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Behold: the face of your two-phase Badminton leader, Lordships Graffalo. Frankly, I can’t think of anyone with a smile better suited to taking the top honours in this prestigious competition. What a noodle. It’s also well worth noting that both Ros’s rides, Lordships Graffalo and Pencos Crown Jewel, who’s currently sitting seventh, were bred by the same person, Pennie Wallace, and are out of the same mare, Cornish Queen. What a boon for both British breeding and fans of trawling a good dam line.
National Holiday: It’s National Reward Yourself Day. Yes, you do need that thirtieth saddle pad.
U.S. Weekend Action:
Catalpa Corner May Madness Horse Trials (Iowa City, IA) [Website] [Results]
Riga Meadow at Coole Park Combined Test (Millbrook, NY) [Website] [Results]
Stable View Local Charities H.T. (Aiken, SC) [Website] [Entries] [Results]
The Event at Skyline (Mt. Pleasant, UT) [Website] [Results]
Texas Rose Horse Park H.T. (Tyler, TX) [Website] [Entries] [Results]
Waredaca H.T. (Laytonsville, MD) [Website] [Entries] [Results]
WindRidge Farm Spring H.T. (Mooresboro, NC) [Website] [Results]
Your Monday Reading List:
Amid all the action of Badminton yesterday, there was one round that stood out among the rest. Perhaps not for the reasons the rider in question had hoped for, mind you: after a barnstorming trip around two thirds of the tough course with the excellent little Liberty and Glory, Tom Crisp came a cropper after being jumped out of the tack at the huge corner in the lake. But how he dealt with the dunking? Well, that’ll live on in Badminton legend forever.
If you’ve been on horsey Facebook recently, you might have seen something rather haunting: a curiously faceless nonhuman entity atop a horse, merrily undergoing a lunge lesson. That little nightmare agent is Sandy, a dummy that’s been designed to help horses with neurological deficits learn to balance with weight on board, without the extra complications that come with a real human being. It’s frightening, but it’s a great idea, actually.
Omega-3s are everywhere at the moment — heck, even I’m taking them. But what benefits do they actually offer to your horse’s diet? Are they worth the money or another snake oil supplement? Here’s everything you need to know.
Riding from Canada to Brazil should be impossible, right? Wrong — although we can only imagine how much planning, and dehydrated food, something like that would take. If you want to dive into all the details of Filipe Leite, who undertook the trek in 2014, a new documentary premiering this month offers the chance to follow him. It’s a New Zealand release for now, but should be followed by a more widespread release. Get the popcorn ready.
You can put all the thought you like into breeding the ultimate sport horse, but a top eventer needs something that’s not always that easy to breed for: grit and gumption. Justine Griffin rounds up some of the best examples of pure heart at Kentucky in this piece.
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If you’re not hugely familiar with continental eventing, the name Gireg le Coz might be a new one to you — but he’s well worth keeping an eye on, particularly when partnered with his incredible Aisprit de la Loge, who logged a second clear round at Badminton yesterday to put him well in contention.
Morning Viewing:
Rewatch all of Ros Canter’s leading round at Badminton with Lordships Graffalo here and get inspired ahead of this afternoon’s showjumping:
