It was a hot and humid first day at the U.S. Eventing Mandatory Olympic Training Session at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. A total of 12 athlete-and-horse combinations went down the jog strip, with 11 of those combinations representing the U.S. and one combination representing Canada, Colleen Loach on Qorry Blue d’Argouges. After this evening’s horse inspection, all 12 combinations will move forward to tomorrow’s cross-country.
The event schedule was updated to avoid tomorrow’s expected thunderstorms. Instead of the Thursday morning dressage rides, there were dressage test rides that ran today from 12:00 p.m. - 1:40 p.m. with judges Mark Weissbecker and Debbie Adams. These test rides were not included in the scoring but, cross-country and show jumping will have live scores available through The CourseWalk App. Cross-country will run tomorrow morning and will be the only phase running tomorrow. The schedule for Friday will remain the same.
Designed by Ian Stark, tomorrow’s cross-country course is a CCI4* level track with a total of 34 efforts. The first rider out of the start box will be Boyd Martin riding On Cue at 10:00 a.m. The last rider out of the box will also be Boyd Martin riding Tsetserleg TSF at 11:06 a.m.
Updated Event Schedule:
Wednesday, June 30
Thursday, July 1
Friday, July 2
Due to the nature of the competition being an Olympic training session, there will be no award ceremonies or presentations on Friday after show jumping.
This event will not be open to public spectators and will not be live-streamed, but make sure to follow the USEA social media for live updates and coverage of the event.
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Helpful links:
There are so many things to love about the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event and the opportunity to peruse the booths of so many amazing vendors is definitely one of them! Don’t forget to stop by the USEA booth, located just behind the Rolex Stadium next to the large Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event booth, to stock up on all of your favorite USEA apparel.
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Welcome back to one of the most exciting weeks in eventing in the U.S.—Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event week! The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, is going to be full to the brim with eventing lovers from all over the world.