I have to say it feels a bit strange and perhaps a bit awkward writing a ‘Happy 4th of July’ post from England, after a fun night out in London no less, but thus is life. I will miss the watermelons, hot dogs, and fireworks from Tennessee that get progressively less safe as the night wears on into July 5th, but I will be supporting the red, white, and blue all the way from London today nonetheless. Independence Day is one of my favorite days (and movies) and I wish everyone a great day with their friends and family.
It’s a busy Monday of eventing so let’s jump right into the news and notes…
–The major event around Eventing Nation this week is starting early this morning with the dressage phase of the London Olympics Test Event. The event has many names, from “London Prepares” to the “Greenwich Invitational” but if no one has any objections I’m going to just call it the test event.
–If you are just returning from a trip to Siberia, the test event is a CIC2* competition held in Greenwich Park, the site of the 2012 London Olympic equestrian competitions. As I quickly learned, like most of the British language, ‘Greenwich’ is not pronounced phonetically, but rather as “grennich”. The test event is being held to test and practice preparations for the Olympics. The Olympic hopeful countries have sent competitors as well as observers to the test event and here we all are. The teams are treating it like a team competition, and countries with three riders–Germany, Belgium, New Zealand, USA, and Great Britain–are competing in a team scoring system as well as the individual competition.
–I’ll be around throughout the next three days bringing you all of the news, information, and ridiculousness that is fit to print, and some that isn’t. As of right now, I have not seen live scoring from the test event, but we will post the link if and as soon as we find one.
–[Photos of the CIC2* test event course from H&H via Ecogold]
–Just from looking at the entry list [doc], Great Britain seems to be in great shape to take home the gold. They have three really top horses ridden by riders who are likely to compete again at Greenwich next summer. While I have to always root for the stars and stripes, Team GBR winning would be a great story and certainly something to get the local community excited for the Olympics. [A look at the New Zealand team]
–It will be interesting to see if the planned protests by muggles pan out. Frankly, if you don’t stand in front of tanks or light yourself on fire, you don’t impress me that much as a protester. But I am sure there will be those who just love their park grass that much.
–Eastern Time in the US is London time minus five hours, meaning that the first ride here at 9am (incidentally Michael Jung and River of Joy) will be at 4am ET. The last ride of the day is at 3:30pm local, 10:30am ET. All told, there are 41 riders. A few other notable North American times:
Julian Stiller and Gunston Wallstreet (USA) — 4:24am ET
Logan Rawlings and Jaybee Star Celebrity (USA) — 6:14am ET
Waylon Roberts and Blockbuster (CAN) — 6:26am ET
Will Faudree and DHI Colour Candy (USA) — 9:33am ET
Kathryn Robinson and Let It Bee (CAN) — 11:00am ET
–Back home, it was the quietest weekend of eventing in the United States since January. The South Farm Horse Trials in Ohio, and the Horse Park of New Jersey Horse Trials carried the USEA torch this weekend.
–In New Jersey, Courtney Cooper and Sally Cousins won the preliminary divisions. Heather Gillette rode in the prelim with her Rolex horse Our Questionnaire to get things started up for the autumn and Ronaly Zabala-Goeteschel rode Tiana Coudray’s former horse Master Hill.
[Horse Park of New Jersey Results]
–A few things that are a dead giveaway I am an American in London: I try to pass people on the right when walking–this has nearly epic failed twice, my phone conversations last 10 seconds thanks to prepaid phone prices, solid colored polos, and the length of time it takes for me to count change.
—Best of the bogs: Pippa Roome blogs about Sunday at the test event for H&H
Now, more than ever, don’t try this at home.
That’s all for now. I’m out like three strikes. Stay tuned to EN this week for all of your test event coverage and much more from the EN Team back stateside. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. See you soon and stay classy EN.
