Good Morning Eventing Nation! Welcome to Thursday! I hope your week has been going well and that the weekend ahead looks promising. The big report of the day is obviously Jersey Fresh, where star studded divisions of both CCI and CIC levels will be contested. Abby put together a good post with all the details yesterday, but for the basic info check it out below:
Today is all about the two star with the CIC division starting at 9 am and moving onto the CCI divisions at 1 pm. The weather report is predicting a small chance of rain today in the forecast, but hopefully that will hold off and we’ll have a fine day of dressage at Jersey. If you are competing today, good luck, and if you are spectating today, have fun, and be sure to send a report our way!
And now let’s get started on the news this morning:
Dr. Kent Allen wrote an article about Pulmonary Hemorrhage and sudden death in event horses, the reasons that cause the hemorrhaging to begin and things that can be done to possibly prevent it from happening in the future. These sorts of deaths in our sport have sort of fallen under a big umbrella and I’m sure that many of us (myself included) aren’t going as informed on what the actual condition is and the specifics involved in it. If you have any time on your hands, you should really take a couple minutes to read the article as it’s pretty fascinating. [Horsetalk]
Listen up Olympic Equestrian Fans! It has just been announced that another 900,000 Olympic tickets are going on sale — and 21,000 of those will be for equestrianism. Mark your calendars for May 15th, as that’s the date that an extra 4,000 dressage tickets, 12,000 for cross-country and 5,000 tickets for showjumping will be made available for sale. This is pretty exciting news for me as I had tried, but failed to get tickets to the Games last Summer. It still may be close to impossible finding a hotel close enough and cost-effective enough to merit making the trip, but at least it is now no longer impossible to get into the Games! If you are really interested in the upcoming ticket sale, I’d make sure to keep an eyea on that date and reserve them at the soonest possible moment… I have a feeling that these tickets aren’t going to stay around too long either! [Horse and Hound]
Another Whitaker has joined the top level of show jumping ranks, Horsetalk reports. George Whitaker, age 19, has moved up 123 places in Rolex’s show jumping ranking in the last two months to sit as of May in 213th place. That placing may not seem so very impressive on the outset, but when you consider that the ranking factors in all of the best veteran riders across the entire world, and George is a junior in his first year of riding in the open classes, it suddenly starts to. It isn’t much of a surprise really (the real surprise would be if the young Whitaker kid couldn’t ride) but George is definitely going to be one to watch in the future! [Horsetalk]
‘It’s probably a fair chance’ says the Captain of Boyd and Neville’s Olympic chances for this summer. See what else the Captain has to say in his interview here.
Check out this interview and video of Beezie Madden about her Olympic aspirations for this upcoming year. [ESPN]
9th Annual Surefire Horse Trials Open for Entries
Thanks to our good friend Chelan Kozak for the tip on this one, but I really do think we have finally found the Horse Sale Ad of the Century, which basically makes all those Craigslisters look like a bunch of novices. Sadly, even though this ad still may have it’s fair share of grammar mistakes, it’s still probably the most honest sale ad I’ve seen in a long time. I’m mean who else writes, “Selling a few a my horses and this guy has to go. Who ever buys this guy MUST have a good seat because he bucks every ride,at least one little bucking session i dont think he has a probleem he just likes bucking. but he is a real sweet boy and kids can ride him. he is 15.8 hands tall and he weighs 2000 pounds.” For all of that and more, Skiddy can be yours for the small price of $5,000. Oh and the best part is that the seller added photos that rival a picture of a cowboy and a bronc so everyone can get a better feel of his bucking. Sometimes you just have to wonder with people. [Better than Craigslist]
Check out Rolex Cross Country 2012
[youtube width=”475″ height=”344″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a2cDGqRvgQ&feature=player_embedded
That’s all for now, Eventing Nation! John is taking over Horse Nation today, so stop by HN for a full day of insanity. Have a great day, I will talk with you tomorrow!
