In which Irene pays a visit

Thursday evening, it rained hard enough to cancel the Phillies game, but that was just a rain storm. Still, we had several bouts of significant rain and the rainiest month in the recorded history of Philadelphia and it was only August 25th. Still coming was the hurricane. Her name was Irene and she was touching down first in N. Carolina and then moving Northward. The good news, Aiken was forecast to have lovely weather for Kenzie and Gizmo's recognized eventing debut. Cyndi said they left a perfect dressage test in the warm-up, but since many of us with *much* more experience have done that on Gizmo, I don't think it detracts at all from their 7th place finish adding nothing to that dressage score. And, it leaves some room for improvement, which isn't a bad thing either. In Richland, Michigan, the weather was also cooperating for the Richland Park Horse Trials, including the Pan Am Games selection mandatory outing. Much more on that can be found anywhere eventing is reporting on including www.eventingnation.com; www.useventing.com and http://www.richlandpark.com/index.html. Gabby Ledger and Franklin finished 2nd in their debut preliminary together. Franklin is a lovely horse, brought up through the ranks by Ralph Holstein, a great Ohio rider. Brett Huard and her Thicket's Ticket also scored a 2nd place finish in their preliminary division on their return to competition following Brett's injury earlier this summer. Others from both Cobblestone and Blue Hill Farm were also there, so check out those results.

Meanwhile, baseball was cancelled in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York for the weekend. Saturday morning, I headed out to Blue Hill and rode Symphony and Cole and lunged JD, then helped get the horses and barn situated for the storm to come. Headed back to the city in a moderate rainfall, which steadily gained into the evening. No power outage in town and altogether uneventful for us. Henry and I ventured out Sunday morning to check the aftermath. The Schuylkill was pretty impressive (picture) and many things were closed, but some (including DiBruno Brothers) open, so we scored breakfast goods and then headed home. Today is a beautiful day, almost perfect, sunny weather as a follow-up. Baseball resumes this evening and Monday night football will be on as well. I'm ready.