Mr. Ed

Conspicuous in their presence at almost all the U.S. trainings have been two mounted police atop two large white horses. The men and their steeds make daily appearances at practice, watch for a while, then gallop on their way. (We had mentioned previously that the Algarve was still pretty rural. There are also quite a few cows, roosters, stray cats and dogs, a donkeys or two and of course, sheep). The horses seemed only mildly interested in training, but today a soccer ball rolled off the field and right under one of the horses, which kind of freaked him out, but it looked for a moment like he was going to hoof it back on the field before it nutmegged him, twice. Once through the front legs and then again through the back legs. Contrary to rumor, it was not Tobin Heath that did the nut-megging. Anyway, after training, animal lovers Heather O'Reilly and Leslie Osborne made friends with the horse. We think he's now a U.S. fan.