On a smaller scale, my biggest thrill of the weekend was Jordan and Keebler's third place finish at the Rocking Horse training http://www.evententries.com/livescoring/15760.html. It was especially impressive that they were tied for first after dressage (we're hoping for a Keebler guest blog soon!).
And going even smaller, there were starter trials at both Plantation (Saturday) and Waredaca (Sunday) over the weekend. Several Blue Hill riders headed to Plantation, but all wisely elected to not go cross country in the sleet! Others did stick it out and those scores are here http://www.evententries.com/livescoring/192.html. At Waredaca, I judged the SJ with Nancy Seybold scribing and announcing. In between, we had many enjoyable discussions about here horse, my horse, horses in general, etc. We didn't get rain (or sleet), but it was cold and windy through the whole day. We were actually a bit surprised that the horses were so well behaved given the wind (the jumps blew over several times - even those weighted down with cinder blocks).
In between stalking all the eventing results and being at Waredaca, it was an excellent social weekend. Saturday evening, Henry and I hosted a post-wedding party for Andy and Jen (who you will remember got married on the beach in Florida Plantation weekend). It was great fun with friends, colleagues and family members toasting the happy couple. Vee St. Maurice, David Ziegler and Rachel Gross all came and helped Henry stay on top of all of the food and wine, making the larger party less stressful. They also helped clean up, especially nice as I had the early morning Waredaca deparature and Henry would head to Glasgow on Sunday to teach.
Sunday evening, I headed back from Waredaca and was lucky enough to attend a lovely gathering that the Gardners hosted to celebrate particularly Jennie Brannigan's Fair Hill win (and yes, I completely failed to blog about Fair Hill which had not only Jennie's win, but Caitlin's 4th place finish and Sally and Tsunami skipping around another big track making it look easy), but also Nina's great success with her breeding program in both race and sport. The Gardner's have been great supporters of eventing and I particularly applaud them for making the decision to support Jennie, a well-mentored, well-positioned up and coming rider. This is something that I wish more owners would do. While the excitement of being part of a Boyd, or Phillip or Buck team is a great opportunity, there is so much possibility for impact by supporting one of our up and coming riders to be able to succeed in the sport. So congrats to Jennie and kudos to the Gardners and I had a great time at the party, getting to chat with both Caitlin and Jenna Silliman, with Mary Hazzard, Sally and Nat Cousins and meeting for the first time 3 of the Gardners' 4 kids, all of whom are interesting people in their own rights (as well as passing on some nice stories).
Go eventing everywhere all at once!!
