Don’t worry, terrible pictures of bland convention halls are on their way to a computer near you soon
After the Professional Horseman’s Council everyone headed over to the Active Athletes Committee meeting for what turned out to be a very productive discussion. Amy Tryon is the chairwoman of the Active Athletes Committee but Mark Phillips and Sara Ike led most of the discussion with a bunch of HP riders (including Amy) participating. The discussion was, as expected, all about the Olympics.
Mark started off with a discussion of Eddy Stibbie’s Lavender Hill Stud yard in England, which is the US team’s choice of stabling for the lead up to the London Olympics. The location sounds really impressive with great stables, large pastures, and a super arena. There is a 50 horse barn on the property. What Mark regards as the best gallop in England is three miles down the road and a vet clinic is just two miles away. Mark said that he can’t see a downside with the facility other than the fact that accommodations for the riders have not been finalized. It sounds like the US ponies will be living large in England next summer.
One issue that was raised by the riders is funding for groom and rider accommodations before the Games. It was mentioned that $400,000 has been allocated for pre-Games training which is more money than we have had in the past. Sara said that this money will likely be allocated as grants. I recall one rider getting the WEG accommodation money as a check up front and spending the weekend in their trailer instead of using it to pay for accommodations. But it seems like grant money is the most efficient system. The riders said that they knew the lead up to the Games would not be fully funded but they are just hoping to know how much they will have to budget before hand.
Mark mentioned that the plan now is to take 10 horses to England as the short list before the Games. Applications for Olympic Selection will likely be due March 1st.
The committee discussed that Bettina Hoy will be coming over for one week each month to work with riders in January, February, and March. These clinics are being scheduled independently by the riders but there seems to be support from the USEF. Word is that Bettina will spend three days at Michael Pollard’s in Georgia and then three days at Boyd’s in Aiken. It was also mentioned that Katie Prudent will probably be utilized with the support of the USEF throughout the spring, which I think is great news although not all riders share this feeling. It was clear that the USEF spring training budget is still being worked on but there were no major concerns raised by the riders.
In a controversial step, Mark said that fitness will be added as a criteria for Olympic selection although the wording is still being worked on. Mark explained that the USEF is getting feedback from the USOC folks who have been doing the rider fitness tests throughout 2011. It is clear that the ideas about how to help riders with fitness are still very much being worked on. Mark made it clear that each rider will probably have different levels of fitness requirements/suggestions as per USOC guidelines. Mark then asked for feedback from the riders on this topic. One issue that was raised is how to deal with riders who have not been listed (and therefore tested) but who might be selected. The response was that any applicants on March 1st who have not been listed would be tested by the USOC to get a baseline level. Mark emphasized that the evaluation will be much more dependent on improvement or decline rather than starting level. This is a difficult topic for sure, but it’s clear that the USEF wants to put more emphasis on improving rider fitness despite the controversial nature of the issue.
In terms of the Olympic calendar and the timing of team selection, the CCI selection trials are planned to be Jersey, Rolex, Badminton, and Saumur with the possibility of adding another selection trials at Luhmuhlen or Bramham. The Olympics are the last week of July so adding those three-days in June would likely encourage bad horsemanship. Notably, the CIC at Bromont or the CIC at Luhmuhlen are possibilities for a final outing before selection of the short list and shipping out to England.
The hope is to get the 10 short listed horses to the Barbury CIC3* at the end of June for a final mandatory outing with team selections due on the 6th. Mark stressed that the spring schedule will be very much a horse by horse decision. Mark said that all short listed horses will probably be required to do all three phases at Barbury. He said that he hoped all of the training list riders would know what the selectors expected from each horse in terms of a spring 3* or 4* before they leave the convention this weekend.
The riders seemed unified in the desire to have a team selected and 5 alternates named after Saumur and before the horses leave for England. Mark said that the problem with naming a team early is that Olympic first timers are prone to ease off their training coming into the Games once they are selected. The riders seemed to want a final team selection to be made before Barbury so they could use Barbury to best prepare their horses for the Olympics rather than to get selected. The discussion was lively, open, and I think extremely productive. Will Faudree gets the speaking truth to authority award for the weekend.
United States Olympic Committee personnel spoke at the end of the meeting and their talk started off with an interesting conclusion from the sports psychology expert. Eventers’ lives are hard. Riding is an exceptionally difficult sport and it takes an exceptionally strong mind to achieve success. He said that a key difference between eventers and other USOC athletes is that evetners have to put other people before themselves to make their careers work while other USOC athletes can put themselves first. He was talking about the problems of where to prioritize performance within a busy eventing business/career. The USOC nutritionist continued Mark’s previous discussion and said that they plan to firm up rider weight and nutrition guidelines for 2012. The strength and conditioning expert said that overall most evetners she has worked with understand where they need to be to compete at a top level but the daily grind of eventing makes it hard for them to do additional fitness training.
All bushes in the meeting room remained untouched.
As a quick completely unrelated but considerably more important note, I want to extend Eventing Nation’s thoughts and prayers to our friends at Virginia Tech who are going through a tragic day in Blacksburg. Go Hokies.
