London 2012 | The Greatest Eventing Show On Earth

Mark Todd | One Second Away From Gold After Cross Country

The Cross Country Phase of the London 2012 Olympic Eventing competition will surely go down as one of the greatest events the sport has ever seen, and probably the most exciting day the London Games is likely to witness. 74 horses jumped out of the start box, and fifteen did not make it through to the finish, a number of which surprised everyone. Four nations held firm, to maintain team scores that have a chance of putting their team on the podium, Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand & Sweden.

London 2012 | Team Talk - The 5 Nations

Team Talk | A Team Gold Medal for GBR Would Crown Both Of These Mens' Careers Nicely

I haven't played any team sports since I left school, a bit of Badminton doubles maybe or Sunday soccer, but that's as close as I've come to being in a team for some time. Eventing isn't really what you'd call a team sport, I mean it's not like they pass a baton to one another, but this is a home games and there are team medals to play for so I'll park that discussion!

What I love about the team game is how it highlights the uniqueness of the equestrian disciplines amongst the Olympic mix. Look at the ages of some of the guys in these teams; Mark Todd, Mary King, Andrew Hoy, Andrew Nicholson,- all in their 50's, these guys must have been born into the games, not to mention some of the showjumpers, and the 71 year-old dressage rider from Japan. To me this illustrates just how difficult it is to control half a ton of horse flesh around a given task, and how much effort, skill and experience that requires. Yet we also have some of the youngest competitors giving these living legends a run for their money, now that's real talent! I just wish our only Rolex Grand Slam winner, Pippa Funnell, was in a position to challenge for a home games, that really would complete the set. 

Thirteen teams, from every continent bar Africa, are all dreaming of chalking up a victory of some sort in London. When you consider what you need to do just to get a team qualified for the Olympics - just understanding what's needed, let alone qualifying, it's quite an achievement in a sport such as ours for so many to get a full squad to the games. Hats off to them all!

Barbury 2012 | Officially Time To Get Your Games Face On

Barbury Castle Horse Trials | The Place To Be This Weekend

Wonder Horse Neville Bardos

Barbury Castle Horse Trials is about to become host to the most exciting pre-Olympic warm-up event ever seen. The Olympics being held on home turf has attracted the world's biggest names to camp in the UK during the build up to the games. The Australians & New Zealanders were first to arrive a year ago, joined by a smattering of other nations, including America's Tiana Coudray, who laid many a ghost to rest when coming second at Blenheim last year. She is now joined by the entire American Olympic shortlist, the latest contingent to arrive for their final selection trial at Barbury this coming weekend, including the two US wonder horses, Neville Bardos & Mystery Whisper.


Barbury has grown in stature over a very short space of time, and since the demise of Savernake Horse Trials, is my most local, and one of my favourite events in the calendar. Taking a look through the entry list for the CIC*** it's really hard not to get excited about the Olympics - it reads like a who's who of eventing, and pretty much anyone that is missing from this list can be found in the 3 CIC** sections, along side many of the horses that made Salperton so memorable.

Start Your Engines & Get Your Games Face On!

Inonothing's First XC Outing Since WEG2010

It's time to paint your face different colours, scream loudly, and get ready for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The hype is building, the press is buzzing, and everyone's out cross country schooling - the most exciting eventing season of recent times has begun! Eventing news and comment has started to wind up again over the last few weeks. It's like everybody has just come back from holiday with renewed vigor, and with less than 2 weeks to the start of the new season proper who can blame them? I've spent the last few months beavering away on the day job, both here and in the US, trying hard to dodge the cold snaps either side of the pond, and failing mostly. I'm pleased to say I'm in the final sprint to the finish of a career defining project, but have managed to grab the occasional day to ride myself.

Whilst I happily potter round the school at home on the great white charger, the rest of the eventing world is hard at it. The Americans are out competing in the sunshine state joined by a few foreigners seeking Olympic qualification, and the UK circuit has gone into overdrive and is out cross country schooling or galloping. Visit any of the main schooling grounds and you'll probably bump into half a dozen professionals either schooling their own during the week or running clinics for the amateur riders at the weekends. I was lucky enough to spot the first cross country outing for Badminton 2010 winner, Inonothing, since his injury at the Kentucky WEG, and it was great to see the horse happy and relaxed going through some simple exercises over fixed fences with Paul Tapner. (follow their progress on the Badminton website)

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.

Greenwich - Awash With Challenges

Hyde Park | More Suitable

It's no secret that the ticketing policy for London 2012 has been wholly unpopular, across all the sporting disciplines, and I have previously expressed my opinion that the venue chosen for the eventing, Greenwich Park, is unsuitable due to the pint-size nature of the venue and therefore it's ability to satisfy anywhere near the demand there would be for the event.

Pippa Cuckson recently blogged about the ticketing allocations for the equestrian events, noting some half a million people expressed interest in the tickets for the horsey olympics. I've also just listened to a very interesting interview on the Eventing Radio Show with Sue Benson, the London 2012 course designer, who throughout the interview describes almost every part of her job relating the Greenwich venue as 'a challenge'. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the LOCOG PR office when that interview gets mentioned in internal dispatches.

London 2012: A few GBRs to watch out for.....

The Olympics may be more than two years away, and I know we have a WEG & Euro Champs before then, but this is the first year to really start watching out for new horses and riders, and I often find the best year to see real talent (next year we'll see too many nerves taking affect). Rather than do this retrospectively at the end of the season I thought I'd see if I can predict some of the best events to see some of the best performances.

For this post I'm just going to cover the British potentials, I'll cover a few other nations as the year progresses.

So the events I think worth watching this year are:

• Luhmulhen
• Barbury Castle
• Blenheim
• Burghley

and here's the young pretenders I think are worth watching out for: