Eventing News and Notes: September 2010 Archives

I absolutely have to get more sleep tonight than I have gotten the past couple of nights or Friday's live blog is going to get a little too exciting.  We have some great fun photos and interesting links tonight so I just combined them into one post.  

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Kathryn and Danielle win free future EN hats for sending in this photo: "This is our ride to the WEG, we call it a "WEGmobile"! We love Eventing Nation, and Canada, so we combined them to create this lovely art piece. Go eventing!"

Kayla's cat Andy enjoyed watching the dressage on Thursday: "Andy is of an exceedingly good nature, and generally gives equal support of all competitors in the WEGs...but his die-hard US Eventing support got the better of him and he couldn't contain himself when Boyd Martin rode this morning."

Free Course Walks: Jimmy Wofford's course walk will start on Friday approximately 30 minutes after the last dressage ride at the start box.  While walking, please tell Jimmy to turn up his megaphone because people in Tennessee can't hear him.  PRO is sponsoring a course walk at lunch time with Allison Springer, Amy Tryon and Bruce Davidson. They'll be meeting at Fence #5 after the last morning dressage ride.  

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Leslie for taking bunches of wonderful photos for us to enjoy Thursday and throughout the coming weekend.  Check out Leslie's great slideshow tour of the KHP:

Go eventing.

We will have much more XC analysis and preview later, but one thing that really stands out to me about the Mike Etherington-Smith designed course is that every combination includes an option.  Internation championships present the toughest challenge to course designers because the very best riders in the world need to be challenged while at the same time the riders from smaller nations (who maybe have never even done a four-star) need to be considered.  I feel like Mike ES has risen to this challenge beautifully with the options that he has designed and if a rider were to take every single long route the course would probably ride like a huge and very windy CCI3*.  For the riders who are riding to win and pressured to win, taking all the direct options at speed will make the course feel like a CCI5*.  

The early word from the riders is that the course starts off nice and easy but gets serious in the infield with a very tough coffin that requires a lot of energy out over a big corner.  From there, it's big and technical all the way home with an especially tough last combination with angles over ditches.  Speaking of angles, there are lots of angled ground lines--the sunken road bank is angled, the first jump into the HOTL has an angled bank ground line, and the final combination has angled ground lines as well.  In his latest blog entry (which is an excellent read), Jimmy Wofford predicts that just 20 horses will go clear and only 5 double-clear.  This is definitely a course to lose some sleep over.  Go eventing.

Anyone who takes fun/interesting Eventing Nation related photos such as these photos during the WEGs and sends them to eventingnation@gmail.com will win a gift certificate for a free Eventing Nation hat if their photo is used on Eventing Nation.  The gift certificate can be redeemed whenever I have the time to order hats for EN, hopefully soon after the WEG madness calms down.  It's late and tomorrow is a busy day so here are your news and notes:

We have just gotten word that Hilda Donahue's 17hh gelding Extravagance was put down during the CIC3* cross-country at the Poplar Place HT in Georgia.  Extravagance reportedly jumped through the main Poplar water complex and landed off of the final element visibly injured.  The vets responded within seconds and Extravagance was euthanized at the scene due to what eyewitnesses described as a broken leg just above the hock.  The hold lasted less than 30 minutes and the cross-country is back underway.  The final element of the water complex was a bank up and then a bounce over a boat and then a right turn to the rest of the course.  Eventing Nation's thoughts and prayers are with Hilda and her family.

Link: Poplar live scores

A few weeks ago Eventing Nation started getting reports from the Canadian training sessions about a mysterious 'Captain Canada' aka 'Captain Canuck.'  Initially we thought that Captain Canuck was referring to Team Canada's fearless leader, David, but recent photographic evidence calls that assumption into question.  The following photo, which is believed to be the only known real-life photograph of Captain Canuck, was achieved at great personal risk by an Eventing Nation informant:

As you can see, this photo seems to identify Captain Canuck as a certain male member of the Canadian squad.  It also reveals that Captain Canuck has a sidekick and perhaps uses a horse as a means of transportation.  Please share your thoughts on the identity of Captain Canuck in the comment section.  Perhaps a more important question is what exactly are Captain Canuck's superpowers?

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Now let's take a quick look at some eventing news and notes:

I have (finally) updated the weekly poll question, so please check it out in the sidebar and vote.

