Wednesday News & Notes from Attwood Equestrian Surfaces

Phillip Dutton’s mounts share a moment with each other in stabling. Photo via Phillip Dutton Eventing Facebook Page.

It’s jog day at Kentucky! I’ve been doing News & Notes on Wednesdays for almost four years now, and I am always excited that I get to publish the first Eventing Nation post every year on the official first day of the competition. There’s always a plethora of great photos to choose from with riders and spectators alike flocking to Lexington, Keeneland is running, the grass is so green it’s blue and the flowers are blooming. Nothing beats April (and jog day) in Kentucky.

National Holiday: East Meets West Day

Major Events:

Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event: [Website] [Schedule] [Drawn Order] [EN Coverage] [EN Instagram] [EN Twitter]

U.S. Weekend Preview:

University of New Hampshire Spring H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Spring H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Fresno County Horse Park H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Your Wednesday News & Notes:

Get ready to get down at the 6th Annual EN Tailgate Party! The festivities take place during LRK3DE cross country in tailgating spaces S294 and S295, near the jog strip and announcer’s tower overlooking the infield. Stop by to get EN temporary-tatted up, schmooze with a certain celebrity Chinch, quench your thirst, enjoy a snack, and win some sweet swag. We’re still looking for a couple volunteers to give us a hand — we’re happy to kick you a day pass in exchange for a couple hours of your time! Email [email protected].

Madeline Backus is facing mud like she’s never seen before over in England. Luckily her plucky mare Ari has been up to the challenge, soaring over the fences at Belton recently to give them another good prep run prior to Badminton. With only a week to go until first jogs, we are all holding our breath for sound gallops! [A Leg Up and a Leg On]

Horse & Hound runs a series on Badminton first-timers. Today focuses on a former student of Jonelle and Time Price who wanted to buy a gray but ended up with a bay who has now taken him around Adelaide twice. There’s also a mare who has enough swagger that she earned she barn name Angelina, after Angelina Jolie. [Andrew Daines Didn’t Want a Grey One] [James O’Haire and the Mare with the Pony Companion]

The diminutive Jollybo was a perfect fit with Hawley Bennett-Awad from the word go. Despite standing only 15.3 hands, Jollybo has a larger than life strength to her gallop and jump, which drew Hawley to the mare from day one. Now headed to their second four-star together, Jollybo has spent a lot of time swimming in preparation. [Behind the Stall Door]

It’s #LRK3DE photo contest time. If you’re at Kentucky, don’t forget to enter — here’s the 411:

Attwood Footing of the Week – Green Footing

In honor of the recently celebrated Earth Day, we wanted to tell you about our “green footing”. Green as in the color green, like money, like the fields of Kentucky Horse Park … well you get it.

Years ago a client came to us, looking for a world class footing in “another color”.  For their particular project, they wanted a colored footing. Green. So it would blend into the hillside of the community. But make no mistake they wanted it to be a premium blend and not a gimmick.

Thus “Green Pinnacle” came to be, with all the properties of our high performance Pinnacle. The color was rich, fade resistant and did not wash out in the rain.  And because we use only originally sourced material, not recycled rubber or carpeting that turns footing black, the green would stay perennially green.

Additional benefits of the green colored footing, is that it toned down the glare of the ring on hot sunny days, which both horses and riders appreciated.  Green is not the only color we can produce for our footing. If you have a particular need for a custom color, please let us know.

Benefits:

  • Green Pinnacle and TerraNova are readily available.
  • Same exceptional properties as our Pinnacle.
  • Attractive natural green color.
  • Proven helpful in cases of difficult local planning restrictions.

Wednesday Video: One of my favorites to rev me up and send chills down my spine, let’s revisit Inches to gear up for Kentucky.