Classic Eventing Nation

Sally Spickard is another of our awesome Blogger Contest finalists who will be contributing regularly to EN. After she submitted an epic list of the Top 10 Reasons PETA is Barking Up the Wrong Tree for the contest, I encouraged her to keep up the top-10 list tradition. Here’s her first installment as an official EN blogger.

One of the many reasons eventers do it better: tailgating!

Sally Spickard is 27 years old from St. Louis, Mo. She currently spends her free time stalking Eventing Nation for the latest Cooley Cross Border news (have you SEEN that horse yet?) and writing for We Are Cardinal Nation, a St. Louis Cardinals sports blog.

Hello Eventing Nation! Well, after the grueling journey that was the 2013 Blogger Contest, the resident chinchillas graciously asked me to contribute to EN on a regular basis after I threatened to expose the treacherous hazing traditions involving air vest canisters and lighters! I am back with a new Top 10 list this week; I know for a fact that the list could go on and on indefinitely, but I have compiled what I feel to be the most persuasive list of reasons why eventers are, on all accounts, the best there is. Without further ado…

1. Trotting/Cantering/Galloping/Falling Downhill

We all know that an integral part of being an event rider is being able to ride on terrain. I remember being petrified beyond belief at the thought of trotting my little 15-hand Connemara cross downhill at Queeny Park when I was a wee one. OK, I was 15, say something! I think it says a lot that we are able to fearlessly gallop up and down hills, across ditches and through water just to cross that finish line in optimum time. Plus, you’ve never really lived until you’ve successful lawn darted yourself into the side of a steep hill while your trusty steed gleefully runs off to find the greener grass at the bottom.

2. Jack of All Trades Syndrome

It is really an undervalued skill to know how best to complete dressage worthy braids, pick the correct set of studs out and apply them in 10 minutes or less, and somehow keep your focus on tap long enough to be able to memorize a tricky stadium course over the course of two or three days. Eventers are world class multitaskers, and that is evident every time you see us wrestling two different saddles and a matching saddle pad and outfit for each one out of a compact car at each event.

3. Speaking of Jack of All Trades, we also help keep trainers from multiple disciplines in business.

At one point in time, I had 3 coaches — one for my college team, a jumping instructor and a dressage instructor. I am sure I could take a poll and find that many of us have had multiple trainers at one point in our eventing lives. It gets addicting, really, to want to learn and train with the best, and since we have three different phases to require coaching for, the sport really lends itself well to those who have an extreme thirst for knowledge.

4. Our ability to condense all of our medical information onto one 3×4-sized piece of paper.

I mean, I’m talking primary care doctors, secondary care doctors, optometrists, dentists, psychics and hypnotists. All so I can keep it strapped to my arm at all times just in case my pre-competition Xanax wears off. Wait, that’s not what those are for? I always just thought it was a pharmaceutical speed dial form; I added a liquor store that delivers to mine just in case of emergency.

5. We are excellent color coordinators.

Move over, Martha Stewart; we can give your color matching skills a run for their money. I know more than a few eventers who will make several calls to SmartPark’s customer service just to ensure that Midnight Blue is in fact the correct shade of navy-but-not-too-navy that will match the rest of Max’s gear. It’s a sickness, really — the color scheme game. I’ve tried to stay easy with navy blue and white, but you really wouldn’t believe how many shades of “navy” there are. Ok, that call to SmartPak was made by me, but the saddle pad REALLY needed to match the ear bonnet. You understand, right?

6. Eventers have a special camaraderie that does not seem to exist in other disciplines.

If you take a stroll through a stable row at an event, you’ll see a culture that is distinctly noticeable in every part of the eventing world. Everywhere you look, there are people lending a hand, giving a leg up, loaning equipment or just sharing a story about the particularly scary trakehner on course that day. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s probably just because we are all crazy and crazy loves company, but hey, we have fun, and that’s the most important part.

7. We have Boyd Martin.

I really should have put this one at number one because really, what better reason is there to take up the sport?

