Thursday News & Notes Presented by Stable View

Just a baby horse learning to jump. Photo by Emily Zhang.

I think my favorite part of training horses is the baby parts, and when they start to figure out the pieces and put them together. Above you’ll see my most recent project, an eight-year-old OTTB named Beep, who raced successfully through his 7 year old year and retired without a blemish on him. For the first few months he was definitely convinced that the racetrack was somewhere around, but this fall he has finally realized that his life seems to be a bit different, and a lot slower. I’m having so much fun introducing him to eventing. Plus, he’s a plain brown horse, which is my favorite!

U.S. Weekend Preview

Galway Downs International Three-Day Event (Temecula, CA): [Website] [Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

The VHT International & H.T. (Lexington, VA): [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]

Full Gallop Farm November H.T. (Aiken, SC): [Website] [Volunteer]

Rocking Horse Fall H.T. (Altoona, FL): [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

Texas Rose Horse Park Fall H.T. (Tyler, TX): [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]

News From Around the Globe:

The 2022 Eventing Nation Blogger Contest is underway and we’re pleased to welcome 8 finalists forward to the third and final round of competition.Here’s where you, our readers, come into account! You’ll be helping us select the winner of the 2022 EN Blogger Contest, who will earn eternal EN karma as well as some cold hard cash to pay a vet bill or something equally unsexy. The ask is simple: use the scoring widget below each entry to share your opinion. We’ll factor in this popular vote when making the final decision — but let’s face it, Chinch gets the final call. [EN’s Big Bad Blogger Contest!]

Horses, submarines, ROTC, oh my! Perhaps not a combination you might expect, but for college student Helen Lohr it’s just perfect. Attending Auburn University, Helen combines riding on the equestrian team with her duties in the naval ROTC. In fact, she finds the lessons you learn on horseback as excellent training to become a leader in the military. [Naval ROTC Equestrian]

Piggy March returned from Le Lion D’Angers with some thoughts. Between the disorganized travel issues in France, and irregularities in the dressage judging that had competitors chatting in the barns, the young horse championships were not without their drama. Before she retires for the season, Piggy lends her opinion on this as well as other international events this fall. [Opinion: Piggy March]

Learning Opportunity of the Day: Improving The Crest Release

With the 2022 Breeder’s Cup right around the corner, it’s a good time to take a look at the one, the only, the queen — Zenyatta. Foaled April 1, 2004, Zenyatta is no April Fool’s joke. In fact, this champion, standing at 17.2, was the first filly to win the Breeder’s Cup Classic when she bested a field of 12 other horses in 2009 and was named Horse of the Year in 2010. Now, 13 years later, we look back at Queen Z with an incredible video. [Hot on Horse Nation]