Another personal favorite horse of mine, Catalina, with rider Candace Kircher. Photo via our amazing Jenni Autry
Good morning Eventing Nation!
Happy Friday to you! We’re on to Day Two of dressage at Fair Hill. The windy weather yesterday left the horses a bit tense, and no one in the CCI2* could break in to the 30s yet. Susan Beebee and Wolf lead on a 40.8 while my personal favorite, Danielle Dichting and The Graduate are not far behind in second with a 41.4 (which would have been 40.3 without their error. Of course I did the math.) Kim Severson and Cooley Cross Border lead the East Coast YEH 5 Year Old Championships heading in to the jumping phase tomorrow. Katie Murphy and Esccord RGS lead the YEH 4 Year Old Championships. The 5 year olds start the jumping course at 8:30 am and the 4 year olds start at 1:00 pm. The CCI3* dressage starts and the CCI2* dressage resumes at 9:00 am. Super thank you to Jenni Autry for all of our great Fair Hill coverage.
All things Fair Hill:
[Website] [Ride Times] [Overall Schedule] [Live Scores]
Other Events This Weekend:
Hagyard Midsouth Three-day Event & Team Challenge: [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]
Ram Tap Horse Trials: [Website] [Status/Times/Results]
Paradise Farm HT: [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]
The Event at Kelly’s Ford: [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Results]
The USEA has a wonderful first day coverage video of Fair Hill. Frankie Thieriot is lovely as always as she interviews the top placed riders after their dressage. Everyone’s excited about the fabulous weather at Fair Hill, and what a terrific event they always put on. Clayton Fredericks is looking forward to a warm and sunny Ocala winter, just for the record. And with the most adorable introduction, how can you not love this recap?! [Go USEA video recap] [CCI2*written recap] [YEH written recap] [And COTH has a recap]
And for your dressage viewing pleasure: The USEA photo galleries. [CCI2* photo gallery] [4 year old photo gallery] [5 year old photo gallery]
We love Fair Hill! Check out their latest blog entries: They’ve got pictures of the last bit of prep work done into the dark on Wednesday night. My favorite is the corn box (how much better than sand?!) and the awesome VIP tent. [Catching up on Wednesday] And Shannon Brinkman sent them a smorgasbord of photos from the jogs and day one of dressage. [More Fair Hill photos!]
The Fair Hill CCI2* and CCI3* Championships are not the only national CCI Championships being held this weekend. The CCI1* Championships are being held at the Hagyard Midsouth Kentucky Three Day in Lexington (KY, duh). Our very own Samantha will be there bringing us the best coverage. Selena Pape is hoping to defend her 2011 USEF National Amateur One-Star Champion title. [USEF release]
Jackie Green had quite the adventure getting to Le Lion D’Angers. They’re hosting 6 and 7 year old Championships. Apparently, it hasn’t stopped raining in France. Ferry changes, gale force winds, and a couple of illegal turns and wrong lanes, they made their destination. And I’m terrified of the penultimate xc jump. [Blondes on Tour]
Brian O’Connor has sent us an update on how Karen’s surgery went yesterday: “Karen is in ICU recovering from a length (5+ hr) procedure to put in a rod next to her vertebrae (T1-T10), a bit longer that what they thought, but stronger and better. She is in good spirits, from what Max (the superstar) says, she may be up and about later in the weekend. Great news this evening: loud cheers went up when the news was announced at the FHI welcome party. Lots of love and support from all the EN family. Dressage continues tomorrow. Hopefully without the 25 mph winds! Try the crab bisque…awesome food from FH!! Brian”
This is from Max's FB page regarding Karen's surgery courtesy of John
This week’s Eventing Radio Show has Michael Wynne of Uptown Eventing and Frances Stead of Clifton Eventing. Michael chats with John about sourcing horses, and how they’re always looking and always traveling to all the top events as well. “You don’t see anything at the garden at home.” Samantha chats with Frances about how she started Clifton Eventing. Frances has had 10 horse/rider combinations represent New Zealand, and 9 of the 10 were untested youngsters. Clearly, Frances has a terrific eye (with a leaning towards NZ TBs). [Eventing Radio Show]
If you don’t have plans for February 3, 2013, head on over to Hartpury College. They’re having a forum called “Journey to the Top”, starring Mark Todd, Mike Etherington-Smith, and David O’Connor. Hurry and get your early bird discounted rate on your tickets. Mark is doing a show jumping demo, ME-S and DO’C are talking XC from a builder and rider perspective. [Horse&Country]
Best of the Blogs: Boyd’s off to a good start with his first of two CCI2* rides. He’s siting in 8th on Master Frisky. Crackerjack does the dirty D today at 1:40 pm. [Boyd’s blog]
Honorable Mention: Chris Talley has been subbing in for Ryan Wood after he injured his back. Chris rode some of the Woodstock horses at Radnor HT last weekend, and scored a 19 in dressage on Woodstock’s Bennett! [Go Woodstock Eventing]
Relatable Best of the Blogs: Confessions of a AA Event Rider is writing a blog that she’s hoping to look back at next year and laugh. She’s batting .500 for completions of events this year, and if this were baseball, she’d be in the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, not great in the eventing world. Fortunately, however, Suzanne has a terrific spirit and sense of humor. [Just read her blog]
In the third video of this FLAIR Master Class Eventing video series, Eric Dierks and Ralph hill approach the solid Rock Walls — the first question of the 2012 Rolex Kentucky 4* Three-Day Event cross-country course: http://www.vimeo.com/51698511
[Go eventing.]
