A new milestone achievement for me: I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but this is my first ‘erudite’ (I’m choosing to believe it was said in earnest and not in irony). What makes me even happier about the two comments on my FEIDAY post is that both of the individuals who made […]

No, I don’t love Bromont. I ADORE BROMONT. What a little slice of paradise in which to hold a three day event. And on first contact, I can honestly say this is the smoothest running machine of an FEI competition I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Maybe ever. I caught Sue Ockendon, Event […]

If they keep this up much longer, I’m going to recommend we add a new day to the week just to have time for all the reflection and commentary necessitated by the FEI’s many and varied activities. One thing the FEI seems to be madly in love with is themes. I wonder if they have […]

I can’t stay away. Just when my travel schedule was calming down so that I could spend a bit more time riding my horse, walking my wiener (dog) and messing about in the garden, the final observation trial for the Canadian and US Eventing Olympic Teams beckoned irresistibly. So I will head east to La Belle […]

Gawl danged Europeen varmints! According to an article in the Saudi Gazette over the weekend, Abdullah Sharbatly, one of the two Saudi show jumpers who received  bute-related suspensions and an invitation to skip the Olympics, has declared that he suspects foul play in the positive tests of his horse and that of Khaled Al-Eid. Sharbatly even went […]

Wow! Did you see the Preakness last weekend? If not, please do take a moment to watch this video before reading on. I really don’t know a thing about racing, but I think it’s safe for me to say this was a jockey’s win – or whatever you call it when a race is won […]

Today’s rant, which should be read while listening to the strains of Elvis (see video below), comes to you from the very bottom of the barrel. Even though it’s a coincidence and I only realized the appropriateness of my title and choice of music accompaniment as I started to write this very sentence, it is […]

I am now a quarter of a year into my two-time blogging, here on Straight-Up and on Horse Sport International’s site with Low-Down. It may seem at times that my blogs flow like so much verbal diarrhea, but in reality the image is more one of the constipated mathematician who works it out with a pencil, […]

The place of my birth, mentioned in my post of a few hours ago, is already receiving some attention. To pre-empt anyone out there who might be tempted to harbor doubts as to the verity of my claim that a) I was born at all (and therefore am not a puppet) and b) I was […]

puppet: /ˈpʌpɪt/noun: a movable model of a person or animal that is typically moved either by strings controlled from above or by a hand inside it ~ Oxford English Dictionary It has come to my attention, both directly and through the Chinese Whisper Game style of communication, that people in some quarters think I am a puppet. […]