8. We are 100 percent supportive if you want to tailgate at one of our events.

I mean, what better way to show your support for your barn or rider of choice than to bring a chair or pop the tailgate down, crack open a cold adult beverage, and scream and cheer obnoxiously loud when your rider successfully navigates the water complex? Chinchilla studies have shown that tailgating exponentially increases the effectiveness of your cheers of encouragement, so it’s a scientific fact that tailgating should be supported and encouraged at every event.

9. We give a lot of OTTBs new leases on life.

CANTER is pinned to my homepage as one of my most visited websites, and I’m not even horse shopping at the moment! There are so many people and organizations that have helped Thoroughbreds find new jobs as eventers once their racing careers are over. What would we do without the likes of Courageous Comet out there to cheer on? I swear, if I had the means, you’d find me on the eventing edition of the show Hoarders before too long. I had 50-plus Grand Champions when I was a kid; don’t think I couldn’t do it. (Editor’s note: Who remembers Grand Champions?!? You know you hoarded them too!)

10. And finally, we eventers have created a culture in which anyone, rich or poor, big or small can participate.

The thing I have always loved the most about eventing is the grass roots element. I love that the sport is accessible to all levels and that the community as a whole seems to embrace the upper and lower levels as one and the same. I will likely never wear the red coat at the Olympics, but I have the opportunity to represent my area each year at championships, and that is a great feeling. Eventers know how to do it best, and while this list is mostly joking, the bottom line is that our relationship with our horses and each other is something that is irreplaceable — no matter your sport of choice.

Eventing 25/Developing Rider Katy Groesbeck sent in an excellent report from the USEF Eventing High Performance Training Sessions with David O’Connor held at Woodside last week. We really appreciate Katy including so much detail, especially about David’s tricky vertical exercise, which Katy explains through a diagram below. Go Katy, and go West Coast eventing.

David O'Connor works with Katy Groesbeck and Oz the Tin Man at Woodside.

This past weekend saw the latest installment of the West Coast USEF High Performance Training Sessions. In attendance was World Class pair Kristi Nunnink and R-Star, in addition to Eventing 25/Developing Riders Marc Grandia, Avery Klunick, Jordan Lindstedt, Zach Brandt and myself. We missed seeing Teresa Harcourt and Mackenna Shea this weekend, but we are sure they were at home working hard!

First of all, I want to start off by reminding everyone how incredibly fortunate we are as riders and auditors to have access to these training sessions. I was able to bring a second horse to school with David, and many others came from around the area to ride with him as well and benefit from his seemingly unlimited source of insight and experience. The fact that these training sessions are not only free to audit but also open to outside riders is something we should all be grateful for when we consider the fact that almost every other U.S. Olympic team severely restricts access to their training sessions and coaches. We are all blessed to get a sneak peek into the inner workings of what David has in store for Team USA.

This sense of community and public involvement is a major talking point for David. On Friday night, “we” — riders, coaches, spectators, parents, boyfriends, girlfriends and everyone else possibly involved with the sport – were invited to a wonderful dinner hosted by Victoria Klein. David spoke to us about his beginnings with the USET and how it takes a group of supporters and believers, how it takes a COUNTRY to get a rider to a podium. He inspired many of us with the question, “Four riders in this country will go to the Olympics. How many will be from this room?” He also spoke about his goal to improve the standard of riding in this country and make sure that riders are studying the craft of their sport; he feels that if we are focused on becoming great riders, we can then produce great horses. And as a rider, our jobs are to make average horses good, good horses great and great horses superstars. David definitely electrified the room with his passion and emotion.

David’s passion and commitment are also evident in his teaching. Those of us riding and watching and setting fences throughout the weekend would have been hard pressed to overlook the intensity of his desire to see us improve, learn and grow as riders. It was also rewarding to see him grin and nod his head every time he thought we “got it” or every time he recognized an improvement since the beginning of our training in January. I can’t tell you how great it is to hear him say, “Perfect!” or give you his simple thumbs up as he turns his head to the next rider in line. You really feel like you have accomplished something to get approval from DOC!

