Members of the beautiful Team Canada and Gordon from Omega Alpha at The Royal
This weekend was one of the busiest weekends ever on Eventing Nation because there were so many important events going on around the world. When I think about it, the one moment that I will most likely be talking about 20 years from now is Zenyatta’s incredible run and heartbreaking loss. Let’s take a look at some notes to recap the weekend and set us up for a new week in eventing.
–Make no mistake, Jennie’s win was about a lot more than a CCI3*. When she won, she took home an array of awards and prizes but most importantly the Cooper Memorial Cooler award. It was an incredible win for Jennie and if you read her quotes in the Chronicle of the Horse, Cooper was with her all weekend.
–I want to give a huge Eventing Nation thanks to Chelan for providing a great weekend of coverage from Galway. I still can’t believe they actually raced golf carts like that. “Oh hello…yes, I’d like to rent some golf carts for the weekend…an equestrian three-day event at Galway…oh, yes, as a matter of fact we would like to purchase accident insurance.” The golf cart races are an instant “Best of EN.”
–Obviously, we were all rooting for Boyd to win at Pau but I think we can consider the trip a success with the top 10 finish. I was really impressed with how Boyd handled Sunday despite his disappointment. A lot of people are more than happy to stand in the spotlight, talk to the media, and write their blogs when things are going great, but it takes someone with a lot of toughness and self confidence to stand up and speak when things don’t go as planned. I know how competitive Boyd is and it must have been incredibly disappointing for him to slide a few spots in the placings on Sunday. Nonetheless, he sent Eventing Nation an email with his thoughts less than an hour after his ride and posted to his blog soon thereafter.
–I mentioned this over the weekend, but Waylon Roberts won the indoor eventing at The Royal in Canada Saturday night for the third time in 4 years. Ecogold has posted videos of Saturday’s rounds on their blog.
–Best of the blogs: October travels with Brickland Eventing
–We have an instant winner of EN’s weekly “People going straight to hell award”.
In much more positive news, former NZ CCI**** eventer (and top showjumper) Catriona Williams, who is wheelchair-bound since a 2002 fall, completed the New York Marathon Sunday morning in the wheelchair division. And the Mark Todd also completed as part of Williams’s efforts to raise money for spinal cord research [Full story]. The link and news are courtesy of JER.
Go eventing.
