Don’t worry Bromont, I still love you! If a little rain was all it took to make me shun a place, Vancouver would be just about the last place I’d spend my winters. And springs. And autumns. We have good summers here. We really do. I swear. I was impressed to see that no one […]

It’s raining for real too, but I don’t want to whine about the weather any more so I’ll talk about the men instead. I know I’ve said this before, but every time I go to an event the first thing that strikes me in great contrast to dressage is the extraordinary number of men hanging […]

This isn’t the weather I ordered to go with my Eventing weekend at Bromont. Where’s that lovely sunshine we had last year? The horses of course don’t mind the cool temps, and as long as the rain remains an intermittent dribble the footing on XC will be absolutely  fine tomorrow. It’s not as though they […]

I’m just wrapping up a couple of fun days hanging in Ottawa with my good friend Jenn and her hubby Simon (you know, the ones I married). I’ve long said that Vancouver is the world’s most dog-friendly city, but now I have to add a close second to my too-short list of cities that are […]

In this week’s intrigues, I was curious to note both a presence and an absence from the latest FEI Dressage Committee meeting minutes, which were published and distributed, not by the FEI, but by its favourite non-associate, the IDRC. First, the absence. I dedicated my entire column in Horse Sport International’s latest issue to what […]

To Bromont! I will be there for the CCI3* (Canada’s only one, eh?) this coming week. Since it’s a Canadian event, most of my posts from there will be on my Canuck blog, Straight-Up; so please head on over there if you want to stay up on the action from Bromont, where a large percentage […]

I know I said I’d leave the UAE + racing = steroids topic alone for a while, but I did qualify my promise with the caveat that if something monumental were to happen I’d be breaking it. The announcement on Thursday that Sheikh Mohammed has declared steroids illegal in his homeland is, to me, promise […]

Thanks to the small, articulate group of individuals who weighed in on my last post, in which I asked the question: why is dressage ripening on the vine all around the world, while Canadian dressage shows are withering like raisins? This is a critically important issue for all of us in DQ land, and by […]

So the FEI launched its latest greatest series last weekend, its Nations’ Cup Dressage series. Rotterdam and Aachen already offer team competitions a la Nations Cup-style, so the FEI just tacked one on the front (Vidauban, France) and one on the back (Hickstead) and called it a series. Rotterdam and Aachen are both big kids […]

I’m not sure what shocks me more about the Telegraph’s latest tale of doping woe that continues to follow Sheikh Mohammed around like a bad smell. Is it the photo showing the Queen dressed like a babushka or is it the sob story headline, ‘Sheikh Mohammed’s son-in-law explains pressures that lead to doping in endurance racing’? […]