Horsemanship?

Horsemanship: For those of you unfamiliar with what the term means to me, I am going to explain it. Horsemanship is not only riding. It is not winning at competitions. Horsemanship is the overall goal of partnering with a horse, caring for it properly including feeding, thoughtful methodic training, grooming, shoeing or trimming, providing proper shelter, exercise, and training along with veterinary care. Competing and winning is not horsemanship. Competing and winning MIGHT be the culmination of very thoughtful horsemanship... or it might be the unfortunate result of pushing a horse too far too fast and just being lucky enough to not break the animal down in confidence, training, or health.

Horsemanship has returned to my thoughts recently. As you know, I am attempting a return to competitive eventing once I have the baby and get my horses going on a comprehensive training program (likely to start this Fall). In preparation for that time, I have been following competitive eventing through my membership in the United States Eventing Association (USEA). The USEA has a website devoted to eventing. I encourage you, if you are interested, to check out their website at www.useventing.com.

The USEA has recently begun to contemplate the safety of the cross country phase of Eventing. In recent months, at several different events, riders have been critically injured, and horses both injured and killed during the cross country phase. Cross country, and to be fair, riding in general carries with it some risk. But, in past years... when I was initially involved in the sport, the injuries and fatalities were absolutely not occurring in the numbers that they are today.

The USEA is holding a safety convention in Kentucky in early June (which I will miss due to the impending birth of my baby) but they have asked the members who cannot attend to send suggestions for making our sport safer. I have drafted and sent the letter that I will attach to this long-winded blog post for you to read if you are interested.

In contemplating safety and the reasons that our noble horses are having a harder time safely negotiating cross country courses... I have been considering that perhaps we have forgotten some aspect of our horsemanship?

This past weekend I attended a clinic that was taught by an upper level event rider and I witnessed some actions taken by riders and the clinician that greatly disturbed me in terms of horsemanship. The question we need to be asking ourselves is whether or not our horses are being trained competently and systematically to succeeed at the level we are asking them to compete?

Upon arrival at the venue of the clinic I immediately picked out a gorgeous gelding to watch (I will nickname him Mr. Mischief). He was a very high quality animal and was being ridden by a young lady who was obviously a fine rider. Before the clinic started, the rider put the gelding on the lunge line to warm up.

A thoughtful warm up for a young horse who is full of steam like Mr. Mischief is to put them on a lunge line (rope) that is about 25 feet long, with no rein/bit pressure, and ask them to alternately walk, trot, and canter in a 50 foot circle around you. Once Mr. Mischief was finished blowing off some steam and was ready to get down to work, then side reins could be attached which ask the horse to come onto the bit more, stretch the critical muscles in his back (which are now warm), and to get down to work. The generous 50' circle is used because it is hard for horses to balance on smaller circles, especially young horses, and requires more athleticism.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mischief's rider, put him immediately in side reins on an approximate 25 foot circle which is like warming up for a long run by sprinting madly about. The warm up for a horse is as much about his mental and emotional state as it is about the physical. Mr. Mischief was not allowed any gradual warm up. He seemed stressed and anxious and never relaxed or warmed into good work. By the time Mr. Mischief's rider mounted, he had a full head of steam! Mr. Mischief's rider tried to settle him by riding him, but Mr. Mischief was having none of it. He was determined to gallop away with her at the least provocation.

I was interested to see how Upper Level Clinician, was going to address Mr. Mischief and his rider. I have been to several clinics over time and was used to the warm up for jumping consisting of some work on the flat to test a horse and rider's communication, and then jump over a super easy single fence a few times to get the horse into the midset that now we are jumping... and also to warm up his jumping muscles which are used in a different way than while working on the flat. Clinician did not do much flatwork at all with Mr. Mischief before jumping. She asked Mr. Mischief's rider to canter him and then hand gallop him (fast work)... she ignored that he was pulling like a train on the reins to run away with his rider and was improving minimally if at all by the end of this 'warm up'.

Clinician then set up a technical question consisting of a rail on the ground to be approached in canter off a hard turn, two short strides to an airy oxer (a jump with width). Mr. Mischief wanted to fly through the sequence. He got in wrong several times to the oxer and was becoming more upset rather than calming into his work. He was then asked to jump the aforementioned sequence... and add an airy vertical two short strides from the oxer. Mr. Mischief would hit the ground after the first jump and madly scrabble to the second. It was getting more and more dangerous and the horse was losing his confidence. Then Miss Clinician set up a third fence on a bending line. The sequence was now, tight turn, to a ground pole, two short strides to an oxer, two short strides to an airy vertical then a bending line to another airy vertical. Mr. Mischief and his rider were barely making it through two fences without crashing, and now they were going for a third. Well, Mr. Mischief finally had the melt down that he was threatening to have since his poorly planned warm up on the lunge line. He galloped down to the third fence and then stopped and whirled. His rider was catapulted to the ground. It could have been very bad. It seemed so unnecessary. Both horse and rider had their confidence shaken after paying several hundred dollars to be taught by the Clinician.

