Wednesday Morning News from Horse Quencher

Richland Park is, of course, taking place this weekend. Funny enough, even though the Horse Trials are only about an hour away from where John lives, and even though he’s competed there as many times or more than the rest of the entrants, when I called him this afternoon to chat, he had to call me back because he was lost en route to Richland and was stopping to ask for directions. Assuming he does make it there, we will have coverage of the event this weekend. If not, we may have a weekend of remembering what following an event was like before a little thing called Eventing Nation came along. Let’s hope for the first one. Until we hear from John, here are the Ride Times and Timetable for you to peruse.

Remember Furry, that evil pony you rode as a child and swore was a killer even when the daft beginners instructor tried to convince you otherwise? Well, according to a newly released book entitled Deadly Equines: The Shocking Story of Meat Eating and Murderous Horses, your hypothesis about flesh-eating Furry may have been right. The book sequences events throughout history that describe a seemingly ‘normal’ horse turning into a ferocious killer; One of the excerpts from the book reads, “As we ran for our lives, we could hear the iron-shod hooves of the man-eater in hot pursuit.” The only piece of the book that seems like it could possibly be based on fact rather than fiction is a clip of video where Tibetan horses appear to be eating what we are told is a combination of blood and lamb’s meat. The author of the book, CuChullaine O’Reilly, is trying to enlighten us horse people about the dangers of our steeds, and warns us by saying, “Unfortunately, thanks to the widespread effects of equestrian amnesia, the knowledge of deadly horses has been lost to the general public.” Thanks CuChullaine, consider us warned. [Horsetalk]

There was some great news for our sport as a whole yesterday, and particularly the True Prospect crowd, in that Bruce Duchossois, one of Phillip’s long time owners, along with ACE Private Risk Services Insurance, made a donation of $20,000 to the USET Foundation in memory of the horses lost in the True Prospect Fire. Boyd said of the donation:

“It’s moving. It restores my faith in the American culture, that everything’s not just about money.  It’s fantastic when a company goes far beyond the call of duty and sees a terrible situation and they put their hat and money out for such a wonderful donation.”

[Press Release]

If you followed any of the weekend eventing coverage, you know that the Great Britain Young Rider squad followed in the footsteps of the senior team by taking the Gold in the Young Riders Championships held at Blair Castle. Eventing Worldwide has an in-depth recap here.

1. How brave are you? Have you raced over jumps to prove it? When will you race, if you haven`t already done it?
2.Have you recovered from bad injuries and come right back into the dogfight?
3. Have you jumped 6 measured feet?
4. Have you PERSONALLY made 5 greenies into advanced eventers?
5. Have you completed either an AERC 100 mile race, or finished a 100 mile competitive ride?
6. Have you jumped clean around a 4 star 3-day event?
7. Have you competed at the advanced level for at least 10 years on at least 10 different horses?
8. Have you eventually turned a just foaled suckling into a 4 star horse?
9. Have you competed at the preliminary level, or higher, for 50 consecutive, uninterrupted seasons?

I remember reading some magazine a few years ago where Denny’s article contained a similar list of goals, only goal #1 was to bend to one side of your galloping pony or horse while riding bareback, pick up a squaking, terrified chicken off the ground, and swing back onto your pony. Evidently, Native American children were required to master this skill back in the day, otherwise they weren’t considered a true warrior and allowed to fight in battles. I’m glad he revised his list, because although I have the goal of completing most of the challenges on the current list, I can’t say that mastering the flying chicken grab is one of them.

Bramham Horse Trials, or rather the generous and hard working people that organize it, recently raised over 30,000 pounds…. for charity.  The money will be divided between two organizations, Household Calvary Operational Casualties Fund and the local Yorkshire regiment of the “Welfare for Wounded Warriors” Benevolent Fund. Considering how difficult many event organizers have to work to raise money just to keep their events afloat in today’s economic climate, its pretty amazing that Bramham could raise that much money for another organization. That’s some EN karma right there.

The jog at the European Championships begins today.  Heather Reimer was kind enough to send us a quick update with the latest from Luhmuhlen:

Most of the riders and horses had arrived by Tuesday night and the truck park is full to overflowing. There are numerous flags hanging everywhere even in the stables, leaving no doubt as to the importance of the event! Mary King is to be seen grazing Imperial Cavalier, Frank Ostholt riding Little Paint through the woods not to mention three Spanish riders picking up their after-training cigarette from a waiting girlfriend! The atmosphere already seems to be very different to that of the 4* in June and the excitement is really building up. The final finishing touches are being made so that everything looks perfect in time for the first trot up at 15:00 CET today and the opening ceremony at 18:30 CET.

Congratulations to the August Horse Quencher winners.  Beth Mitchell won the grand prize, Robyn Zimmer, Rachel Childers, and Caroline Glen came in first through third respectively.  To check out the cool prizes or enter this month, click the banner below.

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned for a busy day of eventing on Eventing Nation.