The lessons this weekend focused on fine-tuning our riding as many of us prepare to set out for Rebecca Farms, but David has a way of always bringing it back to the fundamentals, even as we polish our techniques. On Thursday we all worked on our dressage, but I don’t think a single one of us did any lateral work or practiced any test movements. We didn’t even have a dressage court ring set up. Instead we worked on the “tools” that we will need in the show ring — the subtle aids and lines of communication that will be necessary parts of every movement. With my horse — and many others — we worked on the transitions between working and collected and super-collected gaits and also the transitions between gaits.

David is adamant about looking for a change in the horse’s body or footsteps, and we are each striving to get our horses dialed in to the point that we can get a big change with little work from us. It should be as seamless as possible, and the horse should be waiting for the most subtle cues. Most of us also worked on straightness and getting the horse to take weight evenly on the hind end. It is common that horses will let their hips fall to the outside of the direction of travel, so we worked on moving the shoulders over so as to be farther outside than the haunches, and in this way encouraging the horse to take more weight more evenly behind. It was subtle to feel as a rider, but very clear to see when I watched other riders execute the same exercise.

David O'Connor's vertical exercise

Many of the Developing Riders were wary of David’s plans for us as we set up the fences for Day 2. One exercise included four verticals set parallel down the long side of the ring, side-by-side, 24 feet between each. As he introduced the exercise Friday morning, he said that we would eventually be jumping each, weaving down the line in four strides or less. My eyes were probably bulging when he said that. But as we progressed from jumping and turning over the first and third to jumping on a very open loop from one to the next to closing down the angle and jumping on a shallow serpentine over all four fences, it started to not only be possible but fun!

The horses started to hunt for the next fence and we started riding thinking about “next.” We had to not only think about the pace we needed to successfully execute each fence, but also the angle of the line and where we needed to be LANDING in order to negotiate all the fences. By the end of the ride, many of us were able to ride from vertical to vertical in THREE strides and the horses were eating it up. I will also say that this exercise improved the form of one of my horses, as he had to make a separate effort both front end and back to not clip the fence on such a drastic angle and be precise about his landing gear. He was very supple and careful by the conclusion of the exercise.

The precision of our landing/line and encouraging the horse to hunt for the next fence was the theme that carried over to Day 3, when we worked on cross country exercises. Some of us schooled on the cross country course at Woodside and some of us stayed in the ring, but, regardless, David was adamant that we think about landing in a specific spot — a circle on the back side of the fence about 1 meter in diameter. As we started to focus on that precision, we also became more aware of the things happening underneath of us, such as drifting left or drifting right, and only when we are aware of the problem can we fix it! It was an eye-opening reminder to be in the moment and aware, not just going from one fence to the next.

I personally feel that the most incredible part of participating in the training sessions has been watching the friendships develop between the riders and David and watching everyone give back as much as they are taking away. The barn aisle is full of shenanigans and jokes as we each tend to our horses, and there is plenty of teasing to go around as we all try with varying success to negotiate the exercises David sets for us. We are all also pretty comfortable teasing David about his Diet Coke addiction at this point. But beyond that, we are all also sharing in each other’s successes and stand behind each other 100 percent. And for every minute we spend getting instruction, we spend twice that long in the ring setting fences, raking the arena, and watching the other riders and horses go through the same series of struggles and victories as we all strive to improve and become better horsemen.

I know I speak on behalf of the Eventing 25/Developing Riders as well as World Class rider Kristi Nunnink when I say that we are ceaselessly appreciative of the opportunity we have been given to work with David at incredible facilities such as the Horse Park at Woodside, and we appreciate all of the hard work that goes into putting on these training sessions. David O’Connor and Joanie Morris put in looooooong days to see that we all improve and learn. We also owe a big thank you to the United States Equestrian Federation and all of its members for investing money in us as we pursue our dreams of excellence.

HN)">Nice britches (via HN)

Apparently Buck Davidson is good at golf and John is terrible at golf? I don’t know, I’m just the messenger. Here is the accompanying explanation that got sent down from EN’s corporate chinchilla headquarters.

Chinchilla Note: We regret to inform you that John recently lost a bet to Buck Davidson over a game of golf. The prize was naming rights to this News & Notes post. In no way do we endorse John’s terrible golf play. It’s like dressage being a part of eventing. We all hate it and we all just have to live with the consequences.

