Thursday News & Notes from Nupafeed

When your horse is just this relaxed at competitions. Photo courtesy of Kate Brown.

Ah, horses. Always keeping you humble and reminding you that plans are nice, but nobody cares. I’ve been working with a young horse on standing still at the mounting block this week, and he thinks this is absolutely the worst possible request I could make. He’s lovely and very willing otherwise, but try to make him stand still and he gets SO mad. Yesterday, I spent 45 minutes asking him to stand still after I mounted. FORTY FIVE MINUTES. He relented his pawing, kicking out, backing up, fake rearing, snorting and general hissy fit for about a minute at the end, and I called it a day. Oh, sorry, you had plans to do things today? Whoops.

U.S. Weekend Preview:

Jersey Fresh International Three-day Event [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Spokane Sport Horse Farm 2nd Annual Spring H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]

Texas Rose Horse Park Summer H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Galway Downs Spring H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Winona Horse Trials  [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Plantation Field May Horse Trials [Website] [Entry Status] [Live Scores]

Woodland Stallion Station H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

WindRidge Farm Horse Trials [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Grindstone Mountain Farm H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

News From Around the Globe:

Get ready for Jersey Fresh with some fast facts and a cross country preview. With four divisions (CIC2*, CCI2*, CIC3* and CCI3*) being offered, the biggest is the CIC2* with 31 entrants. The classic cross country course has been designed by John Williams for the last fourteen years, but Capt. Mark Phillips has taken over for 2017, so we’re excited to see what changes he’s made. [Jersey Fresh Fast Facts]

Top hits of Andrew Nicholson’s storied career….where do we start? To the man who had to wait 37 completions of Badminton to finally win, he’s certainly had his fair share of career highlights before this past weekend. He’s been to the Olympics almost every year since the 90’s and has seven WEG rounds under his belt. The man is an iron horse! [Andrew Nicholson’s Eventing Career]

In the quest for increased safety over cross country, the USEA is exploring collapsible fence technology. Frangible pins have now become a constant in both national and international competition course design, and have saved many lives with their effective deployment. What would happen if a solid table was connected all the way around with MiM clips so that it collapsed with the right kind of force? USEA has compiled this excellent guide to frangible fences, and you should definitely read it. [Exploring Collapsible Technology]

Balancing your horse’s diet is a never ending struggle. SmartPak is here to help you with finding the right balance between Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, from all different sources. Omega-3 promotes anti-inflammatory responses, and Omega-6 promotes inflammatory responses, both of which are important for your horse in a lot of different ways! Check out this handy chart on how to balance the two. [Is Your Horse’s Diet Off Balance?]

You know you always want to know how to do this: