First of all, I’d like to give a big thanks to the EN Team, including Leslie, Visionaire, Annie, and JER for holding down the fort this weekend. The long term success of Eventing Nation is ultimately going to depend in large part on my ability to balance riding and writing, and this weekend was a step forward in that learning process. I have said this many times before, but the experiment that is Eventing Nation would have ended a long time ago without the EN Team.
For the WEG short listers, Millbrook was basically like an NFL preseason game–you try not to get injured and the results don’t matter. Here are a few miscellaneous notes from Millbrook:
(1) The Millbrook advanced has a reputation for being a ‘move-up course,’ which is a good thing considering its place in the calendar. Millbrook lived up to that reputation this year, with the Tremaine Cooper course riding beautifully for all but 5 advanced riders. The intermediate definitely did not look like a move-up course to me, but it rode like a move-up with only 3 intermediate riders having issues. Some of these good numbers have to do with the fact that there was a very high quality of riders at Millbrook.
(2) Don’t worry about time penalties from the short listers. I would guess that 18 time penalties for Neville seems like a lot for some people but Boyd does this with Neville at horse trials, and we all know what happens at the 4*’s. I have a lot of respect for Boyd saving Neville for when it counts. The same goes for Connaught.
(3) Also, don’t put a lot of importance on the dressage results. Word in the barns is that the scores were pretty inconsistent and I totally agree.
Link: Millbrook results
(4) Will Faudree’s mare Adromaque finished second in her first advanced–I’ll keep saying that I think she has the potential to be even better than her ‘brother’ Pawlow. In my mind, Will has two horses that can win 4*’s over the next few years.
(5) To all Canadian short listers: Peter Barry is going to take your spot on the team. Goodness, Peter has really clicked with Kilrodan Abbott recently. Some quality coaching from Phillip has helped them to excellent placings at Bromont and now Millbrook.
(6) Doug Payne has started showing up at events with a minimum of 7 horses.
(7) Buck obviously had a great weekend, finishing all three of his horses in the top seven of the advanced B division. Ballynoecastle won the advanced by 17 points. I haven’t heard the story of how Buck got the intermediate ride on Mensa from Andrea, but it’s possible that Mensa is the most talented horse Buck rode this weekend.
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In eventing, you learn a lot more about yourself and your friends when you fail than when you win. From “[stuff] happens, mate” (three guesses as to who said that to me), to “everything happens for a reason,” I was very grateful to have so many people helping me to rebound positively. We all have our own way of helping each other deal with the inevitable setbacks in our sport, and those ways are usually reflections of how we deal internally with our own setbacks. Also, a big thanks to everyone for all the kind comments over the past couple of days. We will have the final post of JER’s pentathlon mini-series this evening. Until then, go eventing.
