Over the weekend we announced our Blogger Contest final four; now we’re bringing you their victorious Round 2 entries in individual installments.
Their Assignment: Though some would say three-day eventing has made too many Olympic concessions, becoming increasingly TV-friendly at the expense of the long format, a recent New York Times Op-Ed argued that equestrian sports are “drenched in privilege,” and “should be ditched” from the Olympic calendar. In your opinion, what’s the value of the Olympic stage in eventing? Will it last?
Here we’ve got Lauren Nethery’s entry. To read Jenni Autry’s previously posted entry click here, and Emily Daignault’s click here.
Each entry will be presented unedited for fairness’ sake. Thanks as always for reading, Eventing Nation. Please leave feedback in the comments section.
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Bio: In short, if it has four legs I will ride it. Horses of all shapes, sizes, and psychosis’, bulls, camels, so on, and so forth. I currently manage a farm in Lexington, KY, retired my Advanced mare in 2009 and am presently enjoying bringing my handful of an OTTB (more on this later) back to the Intermediate ranks after eighteen months off from a hoof injury. I start a lot of young horses under saddle, both for sport and for racing, teach lessons, compete horses for clients, wrangle pot-bellied pigs, and trim miniature horse feet. On a Monday.
Entry: Engines rev, wheels squeal, and hooves thunder? The cameras zoom and whizz above head, reminiscent of an NFL game, and commentators chatter away like gossiping squirrels about the merits of the long, straight five versus the tight, bending six between the keyhole and the corner. Fans, packed into their seats by the tens of thousands, sport neon foam fingers (some index, some middle) and wave signs and banners festooned with glitter and emblazoned with the names of their chosen idols. In the center of the ring, behind the medal podium, a check the size of the old Footbridge at Rolex with more zeros than an Off-the-Track-Thoroughbred’s first dressage test awaits its victor. This doesn’t sound much like the Olympics. In fact, more like the things fantasies and day dreams are made of crossed with the excitement and pizzazz of competitions like The X Games. It is, however, one of the many options when considering where Eventing goes from here.
Every four years, the equestrian world as we all know it is turned upon its head in an all-out knock-down, drag out fight to represent ones country at the holy grail of sporting events. 32 sports, 302 events, and years…nay, decades in most cases, of hard work to get there. But unlike every other Olympic sport, Equestrian disciplines feature not just human athletes but equally, if not more, talented equine athletes subjected to the same stresses, pressures, and demands that accompany the quest for Olympic glory. In some ways, I feel that this is a bit unfair. Making sacrifices for one’s own health, happiness, and well-being are not only expected but in fact required during the pursuit of elite performance. However, making potentially health-altering, life-changing, or career-ending decisions for equine partners when athletes may very well have just “one shot, one opportunity, one moment to seize everything they ever wanted” is a predicament that must be honestly analyzed when considering the inclusion of Equestrian sports in the Olympics. As if battling for an Olympic opportunity wasn’t enough stress, the IOC spends the years in between each Games threatening, bullying, and taunting the FEI with exclusion from the Games as if they FEI and its participants lives depend upon those five rings. Considering all of these physical, psychological, and financial stresses to the horses, the riders, and the governing bodies that inclusion in the Olympic Games imposes, perhaps it is time that the FEI and riders everywhere band together to seek another venue in which our beloved sports stars may be showcased and tested against each other. I adamantly believe that an elite competition is necessary for the skill of our horses and riders to continue to advance and for the pursuit of supreme excellence to live on with gusto. However, it may be that a more suitable venue, selection process, and time table can be devised than those imposed by the IOC. I am not sure what it is that will satisfy these requirements but I do not feel that it would be so far out in left field to endeavor to broker deal with organizations such as The X Games or with sponsors such as Coca Cola, Nike, or NBC in order to ultimately create a format to showcase our best and brightest that is beneficial to each and every individual involved. A pipe dream? Perhaps. But it is so often that those saying that ‘it’ cannot be done are interrupted by those doing ‘it’.
“If you think it’s an elite sport now, for ‘rich kids’, just you wait.” (Denny Emerson. “A Sport In Search Of Its Soul.” Chronicle Of The Horse 22 October, 2004: Page 47. Print.) Truer words have rarely been spoken but when they have been, Denny Emerson has often been the one to speak them as he did the above phrase in the sited Chronicle of The Horse article that addressed the hazards inherent to the demise of the long format. As he frequently is, Denny proved to be a prophet of sorts with this insight and while the long format ship has sadly sailed away, the financial burden ship has, in many ways, docked in its place. Fifteen years ago, when I first embarked on this crazy journey through the dark recesses of racetracks, the verdant fields of cross country fences aplenty, and the long, lonely, difficult, expensive miles between the two, I rode a squat little Quarter Horse literally out of a cow field and into a dressage arena, one-eared bridle and all. That little horse took me through Training Level and helped start the careers of many young riders thereafter but it is my fear that those days of success for horses that are not purpose-bred are waning. While many, perhaps even most, grassroots eventers would not know “privilege” if they went swimming in a pool of it, those riders whose success garners them USET attention so often fall by the way side if they do not have entire strings of horses complete with well-moneyed owners and generous corporate sponsors as foundations to their fame and glory. I do not have all the answers. No one does. But if we all put our heads together, listen to those who have laid the groundwork that got us here, and present a united front that showcases the talents of our equine partners while holding their well-being and happiness to this highest esteem, it is my whole-hearted belief that we will emerge victorious, hopefully floating on loungers in a sea or corporate sponsors, primetime coverage, and handsome purse money.
