One of the things on my to-do list for today is reserving my plane ticket and hotel room for the USEA convention next week. As usual I have delayed making my travel plans until the last minute, and I am dreading spending money on the plane ticket and hotel. When I go to events without my trailer, I usually either split a hotel room with someone, sleep in another trailer trailer, or just camp out, but it looks like I’ll just have to suck it up for the convention.
Speaking of the USEA convention, it’s probably a little late in the year to write about this, but one of my bigest pet-peeves is people who chase points for year-end awards at the last few events of the year. Especially if your horse has already done a three-day, let it have some freaking vacation time. I know winning an award is fun and increases the value of your horse, but if you are making that argument for yourself then you are implicitly admitting that your horse’s welfare is not your top priority. There are many good reasons to take advantage of winter events, but chasing points is not one of them. Ok–stepping off my soap box now. We have a lot of news to get to so let’s jump right in:
–The big non-eventing news from Monday was that Matthias Rath was officially announced as the new rider of Moorlands Totilas. The news that Rath would get the ride leaked over the weekend, but it was made official today during a fancy media event at Paul Schockemohle’s stallion station in Muhlen, Germany. Pretty much everything you could want to know about the official announcement is available here from Eurodressage. Eurodressage has owned the Totilas sale story from the very beginning. The most interesting thing for me from the press conference is that Paul Schockemohle disclosed that he has entered into co-ownership with Matthias Rath’s stepmother, Kathrin Linsenhoff. The ownership is non fifty-fifty. Rath rode Totilas at the media event and several Youtube videos were posted of his ride on Monday but, strangely enough, they have all been taken offline.
—Brian O’Connor will be making his debut as a Christmas play director in December. Brian, who is one of Eventing Nation’s favorite announcers, was a thespian in college and will be directing “It’s A Wonderful Life: The Radio Play” in Falls Church, VA from December 10-12 and 18-19. That means that unfortunately I don’t think we will be seeing Brian at the USEA Convention this year.
–Please think of creative, witty, and interesting emails to send to Annie for our first EN Mailbag post. Ask not what Eventing Nation can do for you but what you can do for Eventing Nation. Send your emails to [email protected], and please someone ask Annie why she likes to turn entire paragraphs into hyperlinks in her News and Notes posts.
—The USEA Area II annual meeting will be held on January 22nd, 2011
—You can buy authentic used WEG stall mats online. That is, if you want to own a piece of history by buying something that a French reining horse crapped on. People get angry when we make jokes about their products here on EN, but it’s all in good fun and, trust me, our link will sell some mats for them.
–Rescuers in Colorado have freed a horse who was stuck in a concrete pipe. The 27 year old horse named Pepsi apparently had both hind legs suck in a large uncovered pipe. The owner says Pepsi is doing fine. I’ll leave you to spend the next 20 minutes trying to imagine how a horse could get both hind legs stuck down a pipe.
–In the category of “idiot news,” a Texas man was arrested on Sunday for kicking a police horse in the hindquarters. I know you will be shocked to hear that the incident occurred outside of a Houston Texans NFL game on Sunday. What do you want to bet that alcohol was involved? Remember Eventing Nation, don’t drink and kick police horses. If the horse had just kicked back we would have one less idiot on the planet; sadly, now we just have one more idiot in jail.
—Best of the Blogs: Back injections with Chelan Kozak
–Patricia at Ecogold likes to send me random videos from time to and I’ll just pass the latest batch along for your viewing pleasure: [Horse and Hound shows you how to fall], [Totilas tribute???], [Explaining eventing to non-eventers], [Kimchi just loves her scratches]
We have a busy day on Eventing Nation. We’ll have a caption contest from Nunn Finer, more as-of-yet-undetermined ridiculousness, and hopefully introduce the first of several new sponsors who will be joining us here on EN over the next few weeks. See you soon…
