A view of one of Lambourn’s beaches
Good Morning Eventing Nation! Well, since we are officially halfway through the week, we can now start getting excited for this weekend’s competitions! The big one to follow this weekend is obviously The Fork as this weekend will be the final run for the horses going to Rolex and Badminton, and with just a couple exceptions, they will all be there. If you aren’t lucky enough to get to go watch Rolex in a couple weeks, watching the horses run this weekend will be a pretty good substitute. [Fork Entry Status] Besides the Fork, competitions are taking place this weekend in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky, we’ll have more on them later.
And onto the news:
Sorry to start your morning off with a less-than-cheerful link, but news has just come in that a second horse has been confirmed to have the Equine Herpes Type 1 virus, in New York State. The first horse was diagnosed with the virus by Cornell University Equine Hospital several weeks ago and died only a few days later. Due to that abrupt death and the fact that this virus is highly contagious, the hospital wing at Cornell is operating under voluntary quarantine. [COTH]
When I was a kid and my parents told me, for about the millionth time, that I wouldn’t be getting a pony in the near future, I tried a lot of things to persuade them otherwise, but I certainly wasn’t as creative as the 15 year old girl who taught her cow to jump when her parents refused to buy her a pony. Evidently the cow’s name is Luna, and according to 15 year old Regina, “I think she considers herself to be a horse since she prefers horses to cows, and cows don’t really like her either.” [Horsetalk]
In some big news on the FEI front, Secretary General and CEO Alex McLin has announced his resignation. According to the resignation letter he delivered to Princess Haya, he wrote, “I have enjoyed being an agent of change within an organisation that we together sought to modernise and take to a new level. I have also enjoyed tackling the complex issues facing the FEI and attempting to find ways to improve its approach, its service to the sport and its stakeholders.” [FEI Press Release]
Probably the most exciting news of the Tuesday is the announcement that NBC Sports will be featuring live coverage of Rolex this year. By ‘live’ I mean that the show jumping on Sunday from 2-3 PM EST will be featured, but nevertheless, its still a pretty huge deal. Even though an hour doesn’t seem like all that much time, when you consider that it’s the main feature on a Sunday afternoon for the whole non-horse world to see, its starts to sound pretty cool. I know I’ll be watching. [Horsecity]
Even though it may only be a myth that water circles the drain in the opposite direction once you cross into the Southern Hemisphere, it is true that the coaching approach in New Zealand is much different from ours. In an article from the New Zealand Herald, squads will be named this week for Dressage, Show Jumping, and Eventing teams, looking forward already to the 2012 London Games. I know we’ve mentioned that team naming approach a few times before, but I think it will be very interesting to see how much of the list remains intact in the 16 months time before the Games.
Across the pond, riders are campaigning against the recently announced plans of putting two large turbine windmills in Lambourn, West Berkshire, a place of stunning natural beauty and deep into native horse country. Lambourn is especially well populated with race horses, and as jockey Mark Bradburne so simply stated, “Some trainers send their strings up here for longer hacks, but this would stop them — you wouldn’t take a racehorse near a wind turbine if you didn’t have to.” [Horse and Hound]
That’s all the news for now, Eventing Nation. Have a great day and remember to send me your Eventing Profiles! Just copy/paste the form into an email, fill it out, and send it to [email protected]!
