Lost In Translation - Luhmühlen Or Bust

Highclere Horse Trials This Weekend Too

I keep telling myself I planned it this way, but the truth is I've been procrastinating over this particular holiday weekend for while. It's the Europeans at Luhmühlen, and I've not been there since I lived in Aachen when Thatcher was in power, and continental Europe still had controlled borders, where they made you unload travelling horses on a whim (what a pain that was, when you lived literally 50 yards the wrong side of the border). Highclere is also running this weekend, one of my all time favourite events. I've competed there every year for a while now, and with the prospect of my horse's imminent retirement, Highclere was high on my bucket list. Add to this a commitment to look after the children at least one day over the weekend, and hopefully you're starting to see my dilemma, or at least I hope you are. Can I do all three? That's surely pushing it!

The Europeans Seemed To Have Arrived From Nowhere

All The Aussies Are Over Here!

It seems to have been a quirky year for eventing. A number of top horses are out with injury, we've had a southern hemisphere invasion, Badminton ran over Easter weekend, a few Germans ran their Badminton mounts again at Luhmühlen in June, and now it's back to Luhmühlen for the HSBC FEI European Eventing Championships, which doesn't see to have got as much air time as it usually does.

Perhaps I've just been spending too much time in the States (which is about to increase!), and have missed all this, but I think it's more likely being over shadowed by talk of the Olympics and all the Antipodeans who have been rifling through their ancestry to satisfy visa conditions or residency status, and are pitching up in the UK for pre-Olympic prep, or just to get caught up in the general euphoria that's erupting here at the moment. Whether it's Hamish on his English adventure or the entire Kiwi squad, there are Antipodeans everywhere!

Anyway, back to the European Championships.... From the freshly updated list of entries (see below), hot off the press this morning, the first thing that strikes you is the number of new names on the list. Team GBR has only one new name on the list, Laura Collett, who is no stranger to the championship podium, with a medal haul of what seems like everything from tiddly-winks right up to Young Rider Europeans, having been hung round her neck.