The only recognized US event this weekend was held at Poplar Place in Georgia, where US Team rider Becky Holder stole the show. Becky and Can’t Fire Me led wire to wire in the Open Intermediate/Preliminary, adding just 3.2 cross-country time penalties to their dressage score. Becky also placed third in the same division on Call Me Ollie. The OI/P division is a hybrid where the dressage and show jumping are at the intermediate level and the cross-country course is set for prelim. Werner Geven won the 17 horse Open Prelim division on Master Manipulator. All of the prelim horses completed the event and just three horses from the novice and training divisions were eliminated. For the sake of variety, I have organized today’s news and notes by topic:
Helmet Rules: As we all know, the USEF passed the helmet rule change on Sunday morning that will require strapped certified helmets to be worn at all times when mounted in USEF divisions at events. I can only imagine that Robert Dover is writing a blog post praising eventing for our new helmet safety initiative as we speak.
The date that the rule change will go into effect has not been official announced, but it probably will be announced this week in a press release from the USEF and USEA. From what I have heard, the eventing helmet rule will go into effect immediately.
[EV 114 Rule Change PDF]
Our friends in the pure dressage world also passed a helmet rule at the USEF board meeting on Sunday. All dressage riders are required to wear ASTM certified and strapped helmets when mounted. Riders in FEI level tests may switch to their top hats, but only for their test. For everyone else, it is all helmets all the time. The Chronicle was at the convention this weekend and I would guess they will have a full report early this week including the rule changes.
The US Coaching Search: We are now one week away from the USEF’s application deadline. We have two confirmed applications (David and Phillip with Bobby) and I suspect that we will hear about at least one more application this week. Bear in mind that it is entirely possible that we will not hear about several of the applications, at least until a short list is announced. For example, if I was currently the coach of another international team, I might want my application to be kept private. It’s going to be an exciting week on Eventing Nation.
Area II Convention:
The Golightly Sport Horse Blog has posted an Area II Convention report that would make Eventing Nation proud. One interesting thing that the report points out that to be eligible for Area II year end awards you have to sign up, pay $20, and do 8 hours of volunteer work during the year. That’s definitely a great way to get people involved in volunteering, and be sure to sign up early this year if you are in Area II. Best of all, Cherie gave a shout-out to Ecogold, and I also had to quote this from her post if only to demand why I haven’t gotten an awesome mini-bag from Cavalor:
“Cavalor feeds was there as a meeting sponsor. When they asked me if I’d heard of Cavalor, I said “Yes! Because you sponsor Eventing Nation!” and I was promptly handed a goodie bag with the cutest little mini grain bag ever – complete with the stitched thread at the top!”
I’ll be checking the mail Cavalor. As for the rest of the article, we’ll just link to it and let you read about all the awards and presentations: [Golightly Sport Horse Blog]
The Carrot: Felicity Foxhunter is continuing her fantastical search for The Carrot. Me, I’ll just shoot The Carrot an email and ask why they disappeared. Hopefully The Carrot still checks its email. What everyone might not know is that The Carrot is actually just a very intelligent vegetable.
Books: Get ready Eventing Nation because two eventing greats have written books that will hit the shelves this spring. Denny Emerson’s new book, How Good Riders Get Good: Daily Choices That Lead To Success In Any Equestrian Sport, is due on shelves in March. Stephanie Diaz from The Pilot chatted with Denny about the book, and you can read the interview here. Jimmy Wofford also has a new booking coming out, which a little birdie told me will be released at Rolex. So, the Eventing Nation book club already has our summer reading list set.
Best of the Blogs: Ian Stark clinic
Best of the Blogs (honorable mention): Lainey says Wagener is the new Aiken
That’s all for now Eventing Nation. Stay tuned throughout the day for a clinic report from Samantha and much, much more. Go eventing.
