What a treat for eventing fans on the hottest weekend of the year so far: spectators at England’s Barbury International Horse Trials got to see 2021 Luhmühlen winners Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden take a decisive win in the CCI4*-S after delivering a record-setting score of 18.7 (no, that’s not a typo!). Mollie, who has been open about her struggles with the mental pressure of being a young rider in unrelenting glare of the spotlight, certainly sends us all a powerful message with her excellent performances this week: if you give yourself the grace and the space to focus on your horse and yourself, you’ll always come out better and stronger for it. Go get ’em, Molls.
U.S. Weekend Action:
Arrowhead H.T. (Billings, MT): [Website] [Results]
Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Fairburn, GA): [Website] [Results]
Genesee Valley Hunt H.T. (Geneseo, NY): [Website] [Results]
Huntington Farm H.T. (South Strafford, VT): [Website] [Results]
The Maryland International + H.T. (Adamstown, MD): [Website] [Results]
Round Top H.T. (Castle Rock, CO): [Results]
Summer Coconino H.T. (Flagstaff, AZ): [Website] [Results]
UK Weekend Results:
Keyflow Feeds Barbury Castle International CCI4*-S (Marlborough, England): [Website] [Results]
Tweseldown (3): [Results]
Buckminster Park: [Results]
Global Eventing Round-Up:
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The FEI Nations Cup series headed to Avenches, the Swiss setting of last year’s European Championships, for the fourth of its nine legs this season — and the crack Swiss team, helmed by coach Andrew Nicholson, continued on with its extraordinary season, taking the team and individual win. This is the second time this year we’ve seen the Swiss attend a Nations Cup, and the second time they’ve made a clean sweep: just as at the Pratoni test event, which they won, we saw Robin Godel and Grandeur de Lully CH take the individual honours. This is Robin’s third four-star victory of the year.
Now, Italy heads up the series rankings, as they’ve attended all four legs so far and have accumulated 245 points in the process, with prolific series victors Sweden sitting behind them on 220. The Swiss sit third overall but look laser-focused on Pratoni success — and you’d be hard-pushed to want to bet against them doing themselves proud there.
FEI Nations Cup of Eventing CCIO4*-S (Avenches, Switzerland): [Website] [CCIO4* Leaderboard]
Your Morning Reading List:
The UK eventing scene said a sad goodbye to Miranda Filmer, who died last month at the age of just 30 of a rare type of cancer. The ambitious amateur eventer had previously worked for top riders including William Fox-Pitt and Mike Winter, and has already left a legacy even more enduring than her much-loved character: nearly a quarter of a million pounds has been raised for cancer research in her honour. [Check out these heartfelt tributes]
I remember so well being a teenager and wholly occupied with the panic of what I ‘had’ to accomplish before my junior years were over. (Spoiler alert: I had no money, lived in rural Maine, and cleaned stalls in order to ride; I accomplished nothing in my junior career.) I know I’m not the only one — and this essay about the ‘seasons’ of life in the saddle has got me thinking about how the mindset shifts as we get older, but the learning never, ever stops. [One for those of us who’ve moved past quarter-life crises]
Are you focusing on improving your horse’s fitness this season? Whether you’re aiming for a first long-format, or you’ve noticed you struggle to catch the clock in the final minutes of a course, it’s never a bad idea to brush up on your fitness knowledge and put the time into getting him firing on all cylinders. [Jon Holling’s here to help]
The debate about working student positions rages on apace. I enjoyed this piece on COTH, which is packed with anecdotes on the pros and cons of the traditional work-to-learn set-up that most of us have gone through at some point — and I particularly liked the section about Strides for Equality Equestrian and the work the group is doing to increase diversity at this entryway to the professional world. [Lots of hot takes]
Speaking of diversity within the sport, we’re so excited to see that London’s Ebony Horse Club has been named as the official charity for this year’s London International Horse Show. The club, which is based in Brixton, has provided access to horses and ponies for countless inner-city kids, and many of them — including Magnolia Cup winner Khadijah Mellah — have gone on to make great waves in the sport and pursue careers in equestrian industries, too. [A worthy recipient]
The FutureTrack Follow:
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Like a bit of high fashion with your horsing around? Give British supermodel and four-star eventer Edie Campbell a follow.
Morning Viewing:
Rewatch Avenches’s cross-country action — over one of the most stunning courses in the world, no less.
