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Happy Tuesday, folks – although honestly, this is the first time in a long time that I’ve had any concept of what day of the week it is, and even that’s only because EN editor Sally asked me at dinner the other night if I was still good to take Tuesday News & Notes today. ‘Huh, I really thought tomorrow was a Thursday,’ I thought to myself, for the forty-eighth time since I got to Paris.
Something odd happens to your concept of time, here, and your concept of the days, because every day is a whirlwind of twelve or fifteen or eighteen hours of work and hustle and as there aren’t any rest days in between – a new anomaly that’s been brought in this Games for us equestrian folks, and which I do not support – there’s never a moment to recalibrate and work out where you are in relation to the days to come. Instead, you navigate your way through with a vague understanding of what comes next – ‘I have to wake up at 5 tomorrow for a horse inspection’ or ‘I need to make sure I get in at 9 to set my remote cameras for an 11 start’ or ‘we’ve all been here for five hours, maybe the coffee stand will open soon and I can pay an extortionate eight euros for a thimble of caffeine’.
Which is not to say I’m complaining – being in Paris is the most extraordinary experience, and the most tightly-sealed bubble I’ve ever been in in my life. There is nothing beyond Paris for me right now. I can think only about our sport, in both immediate and broader-reaching terms, and I can think about the city itself, and beyond that? I would reserve a bit of brain space for fearing how much of a backlog of other stuff I’ll have to tackle when I get home in a few days, but I simply cannot, because that stuff doesn’t exist to me. La vie en Olympic time, baby.
There’s been something slightly jarring, because of all this, about seeing the Instagram posts and stories from our eventers, who returned home and got straight back to the grind, as you absolutely have to do. But my brain cannot compute – it’s scrolling through these things and going, ‘there’s life outside this very small pocket of France? Are you sure? What do you mean, someone’s taking their five-year-olds to a training show? Is Snoop Dogg even THERE?’ I really hope that on the flip side of all this, all of us sharing the post-Paris comedown together will make it easier to manage. Otherwise this might make for a rough landing! But over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be keeping part of my brain firmly in the bubble as Sally and I work through a tonne of post-Paris pieces – analysis, reflections, image galleries, and much, much more, so we can all fend off the post-Olympic blues for as long as possible. And in the meantime? There’s King Kazu, proudly putting his hard-won bronze medal on all the horses who helped him on the long road to winning it. We do not deserve this man.
Events Opening Today: Unionville International H.T., Meadowcreek Park H.T – Fall Social Event, Heritage Park H.T., Honey Run H.T.
Events Closing Today: Full Gallop Farm August HT, Shepherd Ranch Pony Club H.T. II, Town Hill Farm H.T., Bouckaert Equestrian H.T. International
Tuesday News & Notes from Around the World:
When it comes to laying down a quick, capable, competitive cross-country round, show-day success begins well before you head to the warm-up. Your course walk, or walks, are one of the most important parts of your day, because it’s there that you’ll make plans, suss out economical routes, customise your ride to your horse’s strengths and compensating for his weaknesses, and create safe, educational opportunities, too. But that only happens if you walk it properly, rather than just zooming around with a pal, taking photos on your phone and occasionally walking out your strides while your mind’s on the burger van. Course designer and coach Cathy Weischhoff’s got some great tips to make sure you make the most of it.
Beyond the performances in the main arena at Versailles, there’s a whole village of people making them happen. At the forefront of those backstage but totally essential cast members? The grooms, of course! Horse Sport caught up with the grooms looking after Canada’s show jumpers to find out more about their week in Paris. Check it out here.
Another mainstream media article on the Charlotte Dujardin scandal – but this one’s by someone who knows our sport incredibly well. Pippa Cuckson, former deputy editor of Horse & Hound, has spent decades in the horse world, putting her head above the parapet and becoming a mouthpiece for difficult truths. Her involvement now in working through our current storm with the media is an interesting and, I think, ultimately positive one – she’s not going to sugarcoat anything and she’ll point out hard truths that few people want to hear, but ultimately, facing them and changing the sport for the better is the only way out of all this. Read her piece here.
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Sponsor Corner: We’ve all been there. You go to say hi to your horse and… drool. All over the floor, all over your shoes, and hopefully not all over you. Clover slobbers are a seasonal issue that occurs in horses who are kept on clover pasture. But is it just unsightly or will grazing too much clover actually hurt your horse? According to Kentucky Performance Products, clover slobbers come with increased risk for dehydration, colic, and more. Read more here.
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