Pictures just can’t capture how scenic it is here at Bromont
The Bromont dressage is just starting with the CCI* and CCI** competing today. The CCI3* and training level compete on Friday. Here is a quick selection of notes that Annie might call random, but that are actually carefully designed and custom fit for your reading pleasure.
[Live Bromont Scores, Tentative Schedule PDF]
1) The competitors reception at 6:00pm today will host a very special Calcutta auction to raise funds for Lillian, Ryan, and Caitlin, whose apartment was destroyed in the True Prospect 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 and from what I have heard the team names are awesome and ridiculous at the same time. From what I hear, Phillip is on a team named ‘Girl Power’ and I’m not sure Phillip has been told.
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. From speaking with the organizers on Wednesday, they are going to make sure the money gets directly to Lillian, Woodsy, and Caitlin. Word is that Jon holling is going to do something outrageous to raise as much money for his team as possible, so, needless to say, I won’t be missing the auction. As the saying goes, hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife. Additionally, Mark and David will both be picking teams from their respective coaching countries to make an international team competition.
2) Speaking of True Prospect, it’s great to see Phillip and Abbie out here competing this weekend. Jennie told me yesterday that Ping has arrived safely in Europe, so True Prospect is being proudly represented all over the world this weekend. One other note that I had forgotten until Annie’s video post on Wednesday is that Minotaure du Passoir won the CCI* here last year with Boyd. It’s amazing that Min was released from the hospital just a day before Bromont started.
3) Using my extensive training in meteorology, called the Weather Channel, the weather is expected to get cooler and cooler here at Bromont, with scattered thunderstorms predicted for today, Saturday, and Sunday. [Weather]
4) Samantha mentioned to me yesterday that the course looked like a mini-Rolex track and I responded by saying that I wouldn’t call it a ‘mini-anything.’ You can see from the jump by jump photos we posted yesterday that the course is massive. The course follows last year’s track almost exactly and many of the jumps are the same. The coffin caused a few issues last year and that was changed to a brush vertical on the out for this year. Course desiner Derek Di Grazia really likes angled brush fences and brush in general–brush is a great technique to keep the horses off of the solid part of the fences.
5) The training course is probably the hardest one I have ever seen. I probably shouldn’t have told that to two young training level riders at the Ecogold booth who hadn’t walked the course yet, but I did. Their Mom seemed a lot more worried about it than they did.
The biggest training level corner I have ever seen
6) I’m just going to write my CCI3* picks before I think about it too much. 1. Mar De Amor, 2. Loughan Glen, 3. Rehy Lux, with Here’s to You as my dark horse pick–because he’s a dark bay.
7) You know that point where good shoes become barn shoes? After two course walks yesterday, I am so there.
Go eventing.
