The big news from Tuesday evening is that Kim Severson’s Tipperary Liadhnan has been sold. “Paddy” is set to get right back in action this weekend and is entered with Kim’s student and Olympic hopeful for Thailand, Nina Ligon, in the OI at Fair Hill. I still think Fernhill Fearless is the top Olympic prospect for Nina, but my guess is that we’ll see Paddy at Pau perhaps and then another 4* in the spring. The good news is that now I can and will rant about Kim being one of the best riders in the US and not having a 4* horse, which is absurd. Kim mentions in her blog that she only has the funding to buy a young prospect. That’s the equivalent for the US of Shaun White having a crappy snowboard. Surely there is an owner out there that wants an instant shot at winning medals. [Kim’s new blog]
Paddy isn’t the last high profile horse that will be sold this year. There are quite a few folks out there looking for Olympic horses that are great on the XC. Some of the suitable horses are old enough that they are really only valuable at a high level if they are sold this year to Olympic hopefuls. There are even people who want Olympic prospects who are great on XC, can go under 55 on the flat and finish on that, and the list of those horses that are available can be counted on one hand and the asking prices are high six figures.
Now for some eventing news and notes…
–Not to state the obvious, but New Zealander Clarke Johnstone is having a great spring. At just 24 years old and with WEG team bronze under his belt from last year, he has been tearing it up with two wins so far in the FEI World Cup eventing competitions, one in New Zealand and the other in Australia. Today he leaves with 5 horses to fly to England to campaign through the London Olympics. He is taking Orient Express, KS Secrets, Incognito, Regal Romar, and Viper SL. According to Horsetalk, Johnstone is looking at Aachen for Orient Express in mid July, Burghley for Secrets and Incognito in September, and Blenheim for Orient Express. He said that he will only go to the final leg of the World Cup league in France in late August if his lead is challenged. Clarke is just one of several reasons to fear the Kiwis in 2012. [Horsetalk]
–The Davidson family has 11 horses entered at Fair Hill HT [Fair Hill Entries]
–A UK woman who broke her neck in a horse fall has been awarded 60,000 Pounds in damages (the money, not the weight) after her horse fell while schooling over an unfixed portable jump at the Whitmore Riding School. The woman’s lawyer said: “The jump was inherently dangerous and, for a professional establishment to use such a fence, shows a lack of awareness of the risk.” In some sense, I feel like any jump is inherently dangerous. This is one of several court cases in the past few moths involving portable jumps that fell over while the horse was jumping them. In terms of whether or not to secure a jump, I haven’t heard of anyone being sued for a jump not moving, so that might be the simplest answer for a builder. [Horse and Hound]
—10 USEA events opened on Tuesday— Chattahoochee (GA), Cobblestone Farms (MI), University of New Hampshire, Wayne DuPage H.T. (IL), Coconino Summer I H.T. (AZ), ENYDCTA/Old Chatham (NY), 35rd Annual Whidbey Island Pony Club H.T. (WA), Genesee Valley (NY), Powder Basin H.T. (WY), The Maryland H.T. at Loch Moy Farm I (MD). That pretty much means that Annie is going to have a busy Saturday night writing the links post for July 9th.
–The first of your daily EHV-1 link says that the case total is holding steady, but from reading the article it sounds a lot like people don’t really know what the case total trend is doing. It’s fine, the spread rate of infectious diseases isn’t really that important anyhow. Dr. Emerson has a good blog post for Sidelines about the issue, saying that we are winning the war against EHV-1.
–I was going to beg for an extra few Twitter followers in exchange for EN Karma to get us to 1,000 followers, but we hit it as I was writing the intro to this post. Thanks Tweeps, as the Twitter lingo goes. I am a long way from being a Twitter elitist, but I do cringe when people use the term ‘twittering.’
–Holly Hudspeth is getting very close to becoming a mother indeed, but that hasn’t stopped her from getting her blog on. Holly writes about getting a new horse for a client and helping Cavalor to open at Triangle Horse Sports, a huge feed store in the Raleigh, NC area. What’s good for Cavalor is good for EN, so thanks Holly. [Holly’s blog]
—Using Vermont draft horses to bring fiber optic cables to remote locations
—Trish Bosch shows more love for Johvale
–James Alliston had one of the best weekends of anyone at Rolex, with great rides on two first time Roles horses. He writes about his experience for the [PRO blog]
–As usual, Courtney Cooper has a busy summer show season [Courtney’s blog]
—Is it unhealthy for horses to eat bedding? Apparently not, if you consume it in small enough quantities, which I could have told you from my personal experience. [SmartPak blog]
Best of the Blogs: Sinead Halpin
A video recap of the jumping at the Australian Equestriad last weekend:
That’s all for now Eventing Nation. I’ll be along throughout the day with all of your eventing news and ridiculousness. As always, wherever you may be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. Stay classy Eventing Nation.
