Shanon at Rebecca Farm by Samantha
We have a bunch of news and notes to get to today folks, so let’s jump right in. In some quick short list news, Shanon Lilley and *Ballingowan Pizzaz have replaced Alexandra Slusher and Last Call on the Pan American Games short list. Ali’s fans need not let their hearts be troubled as she withdrew Last Call with the intent of going to the Boekelo CCI3* (Oct. 6-9) in Holland. Many riders are facing the reality of having to pass up a great chance to do well at the Pan Ams in order to do a fall 3* and thus have a shot at the Olympics next year. The change is great news for Shannon and the very talented Ballingowan Pizzaz. The pair, which hails from California, most recently placed 3rd at the Rebecca Farm CCI2*.
–I know when you woke up this morning you thought to yourself “gosh, what I really want to read more about on EN is rider travel grants.” Well, we are here to please. On Wednesday we learned that Twizzel, Mighty Nice, Andromaque, Pawlow, Neville, Remington, Loughan Glen, and Icarus all received $15,000 travel grants. Twizzel, Andromaque, Icarus, and Neville all will hopefully use that money to compete at Burghley. My guess is that Mighty Nice, Pawlow, and Loughan Glen will likely use the money for Blenheim, and we will see Remington go to Boekelo along with Otis Barbotiere and Last Call. The rest of the Boekelo Team, which will be funded by a USOC grant for rider development will be named later, likely after the final Pan Am squad is sorted out. Clear as mud?
–I also should congratulate all of the grant recipients from Wednesday. Sinead Halpin is an obvious choice for a grant and she received the Jacqueline Mars Training Grant this year, although that wasn’t noted in the USEF press release. The grant situaiton gives us a quick look at how busy and convoluted the US High Performance autumn travel schedule is going to be.
–The Today Show featured a nice segment on Wednesday about finding new homes for racehorses after their life on the track. It’s wonderful to see a national media spotlight on the issue and importance of OTTB’s. NBC visited TROTT in California, which seems like a great organization and hopefully they will get some additional support because of the feature. [Today Show via the Retired Racehorse blog]
—Bruce Davidson picked up a win last weekend at Fair Hill. You can get the latest from Bruce, who will take two prelim horses to Richland next, at his blog. His student, David Koss will move Look Sweet up to advanced at Richland.
–You can read more about 10 fun facts about Ecogold horse Gin N’ Juice from HJU.
–We received over 50 submissions to our EN blogger contest. I’m really excited about the quality of the applications–I’ll be out of a job soon if I’m not careful. Because they are so good, it’s taking me a long time to sort through them and find 10 finalists. We’ll have much more on the contest soon, so stay tuned.
–Get hyped because Samantha has a ton of great interviews coming up, including Will Faudree and Alex Hua Tian, who has just launched his new Youtube channel.
–In a strange and slightly sad story that thankfully has a happy ending, a horse in Germany got trapped in a giant tire after slipping while grazing. Rescuers were able to cut the horse free, but it makes for one incredible story. [Daily Mail via TC and MM]
–Rebecca Howard takes a quick look back at coaching at Young Riders here.
–If you are an event photographer, please remember to send in links to your galleries of photos from this weekend’s events to [email protected]. As I explained on Monday, we will include them with our links to the event scores throughout the weekend. It’s a great way to help our readers find their photographs. I’d also like to thank the many photographers who have reached out with kind words and sent in their photographer profiles after my apology to Amy on Monday. I’m excited to continue building and strengthening those relationships and EN is going to be much better for it.
–We have gotten a few reports from readers who had stuff stolen from their trucks and trailers at horse shows this weekend. It’s a worthless and pathetic occurrence that is sadly becoming more common, so this is just a public service announcement to make sure to lock your stuff up these days. Sadly, things are not like they used to be.
–On a very sad note, there have been two more barn fires that have claimed the lives of horses this week. 6 horses perished in a Washington barn fire Tuesday morning, and 14 horses passed away in a Texas barn fire. Both fires occurred Tuesday morning. Check out the links for ways to help.
–The Chronicle catches up with Boyd about Neville and Ying Yang Yo [COTH]
Best of the Blogs: Hamish. Who else?
Check out video of EN friend Holly Hudspeth back in action after giving birth to young Hailey Hudspeth this summer:
That’s all for now. I owe Coren a belated happy birthday, show her some EN love by liking her Facebook page. That’s all for now. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation your home for eventing news, commentary, and ridiculousness each and every day. Now, more than ever, go eventing.