Burn! Sorry, John. Moving right along…

Events Opening Today:

Moqui Meadows H.T. (Colorado, A-9), Town Hill Farm H.T. (Connecticut, A-1), KY Classique H.T. (Kentucky, A-8),  Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Fall H.T. (Virginia, A-2), Silverwood Farm Fall H.T. (Wisconsin, A-4),  Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Georgia, A-3), Corona Del Sol H.T. (Texas, A-5), Steepleview Labor Day H.T. (Minnesota, A-4),  Stanton Farms H.T. (Idaho, A-7)

Events Closing Today:

Millbrook H.T. (New York, A-1), River Glen Summer H.T. (Tennessee, A-3), Silverwood Farm Summer H.T.  (Wisconsin, A-3), Catalpa Corner Charity Horse Trial (Iowa, A-4), Rocky Mountain H.T. (Colorado, A-9)

News:

The Adequan FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships kick off today at the Kentucky Horse Park with the Opening Ceremonies and annual *very important* Golf Cart Parade. (Check out photos of Area 6’s parade entry, “Bob the Golf Cart,” on their blog here.) Keep it tuned to EN throughout the week for competition coverage, rider/groom blogs and more. [Website] [Schedule] [Entry List]

Top British event rider Laura Collett is out of intensive care following injuries suffered in rotational fall at Tweseldown last week. The 23-year-old was placed in an induced coma to help heal a punctured lung but has since been brought out of sedation and is, according to British team manager Yogi Breisner, “already planning her return to riding.” Classic eventer. [Horse & Hound]

Polish researchers have discovered that, if given the choice, most horses will choose to go around an obstacle rather than jump it. Also, they concluded that “sport horses” are more willing to jump than “leisure horses,” and that the higher the jump, the less willing the horses are to jump it. Wow–that’s really… not surprising at all. [Horse Talk NZ]

A three-and-a-half months pregnant Zara Phillips had some paparazzi following her around at Brightling Horse Trials over the weekend. [Getty Images] The royal eventer rode two horses in the CIC2*, finishing 29th and 35th. [Horse & Country TV] Zara doesn’t look to be letting up on her riding anytime soon: She is also entered in the Aston-le-Walls Horse Trials this weekend and the Carlton trials on July 27. [Telegraph]

SmartPak Product of the Day: Don’t let sweaty, slippery reins ruin your ride. Get a grip with Harwich Rubber Reins by SmartPak. Supple, grippy and easy to clean, they’re a must-have item for eventers who have better things to do than get run away with. [SmartPak]

Best of the Blogs: Alexa Ahlers’s Road to Young Riders No. Two [FLAIR]

Top of the Tweets: NAJYRC is already running full-speed ahead on the social media front–keep up on Facebook and Twitter.

Found on Facebook: Wouldn’t your horse look smashing in a Custom Mattes Ear Bonnet from World Equestrian Brands? Click here to enter HN’s caption contest.

Video: Young Rider Connor Husain and Piece Of Hope turned in an individual gold medal winning performance at the 2012 NAJYRC. [RNS Video]

Rowdie Adams and No Money Down will compete for Area V in the 2-star.  Photo from Rocking Horse Winter II HT, by Samantha Clark.

It’s July, it’s hot, and Young Riders is upon us!  Once again the 2013 North American Junior and Young Riders Championships is being held at the grand Kentucky Horse Park.  Riders under the age of 21 will be competing in most of the FEI disciplines, including dressage, eventing, show jumping, reining, and endurance.

Here are your eventing team members for the CCI*-J (18 and under) and CCI**-Y (16-21).

