I am shocked and saddened to write that our sport has lost one of its brightest young stars today.  Late Tuesday afternoon Lisa Marie Fergusson’s lovely young advanced horse Smart Move had to be humanely euthanized in Wellington, Florida after escaping from the barn onto a road and being struck by a car.  Lisa, who rides for Canada, and Smart Move were training in Wellington, Florida in preparation for their spring season and the possibility of riding for Canada in the Olympics.  Lisa and Smart Move had to withdraw from Fair Hill this autumn due to injury but rebounded with a 4th at the Galway CCI3* in November.  Smart Move was known for being a wonderful horse in all three phases and consistently stepped up to every eventing challenge eventing presented to him.

Smart Move was a 7 year old Welsh Sport Horse gelding who Lisa had developed since getting him at 4 years old.  Lisa was kind enough to blog about her autumn adventures with Smart Move here on EN.  Lisa showed a great deal of resilience this year and I know that resilience will help her persevere through this heartbreak.  I spoke briefly with Lisa’s longtime boyfriend Mike who told me that one of the things that makes this so hard  is that Lisa tragically lost her former upper level horse Uni, who collapsed and passed away after a cross-country ride in 2009.  Lisa has three other younger horses in training down in Wellington.  Eventing Nation extends our heartbroken thoughts and prayers to Lisa, Mike, and to their entire family and connections during this difficult time. 

The 2012 USEA convention is in Colorado and 2013 is going to be in Cincinnati, OH

If you are reading this and attended the USEA Annual Meeting this weekend I want to congratulate you on your survival.  I ended up having a light weekend and turned in early last night, but let’s just say that wasn’t the case for all of the attendees. 

Let me start this post by echoing Annie’s congratulations for all of the award recipients at the USEA Awards Dinner Saturday night.  Watching so many great riders and more importantly great people receive awards was yet another reminder of the greatness of US eventing.  I want to give a special congratulations to EN’s good friend Sharon White for receiving the $30,000 Rebecca Broussard Developing Rider International Grant.  No one in eventing is more deserving and I was so happy to see her receive the award.  Buck also deserves a lot of credit for absolute domination by winning the rider, horse, and mare of the year awards. 

The Board of Governors meeting on Sunday at the convention was a recap of everything that has been accomplished at the convention, a look ahead to new initiatives for next year, and several official motions to thank various key members of the eventing community including the Endowment Trust, David O’Connor, and outgoing Board member Kaiti Saunders. 

Here are a few notes from the meeting:

Endowment Trust — Ms. Kyra Stuart gave the report to the Board from the USEA Endowment Trust.  The Endowment Trust is responsible for the allocation of the Rebecca Broussard Developing Rider Grant and Ms. Stuart recognized how grateful the Endowment Trust is to have that responsibility and how pleased they are with how the first grant went.  She also echoed that the Trust wants to work in partnership with the USEA Board for the betterment of the USEA.  The Endowment Trust has revised their financial management policy by focusing on 30% in safe equities and 70% in fixed income.  This will be a slightly more aggressive investment approach than their current distribution. 

One Fall Rule — Robert Kellerhouse mentioned an alternative option to repealing the one fall rule.  He suggested letting riders who fall off go back to the barns, get checked out by medical, and then have the possibility of restarting cross-country at a lower level later in the same day.  This would let medical check out the rider and at the same time let the riders correct their problems.  According to Robert, this is a possibility under the existing rules and we wouldn’t have to wait until 2013 to start it.  President Sabo said that the idea needs more research but that it is an intriguing option.  

Young Riders Committee Report — President Sabo gave a quick report on the committee meeting.  He reiterated the importance of viewing the Young Riders program as a pipeline to develop riders so that we can provide support at all levels of the development process.

Organizers’ Committee —  The Organizers’ Committee is focused on further educating people on where our entry fees are spent.  The Organizing Committee gave a presentation this weekend about the use of entry fees that they said was really well received.  They mentioned that they continue to have challenges with Xentry although a lot of progress has been made this year.  Since the FEI is going to require microchipping in horses in 2013, the Organizing Committee is going to research microchip readers to be used by organizers.

Safety Committee — Carol Kozlowski gave this report.  She mentioned the possibility of replacing the medical armband with a medical bracelet currently used by cyclists.  It is of a similar material as the LIVESTRONG bracelets.  The concern with the armbands is that kids have a lot of trouble getting them to fit on their arms and the bracelets might lead to more safety by being used throughout the grounds of an event and not just only on course.  The bracelets cost around $35 and contain all of the necessary medical information.  It sounds like a committee will be formed to refine the bracelet idea and re look at armbands before the bracelet idea moves onto the technical committee.  From the conversation, my guess is that the days of the armband might be numbered. 

