Ross Martin
By a rare twist of fate, we randomly found the Australian delegation out and about in London Monday evening and I can assure you that more than one toast was made to the memory of Mr. Ross Martin. When I think about the passing of Boyd’s Dad, I still can’t fathom how something like that would happen at a time like this. Amber Heintzberger looks back at Ross’ life and ahead to the prospect of Boyd taking Neville to Burghley in the latest post on Boyd’s blog. [Boyd’s blog]
Since the London Olympic test event cross-country begins at 6am ET and ends at 8:42am ET, and since my biological clock is still very much stuck on Eastern Time, we are going to add a twist to today’s news and notes. We’ll start with a XC preview and jump by jump photos, and end with a few news and notes.
The CIC2* track is 5 minutes long and the true test on Tuesday has much more to do with the terrain than the actual jumps. The course is very hilly, turny, and narrow, as the technical lingo goes. The Olympic course will be over twice the distance and will extend over into more property, but my feeling is that Greenwich is a bit small for an Olympic track. The difficulty of the time will depend on how the course is wheeled, but if the expected heat is a factor tomorrow, I expect quite a few of the horses to finish a bit tired. The ground was a little firm when we walked it Monday, but the thought was that a good aggravator would cure that immensely. Whatever the challenges posed by the course today, Greenwich is unquestionably a beautiful setting for cross-country. The course jump by jump:
Now for a few links:
Matthias Rath might be a copycat
An Italian cowboy refuses to ride off into the sunset
If your horse’s mane is plaited, the horse is about to be stolen
Lauren Kieffer’s O’Connor Camp recap
The Rebecca Farm CIC3* entries are posted
Two bonus videos:
1) Horse and Country’s test event interviews (click here if the video does not show up in your browser):
2) Barbury HT preview:
That’s all for now. We will be back shortly after the completion of the Olympic test event cross-country with news, results, and ridiculousness. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your Tuesday. Go eventing.
