This just could be the best photo ever to come across the EN homepage… John and Jon are ready to take on Mexico, complete with sombreros.
Good Morning Eventing Nation! If you are located anywhere on the Eastern quadrant of the US, you’ll appreciate this, but if not, just skim to paragraph two. If it rains anymore, I’m going to build an ark. I guess when the heavens opened, the ‘close’ button stopped working because it has been raining steadily for a week and a half. The good news is that the rain is supposed to stop today, so hopefully everything will dry out by the end of the week.
Let’s get all the bad news out of the way first this morning, starting with:
Maria Eilberg, a very well known dressage rider, lost her long-time partner Two Sox just two weeks after his retirement ceremony at the British National Championships. Two Sox was injured a freak pasture accident and sustained a serious cannon bone fracture, warranting his euthanization. In the way that so many of the best horses are found, Two Sox or ‘Ed’, came to the Eilberg family with rather low expectations, as he was part of a buy-one-get-one-free deal that the family made on a different horse… Ed was the free one. He increased his value considerably during a nine year stretch with Maria, the pairs biggest accomplishments to date include being reserve for the Beijing Olympics and helping the British team to secure the Silver medal at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. He was a pretty incredible horse, I know this loss will be felt by many in the horse community. [Horse and Hound]
As anyone who’s been around horses knows, cars and horses generally do not mix well. That fact was made all the more obvious by two separate but equally devastating incidences that took place over this past weekend. The first occurred in St. Mary’s County in Maryland on Saturday night, and involved a collision between an Amish buggy and pickup truck, resulting in the death of a 12 year old girl, Saloma Kathleen Stolzfus. Investigators are still working to determine exactly what caused the collision, but there is indication that the buggy was not totally clear of the four way intersection when the light turned red.
The second accident happened in Minnesota on Saturday evening when one of the riders in a group out trail riding fell off, her horse set off towards the busy main road, got hit by a car, and had to be euthanized. The tragedy doesn’t end there however, as when the horse took off, several riders from the group galloped off down the road after the runaway horse. When one of the pursuing horses (piloted by a thirteen year-old girl) made an attempt to cross the busy intersection where the original horse got hit, and both she and her horse were hit too. The girl amazingly emerged with only a couple minor injuries, very sadly however, her horse had to be euthanized as well. [Horsetalk]
The really good news of the morning is the report that Buck is going to be alright after his fall on Sunday at Morven. He fell from Park Trader at the water on his first ride Sunday morning. Park Trader stepped on his leg, but Buck rode the rest of the day anyway. Sunday night he went to the hospital for x-rays. Buck told us that the doctors put a cast on his leg, but he should be good to ride at Maryland this weekend and should be fine for the Pan Ams.
I don’t know if it’s a horse culture problem or problem concerning the greater nation, but I’ve always noticed that we horse people generalize a lot, especially when it comes to other disciplines. Hunter riders are princesses, Dressage riders are either gifted, blonde, German types (think Silva Martin) or old women that can’t sit the trot, fox hunters are crazy, or drunk, or both, and when it comes to jockeys at the racetrack: they are all cokeheads. I can’t speak for the generalization other than this specific case, but In England over this past weekend, a jockey tested positive at the races for staggering levels of cocaine, and is now banned from riding races or entering the track for the next six months. I don’t feel too bad for him. [Horse and Hound]
It’s the day of blogs it seems, and it was a close call for the ‘Best of the Blogs’ award between Doug, who’s blog was almost as long as a Lord of the Rings book, and Holly Hudspeth, who wrote about Stewie’s return to competition after an injury this spring. I decided to give Doug an ‘A’ for effort and give Holly ‘Best of the Blogs’, because, after all, who doesn’t love a comeback story?
Best of the Blogs: Heeeeeeeeeee’s Back!
A for Effort: I think I might finally be dry and warm…
Honorable Mentions:
Woodside CIC3* Preview Interview with Cross-Country Course Builder Burt Wood
That’s all for now, Eventing Nation. Have a great day and don’t forget to check back soon to the best site in Eventing!
