On Saturday evening after Jersey Fresh I was chatting with a few different people about the tragic accidents that had occurred that day. Everyone I talked to had opinions, which varied both in intensity and subject matter, but when they asked me for my own thoughts I really struggled to put them into words. It’s easy to know how I FEEL about it; I’m completely devastated and heartbroken for the family and friends of Philippa and for the owners and connections of Ouija. But feelings are one thing and thoughts are another.

 

My honest answer at the time was a very dejected “I just don’t know”. Two lives were lost on the same cross country course in one day; one equine, one human. That’s as bad as it gets, truly the darkest kind of day for any sport. But at the same time, it’s my sport, the sport I live and eat and breathe. Your knee jerk reaction is to defend it to it’s critics, but this day was pretty indefensible. I spent the whole weekend mulling it over.

I believe that having horses and riders die on course on a regular basis is totally unacceptable. I can’t comfortably stand beside the people saying “at least she died doing what she loved”. While I don’t disagree with the sentiment, to me the words feel a bit empty, a bit naive, and somehow seem to lessen the enormity of exactly what was lost. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s my time, I’d rather go out doing something I love. But that doesn’t mean I want to die at a competition in a rotational fall that could also kill my horse and would undoubtedly leave permanent scars on the psyche of everyone unlucky enough to witness it. On the other hand, I also can’t join in with the people that are lambasting eventing in general, saying that it’s too dangerous and the sport – especially the cross country – needs to end.

I truly love and believe in the sport of eventing. Call me an optimist, but I think there is a middle ground here. There is a way to keep the sport intact and true to its roots, and still make it safer. I don’t know what that is, obviously none of us do yet, but I have 100% faith that it exists. I also have 100% faith that we can find it.

Note that I said “safer” and not “safe”. This sport will never be safe. No horse sport will ever be safe. There is an inherent risk involved any time we choose to be around or throw a leg over the back of a very large animal with a mind of it’s own. There is simply no way to prevent every single accident, and that’s something we just have to recognize. But we certainly can make improvements to minimize the occurrence of them, and the severity of them when they do occur.

I have seen a lot of comments on Facebook and horse forums saying that the “powers that be” in eventing, specifically the USEA, have continually turned a blind eye to the fatalities. Setting aside the fact that JF was an FEI event, I still don’t think that’s a fair statement. Studies, reports, and data-gathering have been happening for years. In most recent memory, USEA has been trying to raise money for a collapsible fence study.

The first question is “Has any of it made any difference”? In some ways no, obviously people and horses are still dying. In some ways yes, we’ve seen frangible pins help prevent countless possibly serious accidents. The next question is “Are we doing enough”? Personally, I don’t think so. But I also recognize the fact that a lot of it comes down to funding, and the fact that studies take time. So do solutions. Changes take even longer.

This is a multi-faceted problem; finding the answer is going to be incredibly difficult and ongoing. In order to fix the problem, first we have to understand what’s happening. No small task when every single fall has a completely different set of circumstances surrounding it and completely different things that possibly could have been done to create a different outcome. I don’t think there is only one answer; I think there are several. We just have to find them and put it all together.

That brings me to the next line of thought: what can I do to help? I’m not a scientist, I’m not an engineer, I’m not an upper-level rider, I’m not a course designer. I personally can’t fix this problem. But I do know one thing: change requires money, and I’m 100% capable of controlling where mine goes. Really want to help the sport of eventing? Let’s support the organizations, the events, the venues, the officials, the course designers, and the course builders that are dedicated to making everything safer for horses and riders. Let’s give constructive feedback to our governing bodies. DONATE TO THE STUDIES. If we really want to save our sport and help make it safer, let’s figure out what we can do to help, educate ourselves, and put our money where our mouths are.

There are a lot of people out there screaming that something has to be done. Unfortunately, that’s all most of them are doing – screaming.  If all the people screaming and arguing on social media were willing to donate even just $20 to a safety study, how much better off would we be? How much more could we accomplish?

To those who look at the tragedies of this weekend, or really this whole year so far, and say “never eventing” – I get it. Once the fear of something overcomes your love for it, it’s no longer the right thing for you. This isn’t the right sport for everyone. Horse sports are already risky and this is perhaps the riskiest one. But I still love it, my horse still loves it, and I’m not ready to give up on it. For everyone out there who feels the same way, I ask you – what are we going to do about it?

Henry had his second Trainer XC ride yesterday and it was, in a word, freakinawesome. There’s video at the bottom, but I pulled screencaps for those who don’t want to dedicate 51 seconds to watching a video.

It rained all night Tuesday at my house, so when I woke up and checked the radar and saw the huge blob of rain headed toward the XC venue, I was sad. But magically, the closer it got, the more it dissipated, and before you knew it everything was clear and good to go. The cross country gods win again. I packed in half a day of work by 10:30 and then headed out, loaded up, and away we went.

It was so hot and humid… like 90 and sticky. I brought some ice water for Henry so that I could sponge him during the ride to help him stay cool, but turns out he handled it pretty well anyway.

The main objective of the day was for Trainer to jump Henry off the Training level Irish Bank, which freaks me out a little. Mostly because it’s giant and Henry still tends to launch off the banks (I’m pretty convinced he’s never going to just drop down them like a normal horse), so I have visions of being left in the ditch on the back side of the bank as he goes gallivanting around the forest without me. She also wanted to jump some of the Training combos, hoping to build his confidence a bit for his move-up.

Turns out, they did both of those things. Henry was a total rockstar! He jumped everything first try and totally gobbled it up. The more he did, the more he strutted. You could practically see his ego inflating as we went along. That’s perfect, exactly what we want!

