McLain Ward & Sapphire win the $1,000,000 Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows!

McLain & Sapphire, who ride in ECOGOLD's Forward Flap Hunter pad, showed they were the best of the best at Spruce Meadows, winning the $1,000,000 CN International Grand Prix, by 0.2 seconds in the jump-off. Wow!!!

Burghley: Phillip 4th, Oliver Townend wins!

Videos from Burghley Horse Trials' spectacular showjumping finale where British favorite Oliver Townend signed, sealed & delivered his victory. Ecogold-sponsored rider Phillip Dutton finished in 4th place with TruLuck. Buck finished in 11th (came up from 16th) and will undergo surgery for his hernia in the US on Wednesday...

Day 3: Cross-country madness!

Early this morning, the road to Burghley was jammed with cars as far as your eyes could see. Plus the train station was closed for maintenance (excellent timing from the National Railway Co. to choose the busiest weekend of the year to do repairs...)so they had buses instead of trains, which clogged the roads even more. Once at the show, it was difficult to walk there were sooo many people. I'm sure I stepped on a few feet, maybe even a couple of chihuahuas. Anyhow, it was a perfect, sunny day to watch cross-country. The course seemed to be very technical & and not many riders were able to finish clean under the time allowed.
ok, here are a few videos! I should have more tomorrow. - Patricia

Day 2: Gusty winds & a 7th place for Allison!

Day 2 at Burghley was super nice sunny day, except for the gale-force winds. Ok, I'm no meteorologist but it felt like hurricane Bill had decided to cross the pond. At a certain point, I even had to take off my hat, I was so afraid it would end up in the dressage ring while someone was competing.
The nice surprise today was the great perfomance from Allison Springer & Arthur who scored 47.3 to place 7th overall. Yay!!!
Tomorrow is cross-country day and Emma Ford (Phillip's super-groom)suggested I go film near jump 14-15 to get a nice view of a few jumps. That sounds great except it looks like 25 miles away, across a bridge, up a hill...I hope they have nice Land Rovers to take us there! My feet are seriouly killing me from getting lost around the 600+ shops.
Enjoy today's videos!

Burghley Day 1: Phillip in the lead!!

So I have finally arrived at Burghley (see how pretty it is on picture above) and on the first day, Phillip Dutton gets 1st place and Karen O'Connor 6th (out of a field of 49 riders). What a great start!! The show is really well organized with a giant screen outside the arena with live scoring so you never miss any of the action. The shopping is incredible with more stores than I have ever seen at an outdoor horse show - there's everything from pillows to traditional woven baskets. The weather has been typical English/Canadian weather that changes every 5 minutes.
On a personal note, my new UK cell phone spent the day browsing the web, wasting all the $40 of minutes I had just bought...
ok, enjoy today's videos!! - Patricia