Grumpy Cat would like to say Happy Birthday! He really does, I promise!
I must start today’s reader with a big Eventing Nation Happy Birthday wish for Joanie Morris. One of the USEF’s fearless eventing leaders, Joanie has been unspeakably instrumental in assisting our riders as they work to improve the US’ viability on the international scale. After being named USEF Managing Director of Eventing in 2012, Joanie has become (even more) popular among the eventing community and has shown a great flair for her role. Today is her birthday, if you have not already figured out that, so Joanie I hope you are feeling the EN birthday love all the way in France! I will tell Jenni and Kate to come up with some sort of outlandish birthday song for you if they run into you.
In other news, Pau officially kicks off today with dressage. Two full days of dressage means that a fully stacked field will be squeezing every possible point out of the judges in order to get into a good position going into cross country on Saturday. Jenni and Kate will be bringing you up to date action as it unfolds, so stay tuned for much more.
Pau Links: [Website] [Dressage Times] [Live Scores] [Course Preview]
Events This Weekend:
Waredaca H.T. and Classic Training 3 Day Event [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]
Chattahoochee Hills H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]
Holly Hill Fall H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]
Heritage Park H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]
MCTA Jenny Camp [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]
News:
Do you have broodmares in your barn? TheHorse.com has published some helpful hints for caring for your broadmares as the weather starts to take a turn for winter. Nutrition is always of essence when it comes to any horse, and ensuring that your mare has the correct diet to stay healthy when the weather gets rough is imperative. [Broodmare Nutrition]
Allison Springer and Copycat Chloe have been awarded the H.E. “Tex” Sutton Forwarding Company Travel Grant to travel to Galway. This grant is in its first year, and the shipping company is participating in the eventing community by offering this generous award. The next award will be given to a rider to compete at either Bromont or Jersey Fresh next spring. [The Chronicle Details Tex Sutton Grant]
Andrew Nicholson has three horses competing at Pau this weekend. Andrew and Nereo won Pau last year and will be out to repeat this weekend. Mr. Cruise Control, Quimbo, and Viscount George will all be sent out with Nicholson in the irons this weekend. Can you believe that he has four, count ’em-FOUR, 4* winners in his string currently? You’d think he would want to share the wealth a little. I would gladly take Avebury off of his hands to lighten the load a bit. [Nicholson Goes for Gold]
Would you buy an inmate-trained horse? An auction style adoption event was held in Nevada this week to help some mustangs find new homes. All thirteen horses that were up for adoption were rehomed successfully. The horses were brought in from the wild and trained by inmate trainers that had participated in the correctional center’s training program. Given the success of this round of adoptions, another is scheduled for February. [Inmate Trained Horses Adopted]
Self-professed nerd Doug Payne added to his helmet cam at Fair Hill this past weekend. He wanted to gather some data on heart rate while competing on cross country, so he had a GPS watch added to his uniform for the day that kept track of his heart rate. Doug plans to use this research in his fitness regimen, as we all know that fitness and strength is of the utmost importance in order to be competitive. [Doug Learns at Fair Hill]
Blanket season is coming fast, if it hasn’t already arrived in your area. When I was blanket shopping last, I found myself more than a little overwhelmed at the number of choices. I wanted to keep it simple and budget friendly while simultaneously making sure my horse was fashion conscious and warm. Lo and behold, I finally stumbled upon the SmartPark Classic Turnout Blanket. I got it just in time for Christmas and immediately took it to the barn to try it on my handsome boy. I can’t tell you how well the blanket fit and how nicely it held up under all of the stress he put it through. I am pretty sure that he took it upon himself to come up with new ways to attempt blanket ruin every day – I can imagine how frustrated he was when it didn’t work! [SmartPak Classic Turnout Blanket]
Best of the Blogs:
Because none of us can get enough of Jan Bynny, here is some footage from her rocking weekend at Fair Hill. Enjoy!