In my past, many times, as I am sure most honest riders will say, I have shortcut the warm up, or a necessary training step in order to push to a competition or other goal too soon. I am not saying that Mr. Mischief and his rider are bad simply because they did this (although I am disappointed that Upper Level Clinician did not identify and address the issues). I am saying that this incident at the clinic, along with the real consequences being experienced on cross country courses in upper level eventing, have served to remind me that when I embark on my second chance at a competitive career in eventing, that the thing that I should stake my life, and my horses lives on... is good horsemanship... not simply praying for a one-time blue ribbon ride. My pride needs to come from my daily thoughtful approach to my horse's well-being first, and any competition successes will be further down my line of equestrian priorities.

P~



Dear Karen and USEA Officials considering the safety of Cross Country as it currently stands in our sport:

I wanted to write because I will be unable to attend the safety summit in June due to my baby being due shortly thereafter. My opinion may not be as informed or matter as much as those folks who have dedicated their lives to eventing and I expect and rely on those folks to lead us in a healthier direction. However, I did want to have my tiny say so that I felt like a contributor rather than solely a critic.

I am a returning adult rider who was a very "gutsy" (my trainer's words) jumper as a young rider who had time to dedicate to my riding. I would jump anything. I left the competitive equestrian world as so many young riders do, because of a lack of resources, including the time and money, that would lead me to the lofty goals I had been wishing to attain. I am now at a point in my life that I can once again enjoy the sport, but perhaps I will be more timid (and perhaps not...), and perhaps I will not have such lofty goals as I am now embarking simultaneously upon the task of raising a child. When I left competitive eventing 10+ years ago, there were safety concerns, such as table fences being too square, but it did not seem like there were nearly the accidents that are happening now. Also, the long format Three Day Event was still in operation.

When I was eventing before, when I was younger, I was concerned that the new safety regulations would "dumb down" the cross country that I so loved, so that the sport would largely revolved around the dressage score. When Eventing adopted the short format, I again thought that the change was going to benefit the dressage horse type. This was a type of horse that I could not afford. There are no track rejects that are also fancy warmbloods. I felt the sport was going very elite and leaving me behind as competitive dressage and showjumping already had.

I am very surprised, upon returning to the sport, that the changes in cross country have in effect created a situation that may be too dangerous. What I offer is a viewpoint, not of someone who has been so involved in the sport that they might miss the change due to gradually implemented rules, but the viewpoint of someone who has left for a while and returned to be very surprised by what I am seeing. It is rather like someone not seeing another person for years and expecting them to look the same... and being shocked at their age or other appearance issue that gradually happened over time.

I know that Eventing's short format was implemented for the safety of the horse, but it seems as if eventers wanted to toughen the course so that it would also weed out those not elite enough to be competing at that level since the horse would not be tested as an endurance animal. This is not a bad goal... but unfortunately the changes at the top end of the sport also trickle down to the lower levels because that is where you will find the young horses and riders who are preparing for those upper level divisions. As a young rider, I would not have wanted my Training level course to be so different from Prelim, or Prelim so different from Intermediate and so on, that I was climbing a ladder and getting stuck at a rung that was missing. The effort to keep cross country relevant in the outcome of short format Eventing has resulted in higher technicality, and more crazy questions (if you will excuse the term). By crazy, I mean jumping a carved duck to a bounce over a boat etc. To a human, these are cute and artsy and fun to look at. To a horse, they don't make the least bit of sense. Cross country is not showjumping.

In showjumping the horse is trained to expect the arena to be full of crazy jumps. They are desensitized through good training. However, they have some things in their favor that cross country jumpers do not... for example, they are in a contained area that changes very little venue to venue as compared to various cross country courses. They can usually expect flat, and good footing. And they are expert at jumping off of bends and turns by the time they are at the upper levels. This then requires the cute, and artsy crazy fences to help determine the best showjumper.

Cross country horses have to adapt to footing changes even within a course. They don't get to see the course ahead of time so they don't know for sure that there could be a fence off this blind bending line as a good arena horse will. They get distracted by sights that they may have never seen before. I recall jumping at Ram Tap in Fresno, CA when the train went roaring by. Showjumpers do not have to deal with that. Why then, are we making our cross country courses caricatures of showjumping courses? The horses seem overwhelmed with all that we expect of them. I don't think riders have fallen in their skill levels. I think we have missed what it is that MAKES a cross country horse such a special animal.

Eventing evolved from a military/cavalry foundation. The horses it rewarded were tough, agile, smart, willing, and loved their jobs. This is the type of horse that I want to ride and compete today. And the cross country courses, like dressage tests, at each level should challenge AND TEACH… not destroy our noble partners.

My vote would be to take a long, hard look at the evolution of our current cross country course design, and take a look at years past where the accidents and fatalities were lower, and try to get us back to tests that are reasonable challenges for our wonderful horses.

Thank you,
P~