Congratulations to the Auburn Tigers for winning the college football national championship by beating the Oregon Ducks early Tuesday morning. For our European readers, college football is pretty much exactly like European football, except for the fact that the players don’t wear shin guards and the referees don’t carry flags. Oregon fought valiantly, but ultimately they were not able to compete with Auburn’s payroll talent. The victory by Auburn makes it 5 national championships in a row for the SEC, and means that the national championship trophy will stay in Alabama for another year. Now for some eventing news and notes…
—Burghley Horse Trials: there’s an app for that
—The British Eventing board has elected Amanda Ratcliffe as their new Chairman. Amanda is a former 4* rider and a successful businesswoman. I could give the quote from the press release, but it’s boring and says exactly what you would expect it to say. [BE happy]
–The Talking Horse blog has posted an interview with Mike Tucker, who is in many ways the voice of eventing on TV. Mike Tucker has commentated for Badminton, the Shetland Pony Grand National at Olympia, and 4 Olympic Games, and he’s the voice you think of when you think “eventing on TV.” [Talking Horse blog]
–European vets are collaborating find ways to improve long-distance horse transport, by improving regulations and ensuring their enforcement. In Europe, horse transport regulations have a big focus on horses sent to slaughter. A guiding principle is that horses transported for slaughter should receive the same treatment as competitive and pleasure horses, but of course is this is not always the case. [Eurodressage]
–The Riders4Helmets website has posted quite a few video interviews from the helmet safety symposium on Saturday, including interviews with USEF CEO John Long, Ilse Schwarz, and Dave Halstead. [Riders4Helmets]
–Speaking of helmets, the helmet debate continues to ripple quietly through the media. [The Jurga Report, On The Line] But, the issue has still gotten unfortunately little coverage from the ‘mainstream’ media. Step your game up and write about helmets guys. #WearYourHelmet
Update: Late is always better than never, and the COTH has jumped on board with an article about the symposium Tuesday morning by Erin Gilmore, who writes the aforementioned On The Line blog for Sidelines. [COTH]
–Is your horse too heavy or too thin? I’d say that, speaking in general, event horses tend to stay at a much healthier weight than most other disciplines because eventers have a high degree of awareness about our horses’ care and because event horses get a lot of exercise. However, if you have trouble keeping weight on your horse, TheHorse.com has published this article with some tips.
—Best of the Blogs: Chelan Kozak has sent in her application for the Pan Ams
–Most of the southern US eventing community is still digging itself out from the blizzard on Monday. I spoke to someone in Aiken who said there is a few inches of snow on the ground, but that there is a thick sheet of ice underneath the snow which is making the roads perilous. But fear not Eventing Nation, there are plenty of fun ways to pass the time with horses in the snow:
That’s all for now. I’ll be back throughout the day with all your professional bocce ball and curling news. See you soon…
