Exciting news to help you make your travel plans for the new year: the MARS Badminton ticket office is officially open for this year’s event (May 7-11)! Priority ticket booking begins today, dedicated for anyone who had signed up to access the sale early. If you missed out on the priority booking sign-ups, never fear, general tickets go on sale next Monday, January 13. Be sure to mark your calendars and we’ll see you in England! Click here to visit the Badminton box office.
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News & Reading
Benefitting from the surge in sports betting stemming from legislation that has been enacted in recent years, the city of Philadelphia has awarded a $500,000 grant to the nonprofit youth polo and access program, Work to Ride, to help the organization build a new indoor arena. Read more about this grant here.
There’s much to glean from watching training sessions, even if they aren’t directly related to eventing. We’ve been following the USEF Horsemastership Sessions in Wellington, Fl., where show jumping legend Beezie Madden imparted some knowledge in the most recent day of training. Read about the session focused on adjustability and gymnastic work here.
There’s a lot of information out there now about the human microbiome and its function, but what about the equine microbiome? Is it time to start talking about this? The Horse dives in here.
Blindfolding horses removes visual stimuli ostensibly to make a frightened animal more reliant on the handler in emergencies, such as leading from a burning barn. An earlier study showed horses actually took longer to lead and displayed more avoidance and resistance behaviours when blindfolded. However, a large variation in individual response was noted, which could be due to temperament. Read up on some research dedicated to this here.
Video Break
Meet British 5* rider Simon Grieve and his string of horses over on his new YouTube channel:
