Maya Simmons (stirrup-less!) and Archie Rocks. Photo by Leslie Threlkeld.
Maya Simmons and her 9-year-old Thoroughbred Archie Rocks were having a good round on their first Advanced cross country course at Carolina International, but after they dropped into the first water complex, something unusual happened. Look closely and you’ll see in the above photo that Maya has lost both of her stirrups, which will in a few strides fall completely away from her saddle and land with a thud in the galloping lane.
In an awesome display of determination and athleticism, Maya chose to continue on anyway. To the wild cheers of the onlookers, they made it most of the way around the course until Maya popped out of the tack at the tricky coffin combination, but it gave us all a great thrill and was the ultimate inspiration for strengthening that lower leg by practicing regularly without stirrups.
U.S. Weekend Action:
Carolina International CIC and H.T.: [Website] [Live Stream] [Results] [EN’s Coverage] [EN’s Twitter] [EN’s Instagram]
Poplar Place Farm March H.T.: [Website] [Results]
Monday News and Notes:
To better understand how contact patterns may contribute to the spread of disease, researchers have attached small radio frequency identification tags to horses and their handlers at several equine facilities in Canada. The tags record who comes in contact with who and for how long. The detailed contact pattern data gathered from the study will be useful in many areas of equine research. [Study Tracks Real Time Contact Between Horses and Humans]
The organizers and officials at the Burgham International Horse Trials in the UK made the difficult decision to cancel the weekend’s competition, which included a CIC3* and CIC2*, due to weather conditions that made the footing inadequate. Patricia Clifton, the FEI Technical Delegate, said, ‘…their whole approach has been so wonderfully positive with nothing but the interests of the athletes, horses and owners at heart. How lucky we are to have organising teams like this.” [Burgham International Cancelled]
Thoroughbred racehorse trainer Bob Baffert once believed that if he could make it to Rillito Park on the “on the grits-and-hard-toast circuit,” he’d be set for life. Now 64, he’s a Hall of Fame trainer whose many victories include the World Cup in Dubai and a sweep of the Triple Crown of racing with American Pharoah. He has a new star student in his barn, Arrogate, the heavy favorite for this year’s World Cup. [Hard Work, Failure and Passion: How a Horse Trainer Made It]
Monday Video:
It was a great wrap-up to a fabulous 2017 Carolina International, enjoy highlights from the CIC3* cross country!
Posted by EQSportsNet on Saturday, March 25, 2017
