1

Debbie Rosen post #1

The choice of bloggers this year is excellent.  Phillip–perhaps you have heard of him–is brief and to the point in his first post, as always.  The good news with Phillip is that he has so many horses that he is virtually guaranteed to get to Rolex, which is often a problem for the Rolex blog with their bloggers withdrawing before the competition.  You might recognize Frankie, who is based on the west coast, from some media work she has done with the USEA.  Debbie is of course a fan favorite and cancer survivor, also from the west coast–I look forward to reading her blogs in particular.  Go eventing.

It’s a busy Wednesday for the EN Team.  Annie is buried in schoolwork, Coren is buried in barn work, Samantha is surrounded by her kids recovering from the flu, and I am buried, as usual, in traveling.  Nothing glamorous, I promise, just miles of never-ending interstate in the truck that will lead me eventually to Ocala and Rocking Horse.  Here are a few links to stories we are keeping our eyes on today:

Lunchtime Update: The USEF Network will broadcast Rolex live online

Xentry is off to a good start with 400 registrants in the first week, video tutorial

Who Owns the Risk? — Eric Smiley FBHS at the Hartpury International Eventing Forum

Jimmy Wofford’s top 5 dressage book recommendations from 3D3W