It is officially the opening day of the World Equestrian Games!  Reining starts at 9am ET Saturday, and the opening ceremonies are at 7pm.  All of the Saturday action will be available for free viewing at USEFnetwork.com.

Go eventing.

Word is that the US team gallop on Friday morning went well.  The mandatory jog following the gallop was held early Friday afternoon--all of the horses reportedly looked good and the US squad remains the same as the riders depart for Kentucky Friday afternoon.  The US horses will leave Georgia around 1am ET Saturday, and the Canadian horses are scheduled to arrive at the KHP around 3pm Friday.  

In other news, Katie Thomas of the New York Times has written an article about FEI President Princess Haya and the upcoming FEI elections.  The article is primarily a profile of Princess Haya that depicts her in what I would say is a pretty a positive tone, as an innovator who has defied conventions, and the article only briefly mentions the NSAIDs controversy. 

Go eventing.

Liz Power's horse Kilpatrick River sustained an injury during exercise on Monday, just one day after arriving at the Kentucky Horse Park.  The Irish vets treated the horse to the best of their abilities, but there was "insufficient improvement" and Kilpatrick RIver has now been withdrawn from the competition.  All the excitement and potential of the WEGs just makes stories like this all the more heartbreaking.  We can only hope that Kilpatrick River will be the last horse to get withdrawn from the WEGs, but I highly doubt it.  Ireland's eventing squad is now reduced to five riders, from which Ginny Eliott will pick four pairs to compete in the team competition and one as an individual before the eventing starts next Thursday.

Go eventing.

We have sad news from England as Ballincoola, the 2005 Burghley champion with William Fox-Pitt, suffered a heart attack while warming up in the show jumping of an event year Bury St. Edmunds on Wednesday.  The 16 year-old gelding had competed in 15 three days over his illustrious career, including 5 long-formats and 9 four stars.  "Max" finished in the top 10 of Burghley four times, Badminton twice, and Rolex once in 2004 .  After 2008, Max became a schoolmaster for Fergus Payne, the son of his owners.  Max was buried on the Payne family farm.  It is a tragedy for all of eventing when such a wonderful horse passes away, but I am sure William and the Payne family are consoled by the fact that Max had such a wonderful and long career and passed away doing what he loved.  

Show jumping super star Aaron Vale has joined the US training sessions in Georgia to help coach the Wednesday show jumping lessons.  Buck worked with Aaron a lot leading up to Rolex, and Aaron's arrival means that between Katie Prudent, Katie's husband Henri, and Aaron, the US has an absolutely stacked group of show jumping coaches working with them.  

The Canadian eventing team is practicing dressage on Wednesday and will have their final gallop Thursday. Here are some other news and notes from Wednesday around the vast and wide world web:

McLain Ward on the Today Show--WEGs start on NBC 12 noon Sunday

We will have much more on the WEG online and TV broadcast schedule soon.

And, as a final, tiny request in the kindest of tones: everyone please stop sending me links to the video of the naked guy show jumping.  Just because I posted a picture of Doug Payne jumping without his shirt in no way means that I ever want to see anything like it again.  It's not funny--I will be scarred for life.  No, I am not going to post the video link either but I'm sure someone will in the comment section if it gets enough requests because apparently everyone in the world has seen the video already.

Go eventing.

I received several reports and inquiries Sunday evening that a horse had struggled after completing the XC at the Marlborough Horse Trials in Maryland on Sunday.  I just got word from Marlborough's organizer that Shadowfax, a 7-year old Westphalian, collapsed in the trailer area following a successful XC run at Training Level.  Veterinarians responded immediately to assist the horse, but the horse expired shortly after the vets arrived.  The horse was transported to Marion DuPont Equine Center for necropsy.  From the accounts I have heard of the incident, the entire eventing community at Marlborough rallied around the horse and rider to assist them in every way possible, showing once again the tremendous strength of our sport.  Eventing Nation's thoughts and prayers are with Shadowfax and his family.

We have bad news from Italy today, as 22 year-old Austrian event rider Sebastian Steiner died while riding at the Montelibretti International Horse Trials.  They fell at the 11th fence Saturday in Milan.  The horse was uninjured.  That is all the information we have at this point, but Sport's Illustrated already has published the news.  Eventing Nation's thoughts and prayers are with Sebastian's family.

