[via Doug Payne]
I love the smell of dressage in the morning. There’s just something about watching hours of well-dressed circles that makes me excited to get out of bed, grab my 17 electronic devices, hook the chinchillas up to their harnesses, and skip out the door. Joking aside, it’s great to be once again focusing on riding rather than the coaching situation. Red Hills does a fabulous job of putting on an event with and for the local community. Having competed at Red Hills several times, my favorite part of the event is that you really feel like you are at a big time event with competitor hospitality, the great trade fair, completely roped off cross-country, and much more. As an aside, today will be the first chance this season to see how many riders decide to wear their helmets at an FEI competition. Good luck to all the competitors and thanks in advance to the volunteers and organizers. Here are all the links you will ever need for Red Hills:
Now for your news and notes…
–The Henny ownership trial started on Thursday. The testimony did not conclude Thursday so the hearing will be continued at a future date to be specified later. Hopefully we will be getting good news about Henny soon.
–One aspect of Red Hills that we haven’t given much attention to yet is the fact that the event will be hosting the next stage of the Equine Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research Study from the USEA. Select horses will undergo tests before, during, and after cross-country to try to gain information about the relationship of cross-country to horse heart health. This is a fantastic program led by Dr. Mark Hart and I expect it to make some big steps forward in cardiovascular knowledge this year. [The Jurga Report]
—Update: A local Tallahassee Red Hills safety report includes an interview with Darren, warning–the video is not for the feint of heart. [WCTV]
The Rolex entry list has grown to 11 entries over the past few days with many many more on the way. Thursday the first international based entry showed up–New Zealander Joe Meyer with Snip. I would guess that international entries will be down a bit this year with the focus turning to England for 2012. Your Rolex entries so far [Rolex Entries]:
James Alliston JUMBO’S JAKEJames Alliston PARKERLaine Ashker ANTHONY PATCHKate Brown MOJITOHannah Burnett ST. BARTHSSarah Cousins TSUNAMIHeather Gillette OUR QUESTIONNAIRE KBoyd Martin LAST MONARCHJoe Meyer SNIPKaren O’Connor QUINTUS 54Frankie Thieriot FRIC FRAC BERENCE US
–Tinney Eventing update [An Eventful Life]
–I could try to top Annie’s joke from Thursday morning about this latest photo of Boyd and the local convicts, but I would just fall miserably short. Definitely a future caption contest in the making though.
–I want to take a moment to give a huge thanks to the EN Team for all of their wonderful help this weekend as always. Samantha and ESJ have been incredible with their reports from Red Hills so far and it is great fun to work with such cool people at events. You should follow @SamanthaLClark on Twitter for all the real-time updates from Red Hills, and check out Samantha’s blog each day for her Red Hills reports. [Thursday warm up videos, photos]
ESJ of course hosts the best website for eventing safety on earth [Eventing Safety Blog]. Annie will be out and about at Red Hills this weekend and Coren is competing in the CIC2* so we will forgive her for not writing something this weekend. And, of course, thanks to you our readers, who are very much considered part of the EN Team, for your ongoing support of Eventing Nation.
–Speaking of dressage, Cavalor rider Steffen Peters kicked butt Thursday at the World Dressage Masters Grand Prix. Steffen and Ravel finished on an incredible 80.87% [COTH]
–If you are at Red Hills, be sure to stop by the Point Two booth to meet the guys, check out the air jackets, or color swap your air jacket for a new color for $100. Mention Eventing Nation and I bet they’ll let you test an air jacket.
—Best of the Blogs: Windy Wofford Wednesday
–Zenyatta is confirmed pregnant [Bloodhorse]
–Ben Hobday was accepted to Badminton [H&H]
That’s all for now, I’ll pass on my typical video at the end of news and notes because we already have so many on the homepage. I have just added the last USEF open forum video for the night so check that out below. Check back throughout the day for everything Red Hills. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.
