Good Morning Eventing Nation! Yesterday was a big day and I’ve got a feeling that today is going to be even bigger. Ocala is the place to be right now. The Canadian training sessions came to a close yesterday and the US training sessions started up, all of them taking place at Meredyth South, otherwise known as the O’Connor farm. I only caught about five minutes of one of the Canadian cross-country sessions, but the five minutes I did see involved Kyle Carter giving a humorous live commentary as he was riding one exercise, complete with several lieutenant worthy “Sir, yes sirs”, that I assumed were directed at David. It was quite entertaining actually, whoever thought training sessions were all business?
John arrives in Ocala today, so prepare yourselves because Eventing Nation is in full force and ready to report on all the goings-on in the US training sessions starting from today out.
Some of yesterday’s highlights:
Eventing Nation is cool for a multitude of reasons, but it’s coolness factor was definitely raised with yesterday’s release of Equine Canada’s letter to the FEI. Whether everyone at Equine Canada cared if the letter was published or not doesn’t make it seem any less Wikileak worthy. If only John could publish all the things that people leak tell him, now that’d be a website.
52 Horses were rescued from Slaughter via Facebook. John posted this remarkable story yesterday, but to catch up our friends just returning home from Siberia:
“The impromptu Facebook campaign was more successful than Boggs could have imagined– she received more than 4,000 phone calls and hundreds of text messages about the horses, and four days later, on Feb. 1, the last horse left the farm around 10:30 p.m.“
And onto today’s news:
Update: WIliam Micklem says Horses Provide New Legs For Old And New Moments To Seize
Galway Horse Trials starts today at 1pm local time in California [Galway Scores]. There are 3 USEA events this weekend: Galway, Poplar Place in Georgia, and Sporting Days in South Carolina.
Boyd’s new horse has arrived. Boyd must think very highly of the young Otis Barbotiere as he has already formed an eight member syndicate around him, with notable members like Tim Holekamp. I’ve noticed lately how much of an effort Boyd seems to be making in the business management side of his operation. For example, in the most recent blog post about Otis, he has started doing video reports to update all syndicate members of the new horse’s progress. Its surprising how often the business component is neglected by so many top riders as its such a key component to success.
Sheikh Al Qasimi sold several of his Arabians in an auction and donated all the generated profit to the Breast Cancer Research Fund in the United Arab Emirates. As of now, 400,000 US Dollars is the total amount that the Sheikh has donated to the organization.
The Three-Days Three-Ways blog has a newfound love for hand-made cards that feature horses and cowboys.
Potential Badminton first-timer, Ben Hobday, writes about his first cross-country school of the year and his competition plans for his spring lead up. [Horse and Hound]
Nicollette Sheridan, the former actor in Desperate Housewives, has broken two fingers in a horseback riding accident. Evidentially Nicollette’s horse spooked at a sounding car horn and she was deposited on the ground. I think the best part of the article is contained in the following quote: “Sheridan hasn’t had much luck with horses – she was treated for minor injuries a year ago after falling during a ride.” I wonder what kind of sport Eventing would be if we defined our skill or luck by a couple broken fingers….
Best of the Blogs: Sinead Halpin wrote a blog entry about yesterday’s training session. I always like reading Sinead’s blogs because they are original in the sense that she writes, in detail about struggles she faces in her own riding, which is definitely the tone of the most recent entry. It’s nice because it brings a certain normalcy to the upper-level leagues that is often forgotten or passed over by other upper level riders.
As a final note, Susan, an EN reader sent us an regarding my post listing the accomplishments of our coaching candidates. She pointed out that I did not include results from the 1980 alternate Olympics, which were held after the US and Allies boycotted the Moscow Olympics. As the Soviet block countries were not exactly equestrian strongholds, Susan made the point that these results were just as legitimate as any other Olympics, which is a fair point. The amended results would add an individual silver medal to Jimmy’s total and a team bronze to Andrew’s total.
See you soon and Go Eventing.
