I won’t lie. I walked into the pancake-flat showgrounds at the Stadium in Wellington, Fla., and I wanted to be annoyed. Looking out at the cross-country course on manicured footing that looked as though nothing had stepped on it in the past year, I couldn’t help but think, “No. Nooooooooo. This isn’t eventing! This is show jumping over solid obstacles!” I wanted to not like it.
But here’s the thing.
It was awesome and SO much fun to watch.
If someone wanted to get up close and personal with eventing, this is the way to do it.
The Wellington Eventing Showcase is a close-in eventing experience, with spectator-friendly viewing of all phases in a compact show-village normally home to legions of dressage horses. Billed as a showcase with high-stakes, this “eventing lite” experience is perfect for the introduction of the sport to new viewers.
While the weather on dressage day was a bit nippy for the area, breezes and clouds didn’t keep spectators from watching 35 riders here to compete for $75,000 in prize money.
In this digital age, we’ve all come to expect instant information—whether we are looking for the temperature at precisely 3:27 a.m., or when we want a tidbit of information about a horse that caught our eye.
I sell and place a lot of horses, and I meet a wide range of people—most of whom would make their mommas proud in the manners department.
But there are a few of you that need a smacking with a heavy purse, and I think it’s time I let you know who you are, or at least tried to educate the people that turn my typical smile into what I call “Poo Face.”
How fun to have such an amazing, dynamic list of Thoroughbreds in contention for the CANTER Ex-Racehorse Award at Rolex Kentucky this year! CANTER USA will be awarding the highest-placing race-bred Thoroughbred with a cooler, a beautiful Five Star Bridle and $200 in cash on Sunday.
Check out all of these race-bred Thoroughbreds, competing for one of the most prestigious and sought-after blue ribbons on the planet. Of course the $80,000 in cash and a Rolex watch doesn’t stink either! Here’s hoping a Thoroughbred ends up in the winner’s circle!
Is this what a heyday feels like?
About nine months ago I was talking with a fellow CANTER volunteer about all of the exciting things happening in our all-encompassing world of Thoroughbreds, and I remember saying “Do you feel that? Do you feel the earth starting to rumble? It’s time, baby!”
It’s totally time.
There is something about the Southern Pines Horse Trials that makes my body tingle. The grass, the perfectly manicured rolling land, the budding trees, the massive and phenomenally decorated jumps, and show jumping on Marc Donovan's grass course. It's just bliss in horse format.
I finally had time to read through the recent The New York Times piece on the current state of racing in this country. I had a hard time getting through the entire thing. All of those horses—doing what they do because people ask them to—and dying in the process, sometimes seriously injuring or killing jockeys in a breakdown—it makes me sick to my stomach.
“Beginner Safe” is not the description we use for most of our OTTBs. We do not market them to beginners and do not profess that they would ever be beginner-safe horses. At least that's what I thought when I first began this adventure. I've happily been proven wrong several times, but one story really made me think differently about Thoroughbreds and novice riders. Sometimes, there are exceptions to the “green + green = black and blue.”
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