Paintball: Bromont was turned into a war-zone Saturday evening as several riders and event personnel (around 12 in all) went paintballing in the back fields. Ian and Waylon do it right and were decked out in gear that would make a soldier proud. Count me in next year guys.
Happy travels: Amidst all of the craziness of our Bromont coverage, I want to quickly mention that the US Luhmuhlen horses are scheduled to fly to Europe Saturday night. I spoke with Allison Springer and she explained that Arthur and Michael Pollard’s Wonderful Will are scheduled to leave JFK Airport in NY at 10PM Saturday night and arrive in Amsterdam Sunday morning. Arthur and Will will meet up with Jennifer Wooten’s ride, The Good Witch, who has already arrived in Amsterdam. All three horses will ship the 4.5 hour drive to Luhmuhlen together on Monday
Arthur and Wonderful Will are sharing a pallet, which is like a section of a head-to-head horse trailer and secures the horses for the flight. The horses are loaded onto the pallets and then the pallet is loaded onto the plane using a forklift. I spoke with Allison’s groom, Sarah, who said that the entire plane is climate controlled. One of the complications that Sarah mentioned is picking the right blanketing balance for the potentially long wait on the tarmac but then the long flight in the cool airplane.
Allison told me that competing in Europe leads to some interesting challenges such as the fact that it is difficult to buy ice in Europe and all the electrical plugs have different voltages than US plugs. Apparently Haygain provided Allison with a special European converter so she could steam her hay at Luhmhlen. Happy travels to the US horses and we look forward to a successful competition at Luhmuhlen.
Show jumping preview: Every single one of the top four CCI3* riders has something to prove tomorrow, and each will make a great story if they win it. Rebecca Howard rebounding from her fall, Will recovering from the broken collar bone, Jessica coming back after having a child, and Kim finding redemption after Rolex–all are made for TV story lines. I like each of these riders quite well, and I want them all to do well tomorrow. Will might have a little extra EN Karma right now because he gave me some food from the camp Coleman barn aisle dinner party Saturday night.
I know, I know we have to talk about Kim’s show jumping. The first stage to recovery is acknowledgement that there is a problem, and Kim has publicly and privately owned her challenges with confidence that far too few other riders posses. I am 100% certain that Kim will return to her excellent show jumping sometime soon, but the question is–will that be Sunday at Bromont? I really really hope it is.
I picked Jessica and Exponential to win Bromont two weeks ago, and I guess I have to stand by that now. You’re probably getting sick of me telling you what a great jumper Exponential is, but if they win you will get to see them here on EN, and I know that either way Ecogold will have their show jumping video uploaded.
As for the other divisions, I have to think that Kelli Temple will win the CCI2*. Axel Rose is a beautiful jumper and Kelli has a 9.6 point lead over Will Faudree and Andromaque. The show jumping is much tighter in the CCI*, with three horses within one rail of Boyd and Min. I expect Boyd to win it because Min has so much experience at this level, but all of the top 4 have a good chance.
Programming notes: We will have results and video of all the show jumping as it happens on Sunday. We will let everyone know when the show jumping starts as soon as we get a schedule in the morning. Video Saturday and Sunday Morning Groom tips are on a break until at least Monday and perhaps next weekend, depending on how things work out.
Everything I didn’t have time to write about today: I loved the moment in the CCI3* video where David was chasing after Rebecca with the dirt bike. David does this, and trust me, as a rider you know where David is at all times. I remember one year I was jumping the intermediate at Red Hills and David was in the middle of a crowd of maybe 200 people watching, but somehow I noticed his face out of all the others as I was galloping by.
Food is expensive in Canada. A bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich costs $7US and $8CA, and I ate at an Italian restaurant (where they spoke French) a couple of days ago and the entrees started around $15. You can pay anywhere with US currency, but you always get back Canadian change. So I have about $17 Canadian to burn tomorrow–which should buy lunch with a Gatorade.
Thanks for all the kind words about our Bromont coverage. I know that sometimes people want scores or something that we don’t have up, but please understand that these days are pretty hectic for me from the time I wake up to bed time. At Bromont the RV with my computer in it was 10 minutes from the XC course so I was running back between divisions to get as much posted as I could and then running back out to get video and watch the next division. By running I mean literally running. It’s a lot of fun, but I just don’t want people to think I am ignoring something if I don’t have it up immediately. As always, thanks for joining us for Bromont.
Go eventing.
