A photo of Ticket To Ride, a 21 year old doing the T3DE at Waredaca with Stephen Fulton, photo via KF
You might have been noticing an exciting development here at Eventing Nation over the past few weeks–Visionaire is back! If you reach way back into Eventing Nation lore you will find a young Eventing Nation at the 2009 USEA annual convention, just my second live event coverage. On Saturday night I received an email from an old friend complimenting EN and offering to join as an EN guest blogger. Knowing this person’s work ethic, love of horses, and knowledge of everything eventing, I gratefully accepted the offer and ‘Visionaire’ was born. Visionaire founded such legendary series as the Best of Craigs List, The Sunday Morning Jog: Tips From A Groom, and Rider Profiles, which became regular features on EN and sustained us through that first long slow winter. I can say with certainty that the experiment known as Eventing Nation would have long ago ended without Visionaire. After a year away to focus on these strange things people keep telling me about called “life” and “a real job,” Visionaire is returning to Eventing Nation in a bigger and better role than ever before.
–The end of the North American eventing season is literally just around the corner. We have just a few three-days left including the CCI2* and CIC* at Chattahoochee Hills this weekend and the Galway CCI3* next weekend. There are five USEA events this upcoming weekend:
Holly Hill (LA) — [Website]
Chattahoochee Hills (GA) — [Live Scores, Ride Times]
The Virginia HT — [Website]
Briar Fox Fall HT (KS) — [Website]
ESDCTA New Jersey HT — [Times/Scores]
–Speaking of Galway, there are currently 41 horses entered in the Galway CCI3*. That is 4 less than the number of three-star starters at Fair Hill. Good footing, a good course, and great organizing have lured many top east coast horses out to the left coast for their autumn three-day. PRO is flying 15 horses out this year, three times as many as last year. Ronald Zabala’s horses arrived in California earlier this week. There are 6 horses heading out from Florida on Friday (3 of Buck’s, 2 for Michael–DV8 and Jude’s Law, and Shannon Lilley’s Ballingowan Pizazz is going home). Then 8 horses are going out on Monday from BWI in Baltimore (2 for Nina Ligon, 2 for Kristin Schmolze, In The Fog for Stephen Bradley, Fun Maker for Mara Depuy, Rolling Stone for Nate Chambers and Gaelic Marriage for Martha McDowell). [Galway 3* Entries, Event Preview Press Release]
–Blogger contest results are coming soon–I promise.
–Congratulations to the US show jumping team for kicking butt in Guadalajara. The US teams in dressage, eventing, and show jumping swept the gold medals at the Pan American Games. The show jumpers won on just 2.9 penalty points for all three rounds and, like the eventers, they led the competition from start to finish. In many ways, this was the most important event for US equestrian sport because our show jumpers needed a good result here to qualify for the Olympics. Our show jumping team is plagued by selfishness because some owners choose to compete their horses for money rather than at team competitions, but Kent Farrington, Beezie Madden, McLain Ward, Christine McCrea got the job done on Thursday for the red, white, and blue. [Gold for USA]
October 27th, 2011 will forever be known as the day of the EN hats. We sold out in less than two hours and I had to fight to make sure we saved enough for the writers. I’m not even sure if I will end up with one. I believe there are still a couple available here with promocode “HatPlease” at checkout and here without a promocode from our friends at Kentucky from the hats we gave to them, although you have to buy a pair of boots to get a hat.
Your rider list for the Canadian Royal Winter Fair indoor eventing: Mark Todd, Doug Payne, Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch, Penny Rowland, Kendal Lehari, Kelly List, Holly Payne, Diana Burnett, Michelle Mueller, Leahona Rowland, Sinead Halpin Ian and Waylon Roberts and Individual Gold Medalist from the Pan Ams Jessica Phoenix. Not too shabby, as they say.
Best of the Blogs: EN at Waredaca, Florida Training Camp, Vote for Jessa on EN
Wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. Stay classy EN and I’ll see you soon.
