Jump-Off is back with the goods. Did you know that Eva Frantzich was pregnant? We whip things up in TLOTB. Boycotts and a load of BS. It's all back in Jump-Off XXXVIII.
Pregnant Eva
Jump-Off was intrigued when one of the competitors in the Fancy Dress competition at the Royal Selangor Horse Show was announced as “Pregnant Eva Frantzich.” It was in fact Thailand’s resident joker Sunetr Burakasikorn in a pink dress with a big pillow around his stomach. Riding bareback on Kentucky, Sunetr proceeded to perform some shoulder-ins and even attempted a half-decent half-pass.
Would it be too unkind to suggest that Khun Sunetr might find more success in the dressage arena?
Whip it Up
Legendary Horseman and Course Designer, Paul Weier got an earful from a “pony club parent” who thought their kid was the bees knees. Weier begged to differ, intimating that the kid might try his methods when in his clinic rather than that of those sitting under an umbrella sipping G&T’s. End result – tipsy parent threatens the guru of showjumpers with a “whipping.” Where on earth could this have happened to Herr Weier but in TLOTB.
From your favourite website in TLOTB
“…the event will once again feature the crème de la crème of the showjumping world... Be there to watch the world’s top riders”
Jump-Off assumes this must be some kind of Cyrillic writing.
Boycotts (Gee, we sure did miss you)
A couple of World Cup riders did not come to the last World Cup qualifier after lobbying, but failing, to have the course designer changed prior to the show. The FEI International CD remained, produced acclaimed courses all weekend, and got the World Cup up to its proper height. Jump-Off hopes the couple took advantage of their free weekend to get some riding lessons of the four-legged variety.
Constrained Thinking
The amazing news has emerged that a club which did not host an its annual show for the first time in over a decade because of “budget constraints” has now sponsored the KL Grand Prix to the tune of RM 1 million. Jump-Off guesses it was actually always in the budget, thus the “constraint” on their annual show. There are a few people constraining to understand this too, we know.
More BS
A bucket of horse manure produced by an Olympic champion has sold for more than Ł700. Shear L'Eau, who won the eventing individual gold with Britain's Leslie Law in Athens, delivered the goods again when he got home. The manure was put up for auction as part of a campaign by BBC Hereford & Worcester to raise money for local hospices. And someone, possibly a keen gardener, decided it was worth the grand sum of Ł760.
'Too drunk to drive a car? No matter – just ride.'
A court decision effectively permitting those over the legal drink-drive limit to ride a horse has been puzzling people in the US state of Pennsylvania. Local press columnists are musing over the ruling, which concerned an accident between two horsemen and a driver - all of whom had been drinking.
The court said horses cannot be classed as vehicles, so the two horsemen could not be found guilty of drunk driving.
Man Gives Girlfriend Her Dream Wedding Proposal
For years Greg Mason of Coshocton, Ohio, has remembered a conversation he had with his girlfriend, Cheryl Love. "She had just commented to me that as a little girl growing up she wished for a prince on a white horse to come and whisk her away," Mason said.
Dating for almost six years, Mason decided to make Love's dream come true. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, Love's 41-year-old prince mounted a white horse, trotted through an apple orchard in Roscoe Village, and he asked her to be his bride.
"I couldn't believe it as first. I thought 'what are you doing on that horse' and he fumbled with a box and said 'I'm here to rescue you,'" Love said. "It was then I knew what he was doing ... then we were both shaking."
Jump-Off wants to know if if his horse helped him get down on his knees with a little buck.
Vale:
We bid a fond farewell to Lentina, recently bought by Syed Bakar, but perhaps best known as Puan Seri Zulaikha’s showjumping equitation and jumping champion. The big Holstein gelding died of an apparent heart attack on Monday 20th September.
Farewell also to old Punchinello, who passed away in Indonesia last week. “Punch” had been Wan Zaleha Radzi’s first great dressage horse in the early nineties and even competed in the 1998 Asian Games.
Transitions
Dato’ Mahammad Fathil resigned as co-chairman of the Organising Committee of the KL Grand Prix less than 2 weeks before the start of the event. His resignation from the OC was followed by his son Quzier Ambak’s. Wan Zaleha Radzi remains the chair of the OC of Asia’s only CSI 5-Star show.
Website of the Month:
Syed Omar’s SyedOmar.com. Check it out and leave a message for him in his guestbook.
To read previous editions of Jump-Off, please click on the links below:
Jump-Off XXXVII - 6 September 2004
Jump-Off: Olympic Edition II - 26 August 2004
Jump-Off: Olympic Edition I - 19 August 2004
Jump-Off XXXIV - 6 August 2004
Jump-Off XXXIII - 12 July 2004
Jump-Off XXXII - 22 June 2004
Jump-Off XXXI - 20 May 2004
Jump-Off XXX - 17 April 2004
Jump-Off XXIX - 27 February 2004
Jump-Off XXVIII - 5 February 2004
Jump-Off XXVII - 21 January 2004
Jump-Off XXVI - 22 Dec 2003
Jump-Off XXV - 10 Dec 2003
Jump-Off XXIV – 28 Nov 2003
Jump-Off XXIII - 15 Nov 2003
Jump-Off XXII - 25 October 2003
Jump-Off XXI - 1 October 2003
Jump-Off XX - 1 September 2003
Jump-Off XIX - 12 August 2003
Jump-Off XVIII: Not-The-Equestrian Awards - 17 July 2003
Jump-Off XVII - 14 June 2003
Jump-Off XVI - 24th May 2003
Jump-Off XV - 25th April 2003
Jump-Off XIV - 31st March 2003
Jump-Off XIII - 6th March 2003
Jump-Off XII - 12th February 2003
Jump-Off XI - 16th January 2003
Jump-Off X - 12th December 2002
Jump-Off IX - 14th November 2002
Jump-Off VIII - 19th September 2002
Jump-Off VII - 6th September 2002
Jump-Off VI - 13th August 2002
Jump-Off V - 2nd August 2002
Jump-Off IV - 15th July 2002
Jump-Off III - 27th June 2002
Jump-Off II - 20th June 2002
Jump-Off I - 14th June 2002
Other fun:
South East Asian Open World Dressage Championship 2004
Rodrigo to ride for Malaysia
Jump-Off's New Years Resolutions - 29th December 2002
Selling Terms
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this and previous Jump-Offs. If you have an interesting story that you think should be in Jump-Off, please e-mail pete@equestrian.com.my