Long Format — President Sabo affirmed the importance of the long format at the beginner novice, novice, and training level and said that the Board is committed to supporting these events moving forward.  Jon Holling raised the point that we need to make sure we keep education of the long format at a high level as more and more coaches who used to ride in upper level long formats age out of the USEA.  The Board seemed divided in a discussion of a rule change is coming to allow formal dress (shadbelly) at lower level three-days.  The Board supported the concept to accept the lower level three days as qualifying points for the AECs and year end awards although it was made clear that the specific standards still need to be hammered out and it was sent back to committee for more review.

Technical Committee — Malcolm Hook gave the technical committee report.  Mr. Hook mentioned that the NAJYRC dates conflict with both Stuart and Rebecca Farms, so they will take the possibility of a slight date change to the USEF.  He said that all but one of the rule change proposals passed and will go forward to the USEF convention.  The one fall and out rule was tabled until the January meeting at the USEF convention.  As we described on EN yesterday, this was because several committee members wanted a chance to view the USEA convention concussion seminar DVDs because they missed the seminars due to scheduling conflicts.

370 people attended the USEA convention this year making it a big success and a really fun experience for everyone involved.  The Virginia Horse Center, Queeny Park, and Aspen have been selected as finalists for the next home for the AECs ATC (Adult Team Challenge).  Last, but not least, the Board voted the Queen City and my birthplace — Cincinnati, OH — as the location for the 2013 USEA Annual Meeting. 

Thank you to the USEA for, as always, putting together a wonderful convention.  I can’t imagine how much effort goes into coordinating the hundreds of activities throughout the weekend.  The 2011 convention has been mercifully calm and without major conflict although the future of the one fall rule is very much still uncertain.  Thank you for reading our coverage as it continues into the coming week.  Stay tuned for Clayton’s nickname for David O’Connor and much more.  As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day.  Go eventing.

Correction: As a quick but important correction I wrote that the Virginia Horse Center, Queeny Park, and Aspen were selected as finalists for the AECs when in fact they are finalists for the ATC–the Adult Team Challenge.  I misheard “AEC” when the Board member said “ATC.” The situation with the AECs is apparently the same as on Saturday when we reported that there is no announcement on a future home for the AECs.  Apologies for the mistake and thanks to EN tipsters CTB and SR for correcting me!

I have included notes from the USEA annual meeting in this post and you can watch Clayton Fredericks’ keynote speech below, but here’s a quick look at the Pan American Games Review forum from Saturday afternoon at the USEA convention. 

The review started with a recognition of Jon Holling and how tough it was for everyone on the team to see him left off at the final vet inspection before leaving for Mexico.  The other side of that coin is a recognition of how Lynn stepped up and rose to the occasion of being added to the team.  After that emotional introduction, the Pan Am review became a welcome celebration of a fantastic gold medal performance in Guadalajara.  The consistent theme throughout the forum was the unity of the US team that went to Mexico.

The USEF’s Sara Ike described the behind the scenes Games experience including living in the athletes village, going to bed at night viewing the Pan Am flame burning in the night, and being under State Department security.  She said that perhaps the most important thing is that Buck, Hannah, Michael, Lynn, and Shannon have all been “bitten by the bug” of hearing their national anthem play at an international team event and hopefully that will be the first of many times for all of them.  Sara concluded her speech with a thanks to all of the behind the scenes personnel including grooms, support personnel, and the selectors. 

Buck was the next up to talk about his experience as the unofficial team captain  Buck said that this time was difference from past team experiences in that all of the riders were focused on the team.  He said Michael was the clown, Hannah was the Smurf, Lynn was the gymnast, Shannon was the mother, and he was the key keeper.  There are a few inside jokes behind all of those titles, some more appropriate than others.  He ended by saying that at the end of the day everyone did what they needed to do and that is what made them successful.

Michael opened by joking that for the first time in his life his role was to be the tallest.  He thanked his lovely wife Nathalie for giving him the ride on Hanni and he emphasized how wonderful it was to work with such a magical team.

Hannah Burnett thanked her owner Ms. Mars as well as her team at home including David and Karen O’Connor and the entire OCET team. 

Lynn Symansky described how her journey as an alternate was different in that it was impossible for her to be excited about how she got on the team.  She said that she had an important conversation with Karen O’Connor before training camp that helped remind her to stay focused as an alternate at the camp.

Shannon Lilley talked about being a west coast rider out east as part of the team experience.  She felt really lucky that the entire team embraced her and helped her feel at home leading up to the Games.  Shannon said “this is the epitome of what ‘team’ means and I hope that everyone who was a part of this can take this experience forward.” 

Dougie Hanum, the USET’s stable manager (and so much more), described the entire experience as a “dream.”  He reiterated what a great team went down to Mexico.

