I have just arrived in Aiken, and I need to get some sleep before my third straight day of trying to read Mark’s lips training sessions. But, there were two quick stories from the Sporting Days horse trials on Saturday that deserve mention on EN.
First, EN’s good friend Doug Payne filled in as a dressage judge at the last minute. As the story goes, there was a miscommunication and one of the dressage judges didn’t show up Saturday morning. The organizers scrambled to find a replacement in the Aiken area with no success. Doug Payne, who is a Developing A List rider and a certified dressage judge/TD up through the preliminary level, was scheduled to ride 7 horses at Sporting Days but generously volunteered to judge. I spoke with Doug and he said that they shifted his rides around so he could judge until noon and then fit all 21 phases in during the afternoon. Thanks to EN reader Sally F. for alerting us to the story and thanks to Doug for stepping up to help the event run smoothly.
The second story is that, as Annie explained earlier today, Jan Byyny officially made her return to competitive eventing at Sporting Days. This is the best news I have heard in a while, and we are so happy for Jan that she has made such an amazing recovery so quickly. Jan and her parents are absolutely the classiest people in eventing, and I am so excited for them. Jan competed one horse at training, another at novice, and one more at beginner novice, finishing in the top two with 2 horses.
Go Jan and go eventing.
