Carolina Region’s Tuesday News and Notes from Pennfield

Seven Carolina riders at the USPC Champs in the KHP Coliseum sent in a photo of the most precise “EN” ever

Good morning Eventing Nation!  We have a couple of very special and super-secret announcements coming soon to Eventing Nation.  One of the announcements will change the course of Eventing Nation forever and the other has been a long time coming.  With that tease, as it is called in the entertainment industry, here are your eventing news and notes…

–Eventing Nation’s thoughts and prayers reach out to South Abington Township, PA, where more than 20 horses have perished in a barn fire.  Over The Hill Farm, which is primarily an equitation and jumper barn, burned down Sunday evening.  As of right now, authorities are not sure how many horses have passed away.  For donations and to show support, visit the Over The Hill Facebook page.  [COTH]

–In a very cool story on Boyd’s blog, he has started training a horse for a retired Army Special Forces colonel who is currently serving the US in Baghdad assisting the Iraqi leadership.  Manny Diemer and his wife are avid horse lovers and they bought a horse Bru from the racetrack and asked Boyd to train him while Manny is in Iraq.  Bru most recently finished 3rd at Maryland.  Boyd said on his blog that it’s an honor to train a horse for a hero, and we wish Manny and Bru many happy returns eventing.  Also, if you missed EN over the weekend, Neville Bardos completed his first event since the True Prospect fire at Maryland.  [Boyd’s blog]

–Fallout from statue-gate continues to ripple through the forums.  The Chronicle Forum has over 12 pages and 230 posts on the statue in just over 24 hours.  Allison and Arthur are one of the most polarizing pairs in eventing and people seem to either love them or hate them.  As is usually the case with eventing mass feuds, the meltdown following a controversy has as much if not more to do with who is involved than what happened.  Statue-gate gives both sides plenty of ammunition, which is unfortunate for any chance of progress being made. 

—Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, it’s time for Young Riders.  North America’s best riders under the age of 21 will descend upon Lexington, Kentucky for the eventing, dressage, show jumping, reining, and endurance competition.  This year will be endurance’s first time as a NAYRC competition.  The eventing CCI* and CCI2* jogs start Wednesday afternoon.  I walked away from my two Young Riders for Area VIII with just one bronze team medal and feeling like I missed two big opportunities. The USEA announced the eventing teams last week.  [Teams, Schedule PDF, Groom’s Diary Part 3, Reining Post 2]

Omega Alpha is returning as sponsor of the AEC’s [USEA]

Kate Chadderton has posted a great list of  terms essential for workers in her barn.  I have posted a few of my favorites below. [Kate’s blog*]

5 minutes away: more like 10

Leave the barn (for a show) at 4:20am: we’ll leave at 4:38am

Please can you clean the tack: why hasn’t the tack been cleaned yet

Just ducking home to send an email: I’m going home to have an Icy Pole

I’m going to the bank: I’m going to Burger King

Best of the Blogs: An Olney Farm HT Report

That’s all for now.  It’s too hot to go outside other than to ride, so keep it locked here for your eventing news and notes.  See you soon.