CH-J

Area I & IV (scramble team)

• Marissa Ashton / S.S. Bank   (I)
• Isabella Carrara / Crystal Clear   (I)
• Melanie Rousseau / Menai Creek    (IV)
• Patrick Zinck / Steeley Dan     (IV)

Area II

• Morgan Booth / Lucky Little Spy
• Caroline Day / Malibu
• Madeline Parison / Hope to Star
• David Pawlak / Just Bailey
• Chase Shipka / Victory Shetan

Area III

• Lily Barlown / Grayboo
• Victoria Clayton / The Secret Agent
• Ashley Dodds / Manhattan
• Nicole Doolittle / Tops
• Diane Portwood / Cinerescent

Area V

• Reagan LaFleur / Orient des Touches
• Bailey Moran / Loughnatousa Caislean
• Elizabeth New / Uppercrust D
• Ann O’Neal Pevahouse / Don Bosco
• Calvin Ramsay / Hoodwink
• Grayson Wall / Stryker

Area VI & IX (scramble team)

• Natalie Kuhny / Case Closed   (VI)
• Brynn Littlehale / Forgotten Emblem  (VI)
• Erika Carson / Celtic Prince   (IX)
• Amy Gilbertson / One Honest Man   (IX)

Area VII & VIII (scramble team)

• Ashlynn Meuchel / Morning Star (VII)
• Mary Peabody Camp / Rave Review  (VIII)
• Emily Macauley / Canadian Exchange  (VIII)
• Margaret Ragan / Surefire’s Anwar   (VIII)

Ontario

• Lauren Clark / Yoscha Bosche
• Moira de St. Croix / Blue Ben
• April Simmons / Impressively Done
• Jamie Kellock / Don’t Blink
• Mia Dover Terrattaz / Etoile

Alberta

• Rebecca David McIsaac / Irish

Quebec

• Rae Becke / Tyne Be Merry

CH-Y   

Area II & IV  (scramble team)

• Hanna Krueger / Pinney North  (II)
• Abigail Wilson / Fernhill Flag  (II)
• Alexander O’Neal / Corinthian (IV)

Area III

• Mary Atkins Hunt / Nuance
• Matilda Segal / Guinnes
• Jenny Caras / Fernhill Stowaway
• Caroline Martin / Quantum Solace

Area V

• Mary Cargile / Take the Mick
• Rowdie Adams / No Money Down
• Elexa Ehlers / In Any Event

Area VII, VIII, & IX (scramble team)

• Lizzie Snow / Ringfort Tinkaturk  (VII)
• Erin Strader / Radio Flyer  (VIII)
• Jacqueline Larouche / The Gingerbread Man   (IX)

Ontario

• Haley Armstrong-Laframboise  / DeJavu
• Dasha Ivandeaeva / Autorytet

Ella Rak impressed us with her writing ability and fun style so much that she made it to the Final Four of EN’s 2013 Blogger Contest.  As with the rest of the finalists, we invited Ella to contribute a weekly piece to the site.  Thanks to Ella for writing, and thank you for reading.

Ella Rak, 16, is a High School student, Aspiring Lower Level Eventer, C2 Pony Clubber and Equestrian-procrastinator extraordinare. Defining Characteristics: Strong willed, Easily distracted by horses (I should be studying for final exams right now, but instead cleaned tack and wrote this article), and slightly OCD (that record book WILL be perfect).

As Eventing Nation’s resident Pony Clubber, I thought I would share a little bit about eventing in the group that started so many of us off. With East Coast Championships only a week away, the best Pony Clubbers east of the Mississippi congregate at a massive week long competition at the Virginia Horse Center for a USEA-recognized Pony Club rally. That’s right, we are on the Omnibus. Every person has their own rituals and procedures when it comes to eventing, but Pony Clubbers have a very unique view of horse showing and eventing. You can tell a Pony cCubber at an event from a mile away from their impeccably clean EVERYTHING, independent demeanor and predisposition to be early. Most eventers you run into have had some sort of background in the organization, so it should come as no surprise when that the majority of the two disciplines overlap, but certain traits are uniquely Pony Club and quite visible at any rally.

Turnout wise, no one can beat a Pony Clubber. You think no one will notice that you didn’t polish your metal? Oh no. You think that a little dandruff won’t hurt anyone or that it doesn’t matter if your stitching is a little loose? Think again. If events had formals before them, things would not be pretty, but when you head into that dressage ring, it will show. Even in the jumping phases, though the colors may be crazy, you can be sure that a Pony Clubber is jumping in safe tack on a well-cared-for horse.

