Please forgive the brevity of my written comments here, but I’m back in the office after the horse inspection … preparing this post and eating some lunch before heading out to the Driving Stadium for the 2:30 p.m. Presentation competition.

Several horses were held, reinspected, and accepted. One of the Canadians’ horses and one of the Germans’ horses were spun by the vets, so Deb Laderoute (CAN) and Ludwig Weinmayer (GER) will not be able to make any horse substitutions throughout the event. Sadly, two of of David Saunders U.S. horses were spun, which leaves him with three … that obviously won’t work for a four-in-hand, so he’s out of the event before it’s even started.

Without further ado, some of my favorite shots from this morning (these are in the order the horses were presented):

Australia’s Gavin Robson

.

Canada’s Darryl Billing

.

one of the French horses

.

one of Georg von Stein’s horses, representing Germany

.

Ysbrand Chardon (NED), the reigning World Four-in-Hand Champion

.

Koos de Ronde of The Netherlands

.

Piotr Mazurek, representing Poland

.

Switzerland’s Daniel Wuergler

.

one of the Lusitanos being driven by Switzerland’s Werner Ulrich

.

Jim Fairclough (USA)

.

one of Bill Long’s horses (USA)

.

one of Mike McLennan’s horses (USA)

.

Josh Rector (USA)

.

Chester Weber (USA), the reigning individual silver medalist from the 2008 World Four-in-Hand Championship