Good Morning Eventing Nation! I hope your week has been going well. Looking forward to this weekend, there are only two competitions on the roster. The Event at Three-Day Ranch in California [Entry Status], and the Pine Top Spring Horse Trials [Entry Status]. It looks like it will be a full house at both events; in California, Hawley Bennett-Awad has three rides in the Advanced-Intermediate, her groom Natalia Gurmankin is also riding in that division along with several other notable names. It’s the same story at Pine Top, although the highest division running is Preliminary, all the big guns will be there this weekend on younger horses.
This is just a quick reminder before moving on to the real news, but don’t forget about the Bit of Britain/Cavalor ‘Problem Horse Contest’. You could win a month’s supply of Cavalor supplements and all you have to do is Reply to the thread on the Bit of Britain Facebook page with your horse’s issue and be entered to win! Once you’ve done that, just email your contact information to [email protected] and you’re done! I’d recommend keeping your the paragraph describing your horse’s problem to something that a supplement could potentially help, ex. “Lightning is perfect in the warm-up at events but then gets really tense and worked up in the dressage arena” instead of ‘I think Lightning is possessed, In the rare moments he’s not bucking, launching, or shying etc….” We’ll keep reminding you but enter now if you have a couple seconds, a month of supplements from Cavalor is a pretty fantastic prize.
The story of the morning, thanks to a tip from JER, is the Cambridge/Oxford riding team debacle that has been circulating into the media’s grasp. Evidently each year the two schools hold a joint competition for the riding team students, comprised of a dressage test and show jumping round. This year, the visiting team of Cambridge was originally declared the winner but after the prize giving, there was some scoring confusion (or as Cambridge would put it: Oxford cheated us and rearranged the scoring) but either way, the title was handed to Oxford, then back to Cambridge, and they still can’t decide who rightfully won. As one Cambridge student put it, “To be honest, the trouble [of this ordeal] has just a big load of horse—-.” [The Telegraph]
I thought I’d get all the JER stories done before moving on to the subsequently less interesting ones, and in her typical fashion, she was kind enough to send us another great story, this time about Cheltenham racing. For those not well versed in anything horse related other than sand boxes, cross country courses, and colored rails, Cheltenham is a famous race course in England and considered to be the premier course in the country. The opening weekend of jump racing was last weekend, according to the reports, everything started and finished well with only a few minor bobbles during the course of the weekend. There were the usual falls that happen at big races like at Cheltenham, but this weekend jockeys weren’t the only ones taking a tumble. Evidently during the Champion Chase race, a photographer got serious facial injuries after a falling horse struck his camera and his face. I’d be interested to know how exactly it happened that he was close enough to the fences to be struck by a horse but anyway, I digress. Go Cheltenham. [The Guardian]
A blogger for the Chronicle from the Hunter/Jumper scene wrote a very interesting article about the drug rules and how they are affecting the future of Hunters. According to Robin Greenwood, a prominent name and authority in the sport, actually is of the opinion that the drug rules are becoming too stringent. Her thinking is that as long as hunters are expected to go around in a quiet and relaxed manner, people will be finding ways around the rules to make that happen, so the better route would be to allow the basic sedatives, such as acepromazine, or another low level tranquilizer. I thought it was an interesting article because the author had a very different attitude towards drugs and horses than I think most event people would have. I personally think a zero tolerance rule for tranquilizers is the only way to judge the competition fairly, if someone is going to tranquilize a horse to compete, you can pretty much bet that most everyone will be too. It’s a tricky subject for sure, what are your thoughts on the current drug rules? [COTH]
The new HBO TV show Luck has been suspended with a strong possibility of being discontinued after a third horse died on the set while filming. Luck has certainly been unlucky in it’s debut, it sounds like this last accident was really just a freak accident. A mare was being walked back ed to her stall by a groom when she reared and flipped over and died instantaneously. The Humane Society has been monitoring the horse welfare on the set, and stated in a press release: “While this incident did not occur on set, while filming, or during racing, we immediately demanded that all production involving horses [be] shut down until the set has undergone a thorough and complete investigation. [Horsetalk]
Ingrid Klimke recently gave a nice interview talking about what it’s like preparing for what could potentially be her fourth Olympics. She had a great quote at the end, saying: “You must always have dreams and goals never rest, never think you have had it all — then it is better to quit — but I would love to keep going.” I thought that was a nice piece of inspiration we could all taking something away from. [CNN]
Jennie Brannigan writes about her up and down stay in Aiken. [COTH]
Best of the Blogs: Gaby Cooke’s Badminton Horse Trials diaries
That’s all I have for you right now, Eventing Nation! Have a great day, I’ll catch you later!
