Update: Daisey Berkeley’s veteran Spring Along died of a suspected heart attack at Gatcombe
Good Morning Eventing Nation! John wrote a recap last night of the tough day at Southern Pines, and of course the sad news of Dekorum’s passing at Poplar, and so for repetition’s sake, I’ll make my Poplar recap brief.
— EN’s favorite Udonna started the CIC** course but unfortunately had to retire shortly after the first fence as she threw a shoe. It’s a long trip to make for such a trivial problem to be the end of a weekend, but if one thing is certain, they have many promising weekends ahead of them.
— I watched most of the Advanced and all of the CIC**, one of the things I first noticed was a fair amount of confusion as to what was happening at the time. Maybe it was due to the less-than-stellar loudspeakers, or the various holds due to a number of falls, or even the spread out nature of the course itself, but regardless, it was really difficult to learn the full details of all of the incidents on course at the time.
— I can’t go without mentioning the fabulous job the Poplar team did yesterday, as well as all of the volunteers. Thanks to the great support staff, Poplar ran five levels of cross country today and show jumping that continued well in to the 7 o’ clock hour! The tough situations, like Michael’s horse, were all handled immediately and in a very professional manner.
— I know the scoreboard tells a less-than-pleasant story of yesterday’s rides, but for as many problems as there were, there was also a great deal of excellent riding to be seen.
That’s all for the Poplar coverage right now. Here are your weekend links:
I’ll see you soon, Eventing Nation. Don’t forget to check back for reports on both Southern Pines and Poplar later today.