‘Prepared’ is a Pony Clubber’s middle name. The rally kit has the answer to any problem you could possibly run into. Medical, tack, grooming… if something goes wrong, find your nearest Pony Clubber and he or she is guaranteed to be able to help, trust me, I’ve tried. There is an extra EVERYTHING. Bridle miraculously disappears? Got one. Horse broke his halter? What size do you need, I have 2 of each. This also leads to a variety of very interesting multi-use items when God forbid your missing something. You forget your belt? Just use the extra stirrup leathers. Stirrups slippery? Vet wrap and adhesive tape and you’re good to go.  You can never go wrong with asking a Pony Clubber.

Pony Clubbers are safe. Though ‘safe’ is a very relative term when running thousand-pound animals at solid objects, when you are required to read rule books from front to back, you have a good idea of what the limits are. The horse comes first no matter what, and your horse better be fully cooled out, clean and happy as a clam before you go check scores. I am a major proponent of the vet box, and Pony Club does a great job of teaching riders to quickly and efficiently cool out their horses. On the flip side, you learn very quickly how to work the loop holes. Of course that isn’t an entire bottle of Listerine in my horse’s tail! I have worked SO hard to get rid of that rain rot but Microtex just won’t work (as you find the crud)! This skill can come in very helpful when talking to judges, stewards etc. when things don’t go as well as planned. The only way to work the rules is to know the rules and you can bet your behind a Pony Clubber will.

So as you go to your next event, try to pick out the Pony Clubbers. The ones with schedules written out on note cards down to the minute; the ones whose boots gleam and horses sparkle; the kids who take more meticulous care of their ponies than most adults. The ones winning.

Several years ago when this site was in its infancy, John and I were positively thrilled to learn that 25 unique users visited Eventing Nation in a 24-hour period. We had readers! Real live people, other than our parents, best friends and dogs! We struggled to find two or three posts per day, usually highlighted by some random YouTube video mixed with John’s lame attempt at humor. (Don’t pretend, you know sometimes you smiled reading it just to be polite, meanwhile thinking, “I hope this guy has a real job.”) We recruited a few of our friends to write for us because I didn’t have enough grooming tips to last every day, and even John’s dog was getting bored with YouTube videos. Our mission was to develop a fun, creative site to support the sport of eventing and to publish things that we would want to read ourselves.

Somehow, the baby blog began to grow and pick up a few more readers. More than 90 people actually participated in our first-ever Census! We even had UPPER-LEVEL riders reading our posts! How exciting! John ran around the Rolex course with a video camera, making us all sick with flashbacks of “The Blair Witch Project.” More of our friends started to realize “hey, this is a cool thing going on!”  And we asked them to write something because our other friends had given up. We begged readers to send us submissions because finding enough material to fill seven days is a lot harder than you realize. I’ll never forget the first time I went to an event and overheard someone in the stabling say, “I read on this site, Eventing Nation, the other day …”  Total random strangers were now reading our site!  Every other day, at least!

And the site continued to grow. John went to another USEA convention and again managed to sit through all the boring stuff to bring us everything we really needed to know, all while he was bumming a room off a friend to save on travel costs. A few cool upper-level writers blessed us with some guest blogs, and now we looked really legit. We could bring you the inside scoop straight from the horse’s mouth!  We broke a few big stories by being in the right place at the right time. The mainstream media that had tried to ignore us couldn’t anymore, and we started getting links from the big guys. The site kept growing, sponsors started noticing and suddenly the site could afford to pay its writers a nominal amount for their hard work writing chinchilla poems at 1 a.m. Sweet!

Success was not without its growing pains, however. Today, people check EN for their daily dose of the latest news and ridiculousness about eventing. We used to be more “ridiculous” than “news.” But at some point people started coming to us for a comprehensive overview of news and inside information from all over the world of eventing. We welcomed that challenge as an honor, but it was every bit as intimidating as you would expect. Suddenly, more people were aware of what we were saying, so we had to be more careful and think a little bit more before we speak, lest we be accused of being a “tabloid” or gossip column or reporting false rumors. We broke the scoop on the U.S. 2010 WEG Team minutes after the riders were informed and hours before the higher-up USEF committees were scheduled to rubber-stamp the selections. And then we found out the Big Whigs, the Powers That Be, actually read what we write, and that somehow they also had our phone number.  The chinchillas let John take those calls.

