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.

Barbury Castle Horse Trials | CIC*** XC Photos

A few photos from CIC*** Cross Country Day:




Video from Saturday & Sunday shortly.

Barbury Castle Horse Trials | CIC** Cross Country

In the end I only managed to spend a few hours at Barbury on Saturday for the CIC**, but here are a few photos:




Some video to follow....

To Barbury Once More

Barbury Castle Horse Trials

I got up way too early this morning, cantered the horse, arrived at work early, got the important things out of the way, and promptly left headed to Barbury for a few hours to "walk the dog" and see how things were shaping up for the weekend.

The lorry park was tightly packed, so full classes all round. We'd had rain most of the night and all morning, but by the time I arrived it was dry enough for the dust to be kicked up off the stone tracks, but the turf here is so thick, well established and well maintained the going is pretty decent, and usually always is these days.