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Category Archives: Missed it?

Young rider, young horse, the road to Rolex is possible – Kyle Carter explains

Every eventer in North America dreams of completing Rolex. In April every year, the pros and the first timers gather in Lexington, Kentucky, to tackle North America’s only four-star. Each year, there is always a mixed bag of results. Sometimes the veterans fail and surprisingly the Rolex rookies storm through the finish flags on their young rider horses. Young rider horses completing Rolex certainly demonstrates that not all riders need a veteran four-star campaigner to show them the ropes. Four-star horses are rarely for sale and end up selling for big money. Riders without four-star experience are in a difficult…

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From a “non-horsey” family to four star rider – the rise of Lauren Kieffer

We had a chance a few weeks ago to sit down and speak with Lauren Kieffer, her parents and David O’Connor about Lauren’s partnership with Veronica and her start in the O’Connor program. Lauren and Veronica just completed their cross-country round at Pau today. Opting to take some long routes, they finished safely with time and are sitting in the top 10. Eventing fans stood up and took notice when Lauren Kieffer and Veronica placed 2nd at their inaugural CCI4* at Rolex in April 2014. This pair has a bit of a history and if you are a believer of…

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Velcro Boyd stays on and leaves us wondering how

Boyd Martin’s legendary riding abilities continues to dazzle the crowds every time he gets in the irons and this weekend was no exception. Boyd competed four horses in the CCI3*  and managed to get three around without jumping penalties. His tenacity is apparent in this video clip. Velcro Boyd, Eventing Super Hero on Crackerjack in the CCI3* at the last water leaves us all in awe at his abilities on horse back. Boyd competed a total of six horses over the weekend with four in the CCI3* and two in the CCI2*. Thank you to Alec Thayer at Ab3 Photography…

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Jog is complete – Fashion cops are handing out fines

The Dutta Corp. Fair Hill International has begun. The jog was today and the riders were presenting in an orderly but quick fashion as the weather was wet. Luckily, it was warm and during the jog the few down pours were short lived. The ground jury was in a real “holding” kind of mood and six out of the 112 horses presented were held in the CCI2* and two will not be competing this weekend. Calvin Ramsey withdrew Flintstar from the holding box. After a conversation with the ground jury, April Simmonds and Impressively done were eliminated. Unfortunately, Impressively Done…

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Medal winners – produced not bought

Since the 2014 WEG, there is no shortage of discussion and blogs as to why North American Eventers cannot beat their European counterparts. Some obvious advantages include: availability of more competitions, an existing owner culture that is part of the social fabric, access to top training, and plenty of horse breeders. However, it is worth studying the methods and circumstances of the medal winning combinations to determine what separates them from the rest of us. Long-term partnerships It took six years of FEI competitions for Sandra Auffarth (GER) and Opgun Luovo to conquer the Eventing world and win individual Gold…

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Holy Poley Gallery – Plantation Field

Once the tears have dried and the riders calm down we can always look back and find the humour in airborne rails. Here are some of the outtakes at Plantation Field in the CIC2* and CIC3* show jumping rounds. 12►  

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Plantation Field – Results wrap up

Certainly not a dressage show, Plantation Field was a true Eventing competition with the leader board shuffling until the last horse crossed the finish line. Each phase clearly revealed the strengths and weaknesses of each horse and rider combination. In the end, the pairs that did reasonably well in dressage, jumped clear and made time earned the top placings. There were seven divisions and three of them were won by riders that were in first place after dressage and kept the pole position throughout the weekend (highlighted in bold): CIC1* – Paige Crotty on Cooley Dawn Raid CIC2* – Buck…

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Equine Canada – Jamaican bob sled team?

Lesley Grant Law has written another great blog for Horse Canada and she certainly hits on some painful reality notes about where Canada’s top equestrians sit on the international stage. Personal bests don’t even come close to top finishes in dressage, show-jumping and certainly not eventing. Since being married to an Olympic gold medalist (Leslie Law, 2004 Olympics, Athens) her standards defining success have certainly been altered. She touches on two aspects that are severely lacking in Canadian eventing and without these two elements we will never be competitive. Lack of horses and funding to acquire them Lack of owners…

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Italian army, Nicholson’s yard – Giovanni Ugolotti’s journey to WEG

From the ranks of the Italian army to the top ranks of Eventing, Giovanni Ugolotti, will be competing at his first World Equestrian Games (WEG) next week. He will be riding Stilo Kontika, a 13 year old Irish gelding, who is owned by him and his fiance, Kathryn Robinson. Mandatory army service Giovanni was born before 1985, so it was a mandatory requirement to serve in the Italian army for one year. He had an affinity for riding and as a child was a pony club member. He later went on to compete at the Italian Eventing championships. So when…

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