It’s not uncommon for citizens of the Eventing Nation to experience feelings of emptiness and withdrawal following major overseas events. (“Boekelo is over. What am I supposed to do with myself now?”) Fear not: More international action is headed our way next week via Les Étoiles De Pau, the French four-star. Helene Gallagher kindly sent us this picture of Kathleen Blauth, Buck Davidson and Colleen Rutledge as they prepared Shiraz and Ballynoecastle RM to ship out. [Pau]
Events Closing Today: The Virginia CCI * and H.T. (VA, A-2), Rocking Horse Classic 3-day & H.T. (FL, A-3) Pine Hill Fall H.T. (TX, A-5), Galway Downs International Three-Day Event & H.T. (CA, A-6)
The Hill That Is Fair: It’s almost that time. Order of draw is posted here. There are 70 horses in the CCI** and 43 in the CCI***, plus 17 in the 4-year-old and 19 in the 5-year-old YEH classes. [Website]
Germany Takes Wold Cup Title: The German team’s win at Boekelo confirmed its domination of the inaugural FEI Nations Cup Eventing series. The team led from the outset and was the only nation to have competed in five of the series’ six legs. They finished 24 points ahead of second-placed the Netherlands, with France finishing in third. [FEI]
Change of Address: Caroline Powell, who represented New Zealand in the London Olympics, announced that she is relocating from Scotland to Wiltshire for the 2013 season. The move will put her close to fellow team members Mark Todd, Andrew Nicholson and Jonelle Richards as well as Jesse Campbell and Clarke Johnstone, and will enable her to attend more training sessions. She explains that the relocation means “a lot less driving and lots more competing and training.” [Team New Zealand]
Tina Cook’s New Project: …is making up point-to-point horses. The British event rider has two of them in training, whom she hopes to have ready to run in December. “This works perfectly for me,” she says. “I can event during the summer and train pointers in the winter.” [H&H]
Kiss me, I’m Irish: The Irish Sport Horse Studbook bested the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses Eventing Studbook rankings for 2012. Karen O’Connor’s Olympic ride Mr. Medicott, an ISH, took first in the individual eventing rankings. The Hanoverian studbook finished second with the Holstein studbook rounding out the top three. [Horse Talk]
Best of the Blogs: Molly Rosin has been a busy gal of late, between winning at Rador, prepping for Fair Hill, and getting hitched. Congrats, Molly, and good luck! [Havarah Equestrian]
Runners-up: You know you’re getting more confident when jumps that once seemed huge appear to be shrinking. The Bad Eventer calls it “The Sinking Jump Effect.” [Tales from a Bad Eventer] And, Katy Groesbeck looks for the silver lining after her autumn event season, which was supposed to culminate in the Galway CCI***, got derailed. [HN]
Video: Our friends at FLAIR sent us this masterclass video of Phillip Dutton taking his group of course-walkers through the Sunken Road at Rolex 2012. [FLAIR]
