Max Corcoran, who is master groom and gatekeeper to all things OCET, writes a very insightful, sometimes controversial blog for Equisearch. Max’s post from today is definitely worth a read. It raises some very interesting points about differences in the US and British spring training models, and then it looks at the US High Performance spring training schedule. From Max’s blog:
“But here is something that doesn’t quite look right –
4 – number of High Performance riders in Ocala
7 – number of High Performance riders in Aiken
2 – number of High Performance riders in CA
1 – number of training sessions in Ocala, total….
4 – number of times Katie Prudant is planning on going to Aiken…. not including Mark Phillips and Oded’s trips there.
Not sure on the numbers for West Coast….
What is not right in that balance – how is it that the Ocala developing and high performance crew get the short stick? Where has our sport gone? How is it that a group can punish those who choose to live in Ocala? It shouldn’t be about where we are, it should be about what we do and what we need…. as it should be in life in general. People can say what they want about the quality of riders in each area, but last I checked, no one produced at the Worlds or Olympics from either place – After the debate between the two areas – The West Coast is the only area that has produced Worlds and Olympic medals in dressage and eventing in the last 4 years.” [Max’s blog]
Certainly, there are a lot of factors that go into training session scheduling, such as location availability, the schedules of the coaches, riders, and support staff, and target competitions. But, Max’s post highlights the problem of trying to operate a High Performance program in a country much larger than Great Britain, where our top riders train hundreds and thousands of miles apart. Either way, I don’t think anyone is doing any high performance training other than snowball fights in AIken today. Go eventing.
Update: I have received word that one Ocala training session is being rescheduled due to a conflict with the annual derby cross and that several training session dates are still being revised. The final dates will eventually be released in a press release.
