Wednesday, July 2, 2008

America's Next Equestrian Star

Shhhh! This is a secret! Well, maybe not a secret, but you may not know that all six episodes of America's Next Equestrian Star with Robert Dover is available on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_xeaB0rYSE. I've been watching an episode every morning before work, and I can tell you there is a surprise ending! The Chronicle of the Horse featured the winner in a recent article, and believe me it was not the one I'd have predicted from watching the first few episodes.

The quality is not bad, but for those of you who are sticklers about that sort of thing, you can also purchase the videos at the show's Web site.

So, whether you watched it before, or will watch it now, let me know what you think! Did the right person win?


7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the alert! We'll have fun watching this.

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  2. Thanks for posting that link to the YouTubes of this show! I didn't know about the show and will enjoy watching!

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  3. Hi! I wanted you to know that I am passing the Arte y Pico Award along to you for writing such an inspiring blog. Pop on over to my blog and scroll down to Arte y Pico Award. Great blog!

    Regards,
    Deborah

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  4. I stayed up late watching those and then finished this afternoon. In some ways, I suspected the ending, although a little surprised. Not who I would have chosen, but still nice so see. I wonder how the time went with Rober Dover. Thanks for posting that, as I really enjoyed it!

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  5. Wow - there is nothing like this over here in the UK! I just spent my entire morning watching all the episodes. It came at the moment when I am actually considering going for British Dressage Apprenticeship scheme!! Very inspiring and so much quality info throughout (maybe a little bit too much of a Big Brother feel but hey ho;).
    I think the finalists did great job. Jamil was amazing but too young really and it was good for him to be able to go to college and gain experience of different disciplines. JJ - great rider but those amazing riders often don't know how to teach and that would stop my vote for her. Becca - too aggressive and hyper for my liking but coincidentally I have exactly same problem - I tend to override big horses (being 1.63m myself)! The winner - deserved for two reasons 1) She is talented with room for improvement; smart and educated, gives good feel to the people she teaches and I bet she will improve her coaching skills no end 2) Good decision for the sport (to promote among ethnic minorities, less aggressive personalities etc).

    Thanks so much for this link - it was so great to watch it!

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  6. The Chronicle did an article on Philesha, and she sounds like a remarkable woman. I love that she "passed" on the opportunity to criticize the other competitors. And most amazingly, her grandmother MADE her dressage jacket! While i didn't feel invested in the competition, I teared up when she won. A COTH interview with one of Dover's clients describes her as a good christian woman, and she seems very genuine. I did like the other competitors too. Interestingly, in the beginning when Dover was reviewing tapes, it LOOKED like they showed footage of the girl I blogged about a month ago (fierce bad warmblood). It was a short, short cut of a woman riding out bucks coming toward the camera...

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  7. Thanks for telling us! I just caught the last episode when it aired and was really frustrated not to be able to find reruns of the other episodes! I have "dressage" as a keyword on my Tivo searcher and it only seems to find ANY programs about twice per year! RFD's "Inside Eventing," which documented the O'connor team was great, too .

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