Delwyn Ogilvy on Jabberwocky at Avenel Horse Trials way back when. Photo courtesy of Equestrian Memories Australia.
Ah, the olden days of Eventing. Granted, the jumps at the highest levels now are proper frighteners as well, but there is something nostalgic and insane about the designs they came up with in decades past. Take for instance, this “house” which is literally the size of a small home, which riders jumped up on, pitter pattered across, and then popped down in the Advanced at Avenel Horse trials. Fun fact: Delwyn Ogilvy (pictured) is in her sixties and still competing and winning!
U.S. Weekend Preview
CDCTA Fall H.T. (Berryville, VA): [Website] [Entries] [Volunteer]
Chardon Valley H.T. (Decatur, MI): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times/Scoring]
Five Points H.T. (Raeford, NC): [Website] [Entry Status] [Scoring] [Volunteer]
Flora Lea Fall H.T. (Medford, N): [Website]
GMHA September H.T. & Area I Championships (South Woodstock, VT): [Website] [Entries] [Scoring] [Volunteer]
News From Around the Globe:
Want all the Pratoni news? Head over to our Ultimate Guide to FEI World Championships for Eventing, and be sure to sign up for the #Pratoni2022 Daily Digest email, which will begin delivering to your inbox daily on Tuesday, September 13.
Awesome news about the upcoming Blenheim Horse Trials: it’s free to stream! Blenheim Horse Trials will be providing a free to watch live stream of the 2022 event as part of a new deal between its organisers and RaceTech. RaceTech has been chosen by the Jockey Club, which took over the running of Blenheim from British Eventing in 2021, to provide outside broadcast coverage of the four-star fixture. The full event will be shown on the Blenheim Horse Trials website.
Mark Phillips watched Burghley this past weekend for the first time in 30 years as a regular citizen. He’s been designing the course since 1989, and has created the cross country track we know today as one of the most challenging tests for horse and rider. This year Derek DiGrazia designed a really excellent track, and Mark had some interesting reflections watching the action on Saturday. [Opinion: Is Bigger Sometimes Safer?]
Do you stick your tongue out when you jump or while you’re concentrating on your dressage test? Turns out you’re not alone, in fact you’re in the company of some pretty high achieving riders. According to a 2015 research paper by Comparative Cognitive Neuroscientist Dr. Gillian Forrester, something called ‘motor overflow’ can occur during complex activities involving the use of our hands, causing some of us to stick out our tongues. Forrester and her team studied how a group of four-year-old children did just that while participating in increasingly complex fine motor tasks. The result? Dr. Forrester discovered that not only is there a correlation between fine motor activity and tongue-sticking, but the way in which the children stuck out their tongues—typically, to the right side of their mouths—suggests an evolutionary link could be at work. [Why Riders Stick Their Tongues Out]
Best of Blogs: A Reorganization of Painful Childhood Horse Memories
