Three cheers for Canada’s Holly Jacks, who took the win in the indoor eventing at Canada’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, riding in honour of her late student, Zara Buren, and beating out the likes of Michael Jung. Get ’em, girl!
National Holiday: It’s National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day, and I don’t really know why either.
US Weekend Round-Up:
Galway Downs International Three-Day Event (Temecula, CA): [Website] [Results]
The VHT International & H.T. (Lexington, VA): [Website] [Results]
Full Gallop Farm November H.T. (Aiken, SC): [Website] [Results]
Rocking Horse Fall H.T. (Altoona, FL): [Website] [Results]
Texas Rose Horse Park Fall H.T. (Tyler, TX): [Website] [Results]
Global Eventing Round-Up:
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The South American Games took place over the weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was duly won by the Brazilian team — and individual gold, too, went the way of Brazil, with British-based Carlos Parro taking top honours in this CCI3*-L competition with Tullabeg Chinzano. The course didn’t mess around; they had their own level-appropriate version of Pratoni’s slide, giving the nineteen entrants plenty to sink their teeth into.
Your Monday Reading List:
Getting transitions right — and then riding a tonne of them — is key to a great ride. But nailing the transitions in life, too, is pretty essential, for many of the same reasons. [Direct, indirect — they all count]
World Championships team silver medalist Will Coleman is having one heck of an 18 months. Between that Pratoni result and his history-making Aachen win last year — and a slew of other accolades in between — he’s riding high at the top. But that upper-level success comes off the back of a commitment to training his horses properly from their earliest rides. So what’s his secret? US Eventing sat down with him to uncover his training philosophies. [Spoiler alert: he loves the YEH program]
Horse show competitors said the darnedest things. This collection of gems from the Facebook group ‘Overheard at the In-Gate’ is particularly good, and even features a couple of stinkers from the competitors at Maryland last month. The pros: they’re just like us. [No one knows where the stretchy thing starts]
I’ve been following along with the National Horse Show over the last few days, mostly because I like to get wine drunk and treat my boyfriend to my own unique brand of Maclay commentary. But in all seriousness, what a show — and what a rich history it has, too. COTH has done a deep dive back into their own archives to look at the 52nd edition, back in 1937, when the show was still held at Madison Square Garden. There’s even some remarkable footage, courtesy of the British Pathé archives. [Vintage? SO cute.]
The FutureTrack Follow:
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Bring a bit of fine art to your timeline with this curated collection of UK-based equine artists. On show today? These gorgeous oils of racehorses. I particularly love the slightly undone studies.
Morning Viewing:
Take some inspiration from the world of dressage, and this incredible performance from Olympic gold medallist Jessica von Bredow-Werndl at Lyon, where she made her return to the top after maternity leave.
