Well, it's been a very big day at Spruce Meadows. This morning Tim Stockdale's great round in the BP Cup was good enough for second place. Yay Tim!

The Battle of the Breeds

The champions this year were Team Morgan. They had the highest number of points to place1st in Driving and Trail, 2nd overall in the Compulsory Skills. Congratulations Team Morgan!

Spruce Meadows Grandeur

In my post on Day 1, I mentioned that the Spruce Meadows grounds are immaculate and well-organized. Well, I was able to confirm that today by taking some aerial photos from a helicopter!

This is looking from west to east. To the left is the International Arena and in the center is the International Marketplace. The Equi-fare takes up three buildings - you can see one of the buildings with the red roof on the bottom left. As Debbie commented, the shopping is fabulous!

Nations cup

The very big story today was the Nations Cup - always one of the biggest classes at the Masters. The Dutch Team won and had only one time fault, the U.S. was second on a score of 12, Mexico took 3rd place with the guidance of Norman Dello Joio, and Canada and Switzerland tied for 4th. It was a tough and big course with faults coming throughout the track. The Netherlands was able to post almost a perfect score with only three riders coming back for the second round - unfortunately, Angelique Hoorn's horse Blauwendraad's O'Brien injured a tendon in the first round. He is resting in the veterinary hospital on the grounds and his condition will be re-evaluated in a few days. Team Germany also had to complete with only three members as Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum took a fall coming off the last fence; she walked out and we'll hope to see her compete tomorrow.

I took about 500 photos today, so have not had a chance to get any ready to post, so will hope to get some up tomorrow!