I have three pieces of good news. First and most importantly, Peter Atkins and HJ Hampton were added to the Australian team Monday night and are now set to ride at the World Equestrian Games. 2008 Olympic team medalists for Australia, Megan Jones and Kirby Park Irish Jester withdrew from the Australian team after a “travel related problem.” Kirby Park is recovering in Los Angeles and will not take the final connecting flight to Kentucky with the rest of the Australian horses.
My heart goes out to Megan and I can only imagine the pain she must be feeling now having her goals for this year evaporate due to a cause completely out of her control. Travel related issues are expected whenever you fly horses and avoiding such potential setbacks are one big advantage for the US and Canadian horses. When Australia named the 6 pair eventing squad, they also named Peter and “Henny” as the first stateside alternates.
This is a great opportunity for Peter and Henny and all their many fans who will hopefully get a chance to see one of Peter’s spectacular helmet cam videos of the WEG course. To learn more about Peter and Henny, check out Leslie’s fantastic 10 questions with Peter from earlier this summer.
Peter and Henny at Rolex 2010:
The second piece of good news is that posting news about Peter making the team means that I can delay posting photos of a half naked and translucent Doug Payne for at least six more hours. The third piece of good news is that my fantasy football team rebounded from a tough week 1 loss with a 40 point domination in week 2.
Lastly, check out Rebecca Howard’s Canadian training camp update on her blog.
Go eventing.
