The past few weeks have been prime migration time in the US eventing community as many riders have traveled south, presumably to ride in better weather. But on Sunday night a winter storm of snow and freezing ice hit much of the southern US, and accumulation of up to three inches is predicted from Atlanta to Aiken, SC and Southern Pines, NC. Having experienced a 4″ snowfall in Aiken last year, I can assure you that there isn’t a snowplow within 100 miles of South Carolina. If you are bored, I suggest going to the Aiken Walmart and watching the locals stock up on canned goods, powdered milk, and shotgun shells. Now for some quick eventing news and notes…
–The first US horse trials of 2011 wrapped up on Sunday at the Florida Horse Park. Kylie Lyman and Dauntless Heart finished on their dressage score to win the Open Intermediate. The courses rode pretty straightforward–only 8 out of just over 70 Intermediate and Prelim cross-country rides had problems. The lowest score of the weekend goes to Megan Johnston and Rapport in the Training Rider with a 23.2. [Full Ocalal HT Results]
–Congresswoman Giffords, who was tragically shot in the Tucson, Arizona shootings on Saturday has a background with horses. She cleaned stalls for riding lessons as a child and has continued to ride throughout her life. Six bystanders were killed in the shootings and the Congresswoman was listed critical condition as of Sunday night. [Horsetalk]
–In our latest edition of the media being terrible, an Australian news site is reporting that “Two of Australia’s up-and-coming supermodels have been left traumatised after witnessing a horse being euthanised.” A poor horse died during a polo match and all anyone can write about is that two supermodels suffered emotional distress? They’re not even that good looking by supermodel standards. [ninemsn.com.au]
–A barn owned by country music legend Charlie Daniels burned down in Wilson County, Tennessee on Friday. The Daniels family was in Colorado at the time of the fire and investigators are unclear what started the blaze. 11 horses and a bull reportedly died in the fire. [WSMV.com]
–I’d like to give a big thanks to Samantha for traveling down to Wellington to cover the Riders4Helmets Safety Symposium over the weekend. Getting so many leaders of the riding world together with the purpose of exploring and promoting helmet awareness is an important step forward for helmet safety. But, to some extent, anyone can stand up at a meeting about helmets and talk about how important helmets are–the true test is if all that talk translates into real world results. It will be interesting to see if more riders are wearing helmets at the first few FEI events of the year and if our dressage and show jumping counterparts start taking steps toward mandatory helmet rules. I’m also pretty disappointed in the lack of media attention the helmet symposium has gotten. The only other site I have seen writing about it is the Riders4Helmets website itself. [Samantha’s Interview with David]
—Free roaming ponies in Wales may soon have to wear identification collars. Hundreds of horses in South Wales are living on community (common) land and the government, quite reasonably I think, might require that owners identify their horses to reduce instances of abandonment. The sad reaslity of our bad economy is that there is often more of a problem with owners denying horse ownership than owners falsely claiming to own an unidentified horse. [Horse and Hound]
I’d like to give a big thanks to Annie, ESJ, and Samantha for holding down the EN corporate headquarters this weekend. Coren has just been extradited arrived home from her trip to France and we can look forward to hearing from her again soon. We’ll be back throughout the day with eventing fun and news. Stay warm and see you soon…
