Olivia rocking the Dubarry winter headband.
Good morning Eventing Nation!
Olivia Culpo is Miss USA 2012. She’s also a Smartpak model! She appeared in their Save the Date Black Friday marketing campaign. She’s a sophomore at Boston University and will represent the US at the Miss Universe Competition in December. [Huffington Post] [Smartpak ad]
Not only are there big events in eventing and racing this weekend, the dressage folks are out in force at Gladstone. The Dressage Championships are held over two weekends starting on Friday. Steffen Peters is the defending champion with Ravel. As we know, Ravel has been excused from competing in the show as it is also a Team Selection trial. Steffen will defend his title with Legolas 92 in their first East Coast competition together. [Full List of riders]
Laura Collett and Natterjack are getting into the spirit of things! It took a team of four to paint the grey horse with the Union Flag. They used a liquid chalk and put two coats on. He was loving the attention and ate hay and carrots during the four hour application. Laura took the horse over the Stonehenge jump at Barbury Castle. Be sure to check out the video. Very impressive! [Daily Mail]
Luhmuehlen entries are up! For the US: Boyd and Ying Yang Yo, Colleen and Shiraz, Jules and Chapel Amble in the CCI4*, and Jules also has Enjoy Me in the CIC3*. [Luhmuelen entries]
Unfortunately, Stuart Tunney’s Panamera is out of contention for the London Team. She sustained an injury to her suspensory ligament at the last competition. It’ll be a short rest before she’ll be back in competition for the Melbourne Three Day. [Hills News]
The Course Designers for Normandy have been announced. Pierre Michelet is the eventing course designer. He’s previously designed Saumur, Pau, the European Championships and the Eventing World Cup courses, and is consulting on this year’s London Olympic course. [Horsetalk]
The tagline reads: “No good can come from a paint horse with a smartphone.” I rather disagree. He’s funny. [Oz]
Kim Severson has updated her blog, and she’s decided to get her own place! She’s back in Virginia looking for the perfect property to call her own. She’s put her own competition plans on hold as she’s been on a two weeks in England, one week in the US schedule helping prep Nina Ligon for the Olympics. They’re seven weeks out! [Kim’s blog]
Woodstock Eventing has announced that a partial ownership of Frankie has become available. Frankie is a fabulous jumper who has won at preliminary this season and is en route to the CCI* at Bromont this weekend. [Woodstock Eventing]
Jessica Pye and Bounder had an epic clinic with DOC. She was a little under-schooled heading in to the clinic, but hey, those are the times when you really learn. And learn she did! Make sure your horse is straight to collect, hold the reins when your horse gets fresh after jumps, and keep educating yourself in your sport. Jess and Bounder are headed to Texas Rose at intermediate and then Millbrook for advanced. [Go Jess and Bounder]
Molly Rosin gave Waredaca an A+ last weekend. She and The Diesel Boy won the YEH 5- year old division, and came in second on Alpine and 6th on Puttin on the Ritz in the preliminary. Her students also had a wonderful weekend with Maddie Parisan and EN favorite John Nunn finishing 2nd and 6th, respectively, in the Preliminary Rider division. [Go Havarah Equestrian]
Valerie V says Hello and Goodbye. She starts with a wonderful tribute to her longtime trainer, Jim Lewis. Her intermediate partner, Playtime, has also left, but moved on across the pond to his new home. And, she welcomes new working student Stacy Iacono. [Valerie’s Blog]
Doug Payne has a new podcast up. He recaps the last month or so of all things from DPEquestrian from Rolex to Virginia, and he’s currently headed to Bromont this morning. He also offers some fitness advice, and it’s not riding. [Doug’s blog]
The New York Times and ESPN have articles on drugs and medications in the racing industry. Really, this is nothing new and the debate is essentially overshadowing what a great horse I’ll Have Another truly is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about horse welfare, and doing right by the horses. I really like the ESPN article, especially, “And all the problems are exacerbated by confusion and ignorance.” Clearly, they’ve done their research, and as a horseperson, I greatly appreciate when any national media outlet does more than a Wikipedia search. [NYT] [ESPN]
June is Colic Awareness Month. The cause is simple: keep as many horses from colicing in the first place as possible. They’re doing this through education. Increasing turnout, feeding more roughage and less concentrate, and feed more smaller meals throughout the day. Share your stories, join the cause, and enter their contest. [Crusade Against Colic]
The Strzegom Youtube channel has been uploading lots of videos today. I leave you with Andreas Dibowski and FRH Butts Avedon:
Go eventing.
