One of the coolest photos ever, sent in by Jade Cooling
Mercifully, this is shaping up to be a bit of a quiet week in eventing as we await the start of Adelaide. In just a few hours we will have a post from the lovely Samantha Clark, who recently interviewed Mick Costello for Eventing Nation. Samantha has written several fabulous pieces for us earlier this year and I am very excited that she will be playing a larger role in Eventing Nation starting today. Until then, here are a few news and notes from around the eventing world:
—A teen-age girl has been charged in connection with the Kentucky vandalism case that involved cutting tails and graffiti at a Kentucky horse farm over the weekend. On one hand the situation reminds me of the depressing state of the American youth, but on the other hand, in a reverse psychology kind of way, it makes me think of all the good that horses do for young people. On Sunday night I found myself having a long (friendly) chat with a police officer and the conversation eventually turned to whether or not he should buy his daughter a horse. I’m a natural pessimist, so I recommended against it, but, if you can get over the crushing expenses and inevitable heartbreaks, horses teach kids a ton of important lessons. Next to my Mom, I don’t think anyone has had more of an influence making me the person I am today than the many horses I have ridden over the years. So blame them.
–Professional show jumper Georgina Bloomberg, the New York City Mayor’s daughter, fell off of her horse at the Syracuse International last Friday. Georgina was riding dressed as a witch in a Gambler’s Choice class when her saddle unexpectedly came loose and slipped off. She regained consciousness just after the fall and walked out of the arena. Georgina reportedly did not go to the hospital following the fall, but was hospitalized a day later with a reported concussion and possibly fractured vertebra. On Monday, Georgina’s father said that he thinks she is fine. We wish Georgina a speedy recovery but I urge you to learn a lesson from the story–even if you feel OK, always take falls seriously and get checked out by a doctor. In a shocking display of why humanity is awful, check out the comments posted on this AOL article about the incident.
–Debate is raging in the horse racing world over who will be crowned with the Horse of the Year award. Blame, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was a frontrunner for the award along with Zenyatte before the race so conventional wisdom says that Blame’s victory also won him the HOTY. However, Zenyatta’s fans are louder than ever and I think she has a great chance to come from behind one last time to win Horse of the Year.
–Speaking of which, who do you think will win the USEA and USEF Horses of the Year? A whisper in the wind suggested to me that Cambalda is the frontrunner for the USEA SmartPak Horse of the Year, which would be appropriate because Cambalda has a CCI2* and CCI3* win this year. The Galway CCI3* win is worth 60 points and Cambalda only trails Woodburn by 50 in the standings. That said, how can we subjectively compare two and three star wins with 2nd place at a four-star for Woodburn or 10th at the WEGs for Neville?
–In a Pau story, Gwendolen Fer (that’s a person name) and Leria du Ter (that’s a horse name) of France jumped around most of the 4* cross-country course with a broken breast plate. Gwendolen was riding in one of Ecogold’s super grip XC pads, and I think it’s a tribute to the horse, and the rider that they kept things together and complete with only 10 time penalties. Gwendolen finished Pau in 6th place and you can see video of the breastplate flapping in the breeze here.
—Visionaire, we miss you.
Now to pay the bills for the premium dust used to bathe the Eventing Nation’s 7 pet Chinchilla’s…
