Wednesday News & Notes from Haygain

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to let you know that if you don’t have a Haygain hay steamer in your barn, you are truly missing out on not just endless respiratory benefits but also the best smell in the world. If you see me with my head stuck in a Haygain at any point, just go about your business.

As the athletes heading to Tokyo hit the road, one essential part of the packing for many was a High-Temperature Haygain Hay Steamer. A gold standard indeed!

U.S. Weekend Preview:

Champagne Run at the Park H.T. (Lexington, Ky.): [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times] [Volunteer]

Summer Coconino Western Underground Inc. H.T. (Flagstaff, Az.): [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times] [Volunteer]

Essex H.T. (Fair Hills, Nj.): [Website] [Entry Status] [Volunteer]

Full Moon Farms H.T. (Finksburg, Md.): [Website] [Entry Status] [Volunteer]

Genesee Valley Hunt H.T. (Geneseo, Ny.): [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times]

Wednesday Reading List:

Cool (and impactful) job alert! Mulatto Meadows, the home ranch of Brianna Noble and the Humble access program, has moved to a new, sustainable ranch in Castro Valley, Ca. This move brings about a need for a Program Manager/Instructor to help run a growing program. Click here to see the full job description.

Not super familiar with Brianna or Mulatto Meadows? You can learn more about this awesome program here. You can also read about the new facility here.

We are pleased to support Strides for Equality Equestrians and the access programs/equestrian nonprofits that are listed within its Access Directory. All throughout the Olympics – one of our peak traffic periods – we’ll be sharing tidbits about each program in the Directory on our platforms, so stay tuned for more!

Kim Walnes sits down with Glenn the Geek on the latest episode of the Stable Scoop podcast to reflect on grief. Kim, who competed as a member of the U.S. team in the 1980s with her legendary partner, The Grey Goose, lost her daughter 30 years ago to murder. It’s a frank and open conversation you won’t want to miss.

Olympic Beat:

Alex Hua Tian writes about the countdown to the Olympics, the magnitude of riding as a part of Team China, and the pre-travel quarantine protocol each member is following in this blog for Equestrian Surfaces.

An “unprecedented” amount of broadcast coverage is expected for the Tokyo Olympics, which open on July 23. A forecasted increase of 30% over the amount of broadcast content produced in Rio in 2016 is expected to cover multiple channels the world over. With no spectators, foreign or domestic, allowed to take in the Games, the broadcast now becomes even more critical for the success of the Games. Where will you be watching from?

What does U.S. Chef d’Equipe Erik Duvander have to say about all of the Tokyo preparations and lead-up? Practical Horseman‘s Julia Murphy sat down to chat with Erik about what he’s been working on with the riders heading to the Olympics, what trajectory the team is on in the final lead-up and more in this article.

Want to get all of the latest Olympic eventing news in your inbox? Sign up for our free Olympic Digest newsletter, sent each Monday and then daily beginning July 28. Upon sign-up, you’ll receive a welcome message containing links to any editions that were already released. Sign up here.

Wednesday Video Break: “Historians estimate that one in four cowboys were African American, though you’d never guess because the conventional Hollywood image of a cowboy is a white man. Black cowboys have been written out of history, along with the original cattle-raising Native Americans and Mexican vaqueros who taught them. So what are the real origins of cowboy culture in the US? And is there more to modern black cowboy culture than Old Town Road and Lil Nas X? The Guardian‘s Josh Toussaint-Strauss talks to some of the Black riders who are keeping the history of Black cowboy culture alive.”