How would you feel knowing that David O’Connor reads what you write? Even the ridiculous chinchilla poems?  (OK, maybe he skims over those.)  It can make you sit up a little straighter in your sofa typing on your laptop at 3 a.m, knowing that your upcoming dressage judge, leaders of the USEA/USEF, and editors from “The Chronicle of the Horse” will read (and possibly even care) about your assessment of the USET training sessions or view your photos from cross country at the day’s event. We’ve learned that if you’re not careful, these things can encourage you to get too serious and forget about why you started doing this in the first place. One thing we’ve also learned is that you can’t make everyone happy! But as long as our readers keep coming back, we must be doing something right.

We have always been a lot more concerned with who we are than what we are. Fundamentally, we’re eventers and horse people first. I have five horses and a foal to take care of seven days a week and two or three to ride each day. I look forward to going novice and training level with my youngster, just like you do. I fall off, just like you do. I chase my horse around the field because he won’t come in, just like you do. I clean stalls, fill water buckets and clean tack — just like you do. I’m glad Eventing Nation can be my job, but horses will always be my life — just like you. We perhaps have a louder voice than most, but we’re every bit as committed to positively and fairly promoting our great sport and its competitors as you are. So while we’ve come a long way here at Eventing Nation, we’ll always stay true to our roots.

Phillip Dutton took Mr. Medicott out for their first competition at MDHT II. Photo via Dutton Eventing's FB.

Good morning, EN! I’m still buzzing about my weekend at the Maryland Horse Trials; I took my partner of almost ten years out for our first Training event ever. I’m not one for emotional displays, but bringing home my 20-year-old horse clear around XC choked me up pretty good. I came home with a good number of things to work on [reading Kate’s post cemented my decision to go to a dressage show], and a lot to be excited about. To the organizers of the event: well done, it was on-time, and the services towards riders and spectators was top-notch. I almost died when someone offered to carry my tack back to the trailer after cross-country. Thank you, to all the organizers and volunteers!

Weekend Results:

The Maryland H.T. at Loch Moy Farm II

Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials (Cancelled)

Champagne Run at the Park

Coconino Summer I

Chattahoochee Hills HT

Roebke’s Run HT

University of New Hampshire HT

Whidbey Island Pony Club HT

Events Opening this Week:

Moqui Meadows H.T. (Colorado, A-9) Town Hill Farm Horse Trials (Connecticut, A-1)KY Classique H.T. (Kentucky, A-8)  Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Fall H.T. (Virginia, A-2) Silverwood Farm Fall H.T. (Wisconsin, A-4)  Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Georgia, A-3) Corona Del Sol Horse Trials (TX, A-5) Steepleview Labor Day Horse Trials(Minnesota, A-4)  Stanton Farms H.T. (Idaho, A-7)

Monday News:

Phillip Dutton competed for the first time with Mr. Medicott, Karen O’Connor’s Olympic ride, at the Maryland Horse Trials in Intermediate. He finished eighth in his division. There were many big names at the event, Jan Bynny won an Intermediate division with Syd Kent, Buck Davidson won on Mar De Amor and D.A. Adirmo, and Boyd Martin made his competitive comeback after injury, riding New Cadet in Preliminary. [MDHT Results]

Zara Phillips is still riding strong into the fourth month of her pregnancy. The British Olympian will reportedly stop riding after the British Festival of Eventing at Gatcombe next month, where the annual Championships are held. Please excuse the horrid headline, as it is British tabloid fare. [Express UK]

Tiana Coudray writes about the Aachen experience, and her hopes for Finn after a great spring season. It’s clear that she and the rest of the world are excited about Finn and his continued improvements since London, and  we’re excited with her to see what comes next! [My Aachen Experience]

Eventing Worldwide has a report from Upton Horse Trials in Oxfordshire, where many top riders in the area were competing their young horses, including Andrew Nicholson, Oliver Townend, Pippa Funnell and Lucinda Fredricks. Also included are some top notch photos. [Eventing Worldwide]

Evention is back with the 3rd installment of ‘How to Train Your OTTB’