Friends,
Greetings from beautiful Richland Park! And by “Richland Park” I mean “a Michigan McDonald’s!” But I was at Richland last night and I will be back tomorrow for the exciting beginning of one of North America’s best events. As a quick note before we get to the Michigan FAQs, I hope you have enjoyed reading the guest blogs from Colleen and Sharon today. Their seasons have taken different paths, but they are two of the classiest people in eventing and we are very thankful to have them both sharing their journeys with us. Now, in honor of nothing in particular I am bringing back an old and strictly informational series known as Frequently Asked Questions about Michigan.
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What is Michigan?
Michigan is a state that is located in the Great Lakes region of the United States. It was the 26th state added to the union and is currently the 8th most populated state. Michigan is the only state to be entirely constituted by two peninsulas.
I saw a little league team from the Great Lakes region on ESPN for the little league world series. They were from Kentucky. Is Michigan in Kentucky?
Michigan is two states north of Kentucky.
Ohh, is Michigan that state that looks like a mitten?
You might say that, yes. Also, the name Michigan comes from the French version of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, which means “large lake.”
I already knew that.
No, you didn’t.
Prove it. So talk to me about eventing in Michigan.
I’m glad you asked. Michigan has a thriving eventing culture that is governed by The Eventing Association of Michigan (TEAM). Back in the day, TEAM was called the Michigan Combined Training Association (MCTA), but then the USCTA became the USEA and MCTA became TEAM. Michigan hosts countless TEAM events and 5 USEA events each year, including Richland Park horse trials which is this weekend.
Where is Richland? Show me on the mitten.
Richland is located in south western Michigan, about 10 miles north of Kalamazoo Michigan, which for everyone not from Kalamazoo is 40 miles north of Ohio Indiana.
Kalamazoo. That’s from another Ojibwa word isn’t it?
Perhaps. Richland is hosting YEH through CIC3* divisions. It is also the Pan American Games eventing selection trials for the United States. Richland is a hugely popular event and I am told they had a waiting list of over 100 horses weeks ago.
Interesting. So are those mooses trying to eat the eagle?
One is an elk, one is a moose, and they are holding the shield up while the eagle holds an olive branch. Also, “mooses” is not a word. Can you ask a useful question for once?
How was your fantasy football draft last night?
*sigh*
