Buckle Up… All the cool kids are doing it
Good Morning, Eventing Nation! It’s Wednesday, which means it’s getting close to Friday, which means I can now link to to the entry statuses for both Pine Top Winter I (GA) and Rocking Horse Winter I (FL), the two Horse Trials taking place this weekend. We’ll have more on them later.
The exciting news of the morning is contained in a press release just issued by the USEF, stating the helmet rule passed at last week’s convention will take effect immediately. I bet the tack trailers at the events this weekend are going to make a fortune from this rule change, as riders consoling themselves on not being able to wear the cherished hunt caps they’ve spent years fading to the perfect Bruce Davidson-esq shade go buy the next prettiest helmet that’s ASTM-SEI certified. But I really do think this is the correct step for our sport to take. Even if you don’t personally believe in the helmet rule change, being able to state that every phase of our sport is held to the highest technological safety standards of current day will surely help to subdue criticism from the public and other horse sports when things do go wrong. No one ever wants to say after a tragedy, “There was more we could have done.”
In other news, the Australian Dressage Squads for 2011 have been announced. I don’t really keep up with the world of Dressage, especially Australian Dressage, but in looking at the “National Elite Squad” list, I recognized the name Heath Ryan, as he’s the Aussie event rider, Matt Ryan’s brother. The horse selected for the list is Regardez Moi, which I’m pretty sure translates into “Look at Me” in English. Go get ’em Heath, we’ll be watching.
Watch out Aiken dwellers, Boyd has arrived. It’s sounds like another good season is starting to shape up for him, with a few new exciting additions to the team, including Last Monarch, or “Stewie” as his person, Holly Hudspeth, is currently pre-occupied with growing another person. Speaking of Holly, I think she’s “over due” for some EN Baby Karma.
Es Ist Noch Nicht Ausgestanden. That’s German for “It Is Not Yet Over” and is the title of this article recapping the current legal dispute over the ownership of WEG champion, La Biosthetique Sam. My knowledge of the German language is about as vast as my knowledge of French, which is not at all, but with some help from Google Translator, it sounds like negotiations between 60% owner Sabine Kreuter and the German Olympic Committee (DOKR) are still going strong. A while back, the news broke that Sam has a heart murmur, as was discovered during a pre-purchase exam for the DOKR themselves. Shortly thereafter, the DOKR proposed a lease-to-own agreement to Kreuter, which would allow the Federation to have control of Sam for the time being, and purchase him in the future when the full extent of his condition became clearer. The specifics of that agreement are what is now being disputed.
Will Faudree wrote a blog entry for EventingUSA entitled, “Fitness and the Short Format.” It’s actually quite a good article as Will talks about not only the fitness level needed to complete top-level cross county in the short-format age, but the feeling you should have from the fitness while on course; as well as the importance of allowing your horse the breath needed to continue on.
The PRO Tour Series has been announced. It will kick-off with the Southern Pines Horse Trials in March, and conclude with the Galway Downs CCI3*, hitting most of the big CIC3*’s during the year. Phillip Dutton said of the release, “As President of PRO’s Board of Directors, I’m happy that our vision has started to make an impact in the sport.” Although he doesn’t go on to mention exactly what that vision is, or the ways in which it has made an impact.
That’s all for now, Eventing Nation. See you soon and Go Helmets.
