When my very own blog space was set up yesterday, I told Visionaire that it was like handing a loaded AK 47 to a hyperactive 4-year-old child. She knows I’m opinionated, that I’ve been around a long time and I’m not afraid to talk about things that may be controversial. I love it when people argue with what I’ve written. It means they are alive and thinking!
Originally a hunter rider and Master of Foxhounds, I’ve been active in the event world since the 1978 World Championships in Kentucky. I’ve competed, organized and served as both a USEF and an FEI official. I worked in the real world as a psychiatric social worker.
I love the sport of eventing, but I am also  concerned about many of the changes and shifting of attitudes that I perceive in the sport of late. In the upcoming months, I’ll write about some of these concerns and hopefully will spark some discussion. Before I start on this voyage, I’ll leave you with a short “Sportsman’s Charter” which was brought to my attention several months ago. It’s worth reading carefully and thinking very hard about.
THE SPORTSMAN’S CHARTER
That sport is something done for the fun of doing it and that it ceases
to be sport when it becomes a business only, something done for what
there is in it;
That amateurism is something of the heart and spirit – not a matter of
exact technical qualifications;
That good manners of sport are fundamentally important;
That the code must be strictly upheld;
That the whole structure of sport is not only preserved from the
absurdity of undue importance, but is justified by a kind of romance
which animates it, and by the positive virtues of courage, patience, good temper,
and unselfishness which are demanded by the code;
That the exploitation of sport for profit alone kills the spirit and retains
only the husk and semblance of the thing;
That the qualities of frankness, courage, and sincerity
which mark the good sportsman in private life
shall mark the discussions of his interests at a competition.
Until next time. Enjoy the day!
Katie
