Horse Sports

From the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky...

Canada won SILVER behind only Great Britain in Eventing!

These are the World Championships in Horse Sports.

Eventing is one of the most difficult (if not the most difficult) equestrian discipline. Horses and riders must complete a dressage (obedience) test, an endurance test (cross-country jumping, approx. 25 huge fences over miles and exhausting miles of countryside); and then a stadium jumping course. It is extremely difficult to be good at all three. Sad to say, there are often serious injuries to horses and riders, although this was a good cross-country with only one horse and rider hurt -- and both will be okay.

It takes serious guts to participate in this sport at the top level. Trust me.

Which makes me really proud of our team, because it was made up entirely of WOMEN in their 20's.

No men required!



Great Riding Ladies!

This post has been edited by oldjedinurse on Oct 3 2010, 03:46 PM

Go Canada. Considering what they have to do physically it's amazing! These ladies and gentlemen who event are tough cookies. I wanted to be an eventer - in fact I bought Beech because he reminded me of Finvara a famous American event horse - then I started really riding and I'm like NO WAY!

Scrubs, did they show the squirrel jump on tv? I have a shot of Ganner and his pals standing next to that one this summer in KY.

I'm curious how stadium went. It can be pickupsticks for some of the American eventers.

I evented for a short time -- it's tough!

Yes, I saw the squirrel. Very cool!

Karen O'Connor blew the stadium with 12 faults which pretty much cost the U.S. a medal. They were sitting second (we were third) after the cross-country. The Americans dropped to 4th after stadium and New Zealand "jumped" in for the bronze.

Peggy phoned tonight - she and Maggie and a few others have been there since last Thursday. They saw the whole Eventing thing. Said it was amazing.

Zenyatta is getting lots of love from Louisville right now. Love when the Breeder's Cup comes back here.

She had a segment on 60 Minutes.

The 60 Minutes piece was great. Zenyatta is such a cool horse. She's very gentle and laid back most of the time, then becomes a beast when she gets on the track.

Mike Smith, the jockey, couldn't say enough about her. He even said he thinks that if she wins this race, she should be considered the greatest racehorse of all time. After all, she'd be undefeated, and even Secretariat had multiple losses.

They also joked about who she should be bred with. Mike Smith was like a protective father -- nobody's good enough for her.

Here is a 60 Minutes extra on the making of that Zenyatta segment. They call the PA their own horse whisperer although I'd say they don't really know what that term really means. Still the young lady obviously knew horses and had a deep love for them. I can't believe the news guys thought horses didn't have personalities. I need to introduce them to Ganner

Zenyatta is a great horse, but she'd give some people a coronary the way she hangs back until so late in the race before making her move. It's just her style, but it is so nerve-wracking to have a horse who runs like that.

I hope she blows the boys out of the water this afternoon. You go, girl!

Sooooooooooooooooo close!!

What a great stretch run. I've seen very few of that caliber. Zenyatta, you ARE great.

I say another two or three strides and she'd have taken Blame down. She was still coming on at the finish line. Full credit to Blame, though. He ran his heart out to nose Queen Z into second place.

Very exciting!


***

My thoughts are with the people around Rough Sailing, who was put down after breaking a foreleg in the Juvenile race today at the Breeder's Cup.

This post has been edited by oldjedinurse on Nov 6 2010, 06:11 PM

Wow, what a race!

That close. Amazing. I agree, Scrubs, another couple of strides and she'd have had it. Wow.

And an appropriate name for the horse who beat her.

Zenyatta proved she's got the heart of a champion but as they say a lot of time it's about circumstances. That was one of the best races I've seen in a long time, no matter who won.

I have to say I wouldn't take my 7 yo horse after a longe and hard ride into that tunnel. These horses are amped up on adrenaline then they put them in front of a roaring crowd. If it were a crowd of horse people they would be quieter out of respect for these animals. These are prey animals and sound is not their friend. It tells the animals to go into fight or flight mode. (Don't get me started on the "horsepeople" who ride with earbuds in and their ipods blaring.)

Did anyone see the Calvin Borel fight from yesterday?

Horsey people would have known better.

Zenyatta is one of those great horses with a real sense of occasion, though. Some don't respond as much - a few others in that race were walking nonchalantly through that tunnel, and they were nowhere to be found when the race finished.

Reminds me of Big Ben. Ian used to say that Ben would galumpf around like a big, lazy, lug in warmup, but as soon as he caught sight of the ring and the crowd, he walked taller and jumped higher.

The way she struck out with her front feet was interesting. ("Dancing" according to the media... ) I don't think I've ever seen a horse respond to excitement and adrenalin in quite that way. Silly girl.


Didn't see the Calvin Borel fight, but there's video (of course):

Jockeys Fighting

This post has been edited by oldjedinurse on Nov 6 2010, 10:28 PM

Didn't want to create a new thread for this but spotted this on the Gozaic (a travel subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation) and thought it might be of interest here.

http://www.gozaic.com/Explore/Destinations...ing-Horse-Show/

Helmet cam for the cross-country portion of Badminton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiE36zbYFIM&feature=youtu.be

McLain Ward broke his leg tonight

Here's hoping he heals quickly.

Oh, man! Just when Sapphire is back and ready to go, too!

Nasty compound fracture of the tibia - they had to pin it back together. He's going to be out for a while.

Without complications, he could still make the Olympics, but that isn't going to be easy.

Here's to a swift recovery, McLain!

Poor guy.

I got a little bit of scoop on this. Apparently there is a play area of sorts by the ring now that has jumps for kids. Some of the horses did not take well to it. Also a fire juggler started his performance as another horse entered ring and set that one off. Last year drunk members of the audience at the Nations Cup (Mexico section) chucked a cup at a horse and it's been spooky ever since. The fair around the ring needs to settle down - including the adult rings. This is a horse show not a carnival. I hope McLain can get back in the tack soon.

Eeeeeeeep! Why on earth would anyone show there?

That's ridiculous! Especially for something as big as the WEF. The organizers have to be called to task on this kind of thing - some of the big names need to band together and threaten to pull out if changes aren't forthcoming. I mean, horses' performances are being affected and riders are getting seriously injured.





Or is there just ?