Well friends, after a long night of driving I’m fighting the good fight to stay awake all day so I can fall asleep early tonight. As a random aside, I was driving on I-78 at around 2:30am last night and I passed a tan Ford pickup pulling a two horse bumper-pull. The pickup and trailer were decked out in USEA and Rolex bumber stickers and I thought to myself that is the Eventing Nation. Now, here are a few final notes from Bromont.
(1)On Monday morning, US Team vets looked at Tipperary Liadhnan, Nevada Bay, Special Blend (Casey McKissock), and JB’s Star (Jennifer Simmons). Like the post-Jersey exams, these inspections are used to look at developing horses as well as potential Team horses for this year.
(2)As we reported on Saturday, CCI3* rider Martha McDowell was transported to the hospital after falling at fence 8B, a skinny out of the first coffin. Thankfully, Martha was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon and she was seen out and about the event on Sunday. I spoke with an event official who explained that the horse over-jumped the hanging log on a mound at #7, got too deep to the ditch at #8A, the horse hollowed, didn’t see #8B, and fell over that jump. Martha was wearing all of her safety gear, including a Point-Two vest, which deployed during the fall. Martha walked away from the nasty incident with just a couple of black eyes. As an aside, the Point-Two vests were out in force at Bromont, and I would guess that 80% of the CCI3* competitors were riding in them. It’s great to see that Martha was fine, and a lot of credit needs to go to everyone involved with the event for a safe weekend.
(3)Rebecca Howard and Jessica Phoenix added themselves to the Canadian WEG discussion with 2nd and 3rd place finishes at Bromont. Comparing 3* to 4* performances is a tricky business, but Canada finished 5 horses (Port Authority, Colombo, Gin & Juice, Amistad, and Madison Park) in the top 13 at Rolex. With inevitable challenges leading up to a 4*, Rebecca and Jessica are part of the selection mix. If you put a gun to my head right now, I would say what I said a couple of weeks ago: I think one Canadian horse from Bromont will compete in Kentucky. We will have much more on the Canadian WEG situation later this week.
(4) Speaking of great Canadian riders, Juliet Graham was kind enough to speak with me Sunday afternoon. Juliet rode Sumatra in the 1976 Olympics at the Bromont equestrian center (pictured below), and they helped team Canada win the World Championships in Lexington in 1978. Back then eventing was more important than golf.
The wind interrupts the audio a bit, just turn up the volume to hear Juliet
(5)The two 2* horses that tied up in the vet box after XC on Saturday show jumped on Sunday. This is less than ideal from a veterinary perspective but seemed to work for them.
(6) In an interview with the COTH, Will Coleman addressed Nevada Bay’s WEG status:
“I didn’t really ever consider applying [for the WEG team], and I still think he has some development to do. But if, for whatever reason, it came down to it, and he looked ready, maybe it would be something we would consider.”
Bonjour Canada!
—-
Finally, I’d like to introduce Ecogold as Eventing Nation’s latest sponsor. I met Patricia and her father, John, at Bromont this weekend. They completely sold me on their company’s products. If you don’t know, Ecogold makes saddle pads and boots (see the handy-dandy banner) that are based on the latest and greatest technology. The most impressive thing for me was feeling the unique foam in the saddle pads–it was very cushiony yet very strong. Top riders such as Phillip, Karen, Boyd, Buck, and Oli, (riders who can ride in whatever saddle pads and boots they want), ride in Ecogold. They have a video of taking an axe to one of their XC boots which we will put up on EN sometime, when we don’t have 17 million other videos up.