He definitely did take a flying leap off the Irish bank with a big peek down into the ditch on the way down, and it was not beautiful, but Trainer did a great job of slipping him all the rein he needed, staying balanced over the back, and sticking out the awkward leap. Definitely glad it was her riding him off of that thing for the first time and not me! Really happy that he was so game about it though, there was never any question about whether he was gonna go or not.

He also jumped the Training double up bank to skinny combo, the T water, the T offset feeders, the giant brushy T ramp that gives me slight heart palpitations, PLUS the Prelim coffin and a Prelim box. I was SO happy to see him handle everything so easily! Trainer does such a good job of sitting up, waiting, closing her leg, and letting him figure things out; it’s educational to watch. Someday I’ll get better at that.

He cooled out quickly and was even a little wild when we got home – also good to see that his fitness level still holds up well in the heat.

If anyone needs Henry, he’ll be pimp-walking his way around the barn for the next few days, telling all his friends how great he is. I can’t disagree.

Last Saturday I finally had the magical combination of time, good weather, and an empty ring, so I seized the opportunity to set up some fences and have a little jump school. We hadn’t jumped more than 2 fences since Holly Hill two weeks before and I couldn’t really decide which thing out of my “bag of tricks” to work on, so I ended up setting up a random mish-mash of stuff.

For me – a low wide oxer and a triple bar, to force me to ride all the way to the base but still support with my leg off the ground. For Henry – a big cross rail to help tighten up his sometimes drapey legs and a vertical with placing poles on the approach and landing to get him rocking back on his hind end a bit better. For both of us – a skinny box that was set in a place where we could either ride it as the “in” or “out” of a bending line, or as a very tight rollback from the vertical next to it. Straightness, it matters.

We warmed up, I got Henry out in front of my leg, practiced a lot of adjustability in the canter, and then hopped over a little vertical a few times each way. He was feeling good and happy and attentive, so I went right into our Weirdo Exercise of Random Crap (ha, WERC). I started with the vertical with placing poles, then over to the low wide oxer, the big crossrail, triple bar, and ended with the vertical to skinny box rollback. All no big deal, he gobbled it up happily and landed from the skinny box with a tiny squeal and a few little dolphin-leaps to celebrate his badassery.

At that point I just laughed at him and grinned ear to ear – a grin that stayed in place for the rest of the ride. We hopped through everything a few more times in different configurations, Henry listening and understanding each question as we came upon it, ears up and looking for the next fence. I’m not perfect, he’s not perfect, but we were both having a lot of fun together, and that alone made it the perfect moment. It brings me so much joy to ride a horse like Henry, and it’s so rewarding to have him enjoy his work too. Fun is what it’s all about.

I’ve made a few lists over the past couple years of my own favorite things, but Henry has never made a list of his own. Granted, his very favorite things in the world are eating, sleeping in his own pee, and cross country, so I had to really work at it to find tangible items that made his list. But we finally did it, so here are Henry’s top 5 best things evarrrr.

Himalayan salt block

Henry has his salt down to a science. He likes to eat his dinner, get a drink of water, lick his salt, drink more water, lick his salt some more, and drink more water. He closes his eyes as he methodically and rhythmically licks his salt, to the point where he looks high as a kite. Dude loves the thing, and it seems to encourage him to drink more, so he always has one hanging in his stall.

Leistner Prinz brush

I love the Prinz brush because it works so well, but Henry actually loves it too. And that’s a pretty high compliment coming from a horse that really doesn’t like to be groomed. This brush is really good at getting the dirt off while also leaving a good shine, so I think of it as kind of a 2-in-1. Anything that is super soft and equals less grooming time gets two ears up from Henny.

Ogilvy half pads

Simply put, this horse is a Princess. He also is not shy about his opinions. So if Henny doesn’t like something, you know immediately. Likewise, if Henny does like something, you also know immediately (due to a lack of pinned ears and swishy tail trying to lash your eyeballs out). He’s been super happy in his Ogilvy half pads since day 1, and when I tried to go without it one day as a mini-experiment, he told me that was a no-go. Well, what he really said included a lot of expletives and was quite rude, but let’s just say it equaled “no”.

Back on Track mesh sheet

I’m still not totally convinced that the Back on Track voodoo is real, but I can’t deny the fact that Henry feels really good every time I get on him after he’s worn his mesh sheet. He’s too much of a blanket shredder to wear it unattended, but I’ve put it on him for a couple of hours before dressage at most of our shows this year and he does seem more limber right from the start. Plus he’s never once pinned his ears at it, so there’s that?

Uncle Jimmy’s 

As far as treats go, Henry isn’t that picky, but he does seem to really like the Uncle Jimmy’s Squeezy Buns. I think part of it is the excitement and anticipation that comes with the crinkling of the wrapper as I open each one; he’s like a kid on Christmas. Plus they’re nice and soft and apparently really delicious. He also likes the Uncle Jimmy’s Licky Thing, a treat that is reserved for horse shows. Weirdo horse has a crazy strong oral fixation and will stand in his stall just licking the wall or the bars when he’s bored. When I put the Licky Thing in there he’s at least got something to lick besides the wall. The Licky Things also last him a lot longer than a Likit (he gets about 2-3 days out of a Licky Thing vs a matter of hours out of a Likit, so they’re perfect for shows).

And Henry’s slave owner also appreciates that if you’re a fan of Riding Warehouse on facebook, you can always get 10% off your order with the code FB10. Money saved = more Henny treats.