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Be sure to check out the 2010 Radio Show from this week as we count down to the Games.  Samantha and Glenn have been wonderful friends of Eventing Nation since the beginning and I can't wait to follow their coverage of the WEGs.  

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Finally, there are several events in the US this weekend, including the CIC3* at Plantation Field.  Jennie Brannigan and Cambala continue to have a good autumn season and lead the CIC3* by 11 points.  Links: Plantation scores, Equestrian Institute HT scores, GMHA scores, Stone Gate scores, Dunnabeck scores, Marlborough HT scores

CANTER is offering an award at Plantation Field to the top 2* and 3* ex-racehorses that includes a congratulatory cooler and sash.  Of course, we absolutely love CANTER and all the other organizations that help find new homes for ex-racehorses here on Eventing Nation.  Ex-racehorses make wonderful event horses and throughbreds are still the dominant breed in our sport.  Thanks to CANTER for all their great work and check out the CANTER website for more information.  Go eventing.

Whether you are enjoying a relaxing Labor Day at home or you are stuck at work wistfully looking out the window at the fleeting days of summer, hopefully it will bring you comfort that I recently checked EN's archives and found that I have gone over 300 straight days with at least one post on EN.  With the AECs this weekend and then the WEGs in three weekends, that streak doesn't look like it will break anytime soon.  We have some great stuff coming from the EN Team this week, but let's take a quick look at some Monday morning eventing news and notes:

Watch interviews after Caroline Powell and the amazing Lenamore won Burghely:

Go eventing.

Earlier today we mentioned that Mary King missed a movement in her dressage test but continued and finished the test.  After she halted ground jury member Marilyn Payne walked out of the judging box and asked Mary to redo the test starting with the missed movement.  Of course the question is why did Mary finish her test in the first place?  The word from a very good source is that the dressage judges repeatedly rang the bell but that Mary continued her test.  Granted, the missed movement was towards the end of the test, but it is certainly a curious situation.

One thing I should have mentioned earlier today for our US readers is that EN favorites Michael Pollard and Wonderful Will had a fantastic dressage test and are tied for 10th after Thursday's action.

The online Burghley TV worked well for me when I tried it.  You have to register and sit through commercials for Joules, but they have all of the rides on demand.  Or, you could search Youtube for illicit personal videos from Burghley--

Pippa and Mirage dressage from Thursday:

WFP and Mark King chat about the dressage:

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I'm competing at Five Points in Southern Pines, NC on Friday and it looks like Hurricane Earl will miss us.  I wish our readers along the eastern seaboard, particularly near the Outer Banks and New York City, the best of luck on Friday.  Do you have any horse related hurricane survival stories?

The WEGs are facing $500,000 in budget cuts and Alltech is stepping in to help, via COTH

Link: Burghley Scores--Dressage on Thursday from 4:30am to 11:30am ET

Mark Kyle - Step in Time (Owned by Tanya & Mark Kyle) 
Liz Power - Kilpatrick River (Owned by Dermot O'Rourke) 
Michael Ryan - Ballylynch Adventure (Owned by Carol & Tom Henry) 
Patricia Ryan - Fernhill Clover Mist (Owned by Carol & Tom Henry & Sheila Foley) 
Camilla Speirs - Portersize Just a Jiff (Owned by Bridget & Camilla Speirs) 
Sam Watson - Horseware Bushman (Owned by John & Julia Watson & Tom MacGuinness) 

Jayne Doherty - The Only One (Owned by Jonathon Doherty) 
Capt. Geoff Curran - The Jump Jet (Owned by Maurice Cassidy & The Minister for Defence)

The full press release from Eventing Ireland has much more information, including pointing out that Ireland originally only planned to take 5 horses but reconfigured the transport plane to take 6.  The Irish coach, Ginny Elliot echoed a lot of other national coaches by pointing out that a big priority at the WEGs is to qualify for the 2012 Olympics with a top 5 placing, although these days I think that most riders consider winning the WEGs more of an achievement than winning the Olympics.

We are well on our way to a five post day on Eventing Nation, which is really just a quick way of getting me to apply to law school.  But, eventing news doesn't care about my schedule and thus is life.