With all of the attention we have been giving the US coaching search and training sessions lately on EN, we haven’t been showing our Canadian friends much love. So, this ‘News and Notes’ intro is dedicated to the land of maple syrup and April snow.
The Canadian Team training sessions with DOC have been going on this week. Monday was dressage day, Tuesday jump, Wednesday dressage again, and it’s a XC school today. The veterans Kyle Carter, Rebecca Howard, Jessica Phoenix, Diana Burnett, Steph Rhodes Bosch, and Selena O’Hanlon are joined by Canada’s developing talent–Kendal Lehari, Danica Moore, and Shandiss Wewiora. Danish Grand prix dressage guru Gunnar Ostergaard has been tag-teaming the dressage lessons with David. Gunnar worked with the US team a while ago, and anyone whose name has two A’s in a row has to be pretty awesome. Team vet Dr. Ober looked all of the horses over, and I’m told they are all looking good, which is good considering it’s February and there is a long season ahead. Now for your news and notes:
—Badminton is now accepting entries. With the London Olympics next year, we will see a larger than normal international contingent this year. As the Badminton blog points out, Canada will be sending three or four riders, and, from what I have head, I expect about as many US riders to make their way over to England. We’ll have more specifics as we get them over the next few weeks. Badminton entries close March 3rd. [Badminton blog]
–Word is that folks from the US Olympic Committee (USOC) will be doing baseline fitness tests on some of the US riders at the Ocala training sessions, which start today. Imagine the look on the faces of the poor USOC experts. After the first rider asks them for a light, and the second asks them for a bottle opener at 9 in the morning, I think they’ll be hopping right back on their plane to go back to dealing with Michael Phelps. Joking aside, the USEF is doing exactly the right thing by trying to bring more athletic and cross-training awareness to our program. I just don’t think anyone wants to watch any of those riders run a mile as fast as they can.
–Update: Debbie McDonald credits helmet with saving her life [Riders4Helmets]
–In one of the oddest statistical distributions of results I have ever seen, guys won 7 of the 8 divisions at Full Gallop on Wednesday. I only point this out because us guy eventers in North America are so outnumbered that we usually struggle to win a handful of divisions at any given event. Nonetheless, Doug Payne won 3 divisions, Matt Flynn won 2, Will Coleman won 1, and Michael Pollard won 1 division. To take a trip down statistics class memory lane, that’s like reaching into a bag full of 85 blue socks and 15 white socks, and randomly pulling out 7 straight white socks. That’s so statistically unlikely that I feel like we might go 4 more years of eventing without seeing guys win 7/8 divisions at an event. On top of that, Michael Pollard took the top four spots in the intermediate division. [Full Gallop Results]
–Wylie Eventing has posted a pretty brilliant collection of ‘horse owner texting acronyms.’ EN Team, why didn’t you guys think of this post idea? Here are a few of my favorites, click the link for the rest. Remember EN: don’t text and ride. [Wylie Eventing]
OOH – out of hay
LAS – lost a shoe
FOMHL – fell off my horse laughing
IPTI – I’ll pick up tennis instead
LWW – lesson went well
MSMBO – mud sucked my boot off
PIHH – poop induced half halt
GBBF – got board bill, fainted
HRHCF – husband realized horse costs, fainted
DQFOY – Dressage Queen fell off – yipee
HGR – have a great ride!
–If you haven’t turned on CNN, or any other news channel for that matter, in the last week then I should tell you that there is a problem in Egypt. You know how it goes–people don’t like government, government doesn’t care, people rampage and pillage, government starts to care, people pillage more, sometimes the government falls. At least, that’s the technical version of what happens. Furthermore, before you go casting judgment on the heathen Egyptian rioters, remember that the United States was founded by pretty much the same process.
At any rate, if you are stuck in the middle of an Egyptian riot in a city with collapsing infrastructure, suddenly horses start to seem like pretty valuable vehicles. And sure enough, the Egyptian protesters have started using horses to great effect. It’s amazing to me that after a hundred years of industrial revolution, after putting mankind on the moon with a Saturn V rocket, that horses are still playing an integral role in world news. Eventers do some incredible things with horses, but we should never forget how important horses have been in shaping the history of the world.
—Shockwave discussion at the AAEP [TheHorse.com]
–We have an exciting lineup of spring guest bloggers coming soon so stay tuned for that.
—Ecogold never neglects the Canadians [Ecogold’s blog]
–Pennfield has added two new dealers, one is called Anderson Hardware in Joppa, MD, and the other is Higby’s Country Feed in Dixon, CA–which is their first dealer in Northern California. Check out their dealer locator for more information.
–Don’t forget to enter our EN Point Two Contest
–Also, the world famous SmartPak blog has two posts featuring eventers today: ‘The top-10 eventing products,’ and ‘Meet Cynthia and Do It Exact.’
—Best of the blogs: The Galloping Vet
That’s all for now. I’ll be around throughout the day with all of your eventing news, commentary, and fun assuming I don’t wreck my truck on the way to Florida. We have a new sponsor announcement soon, as well as a new contest starting today. Wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. See you soon…