US coach Mark Phillips was the last to speak.  He credited the selectors with putting together an amazing team.  He praised Buck’s leadership.  He said that “it was the best team in my 19 years of coaching that I have ever had the privilege to coach.”  He said how hard it was for Jon to be left off of the team and credited Jon for dealing with it with incredible maturity.  According to Mark, the hardest role on any team is to be the alternate and praised Lynn for stepping up to the challenge so well.  Mark credited Michael with stepping up to serve the team after having really rough rounds at Burghley and Boekelo.  He said that ultimately what gave him the most pleasure was having all 5 riders finish on their dressage score, setting a new team record. 

When the Q&A session started, David O’Connor thanked John Williams for designing a great course.  Another question prompted Buck to tell the story of how his stirrup broke at the last water complex a minute and a half from home.  He said that Absolute Liberty was wonderful to carry him home with just one stirrup. 

—-

Annual Meeting Notes:

President’s Report — President Sabo opened the annual meeting by thanking former USEA president Baumgardner for his service during a very tough three year term as president while the USEA went through safety and financial challenges.  He then congratulated eventing on a great and perhaps most importantly a very safe past year.  Next, President Sabo gave recognition to USEA CEO Jo Whitehouse as well as the incredible USEA staff members who work hard behind the scenes to make our sport a success each and every day.  He also thanked the many volunteers who help the USEA and emphasized that he views the USEA as an organization that is very open to membership involvement.  He thanked a great many additional folks including the sponsors of the USEA and the USEA convention this year.

President Sabo continued by identifying a few key statistics for the USEA that were also mentioned in the USEA Board meeting on Friday.  He said that membership is pretty constant and that fortunately horse registrations are up.  He said “we are financially secure, we are debt free, and we have cash.”  After that it was time for a bunch more thanks to many more key contributors to the USEA including Board and committee members, organizers, the growth of higher level events, and a subtle joke/hint that a new four star might be coming to the US.  He reminded the audience about the importance of the USEA in terms of providing support and organization to eventing in the US.  With that he concluded his report.

Financial Report —  Mike Winter delivered the financial l report and mercifully spared us as much of the financial minutia as possible.  He summed everything up by saying “as we say in Indiana, we done good this year.”  The USEA had a surplus in 2011 and it was bigger than they expected.  The USEA brought in $3.6 million this year.  Expenses were nearly $3.5 million, yielding a surplus for 2011 of $122,936.  Some important trends include an increase in starters from just under 40,500 in 2010 to just over 41,000 for 2011.  Horse registrations have increased at a considerably larger pace, which Mike said he didn’t quite understand.  Sponsorship revenues have increased but donations have decreased.  He reiterated that 1,500 members leave the USEA each year and 1,500 new members join.  The USEA seeks to have 3 months of minimum cash reserves, zero debt, and a balanced operating performance (breaking even), and the USEA is now meeting those objectives. 

Report of the CEO — Jo Whitehouse started her report by once again thanking the USEA staff for their service.  She thanked Dr. Halstead and Dr. Sills for their help with the concussion education this weekend.  While we are on thanks, I want to also thank the USEA staff for their great friendship with Eventing Nation particularly by indulging me with conversation, media passes, and so much more at events throughout the year. 

After awards for outgoing area chairs, it was time for a quick presentation by former President Kyra Stuart on behalf of the USEA Endowment Trust.  She explained that the Endowment Trust is really excited to be putting up old issues of the USCTA News Magazine online in an archived and searchable format. 

The meeting concluded with a vote for the new nominees to the USEA Board.

Go eventing.

Before I jump into the discussion of the influence of tack on biomechanics, I’d like to make a quick note on planning the eventing calendar.  I sat in on the calendar planning open forum at the USEA convention Saturday afternoon and the discussion left me both more educated and more amazed at the challenges that face those responsible for scheduling.  The differences in priorities, demands, and obligations that face all of the groups involved in eventing come together in a perfect storm that makes satisfying everyone and perhaps anyone completely impossible.  For example, the riders want events scheduled to help them have a better lead up to three-days, to help the event have better footing, etc.  But moving an event forward or back even one weekend can upset competing events, create conflicts for volunteers, and give the organizers a ton of other issues to sort out.  Needless to say, if you look at the eventing calendar and feel frustrated, know that a ton of hard work went into making the calendar as best as it possibly can be.  As a quick note on the AECs, it was mentioned at the meeting that it is not known where the AECs will be in 2013, but the competition will not be in Area III.  Ok, let’s talk about tack:

Peter Menet gave a speech on the influence of tack on biomechanics, which was sponsored by World Equestrian Brands.  Peter designs the Amerigo Vega products for World Equestrian Brands and he spent most of his time discussing how a saddle influences the half-halt and collection.  It was a really interesting seminar .  I wish I could show all of the great diagrams he used in the slides because they were some of the best I have ever seen showing collection.  Mr. Menet addressed the issue in terms of general principles of saddle fitting rather than the specific Amerigo Vega products and I found the discussion to be a really useful reminder of what we need to do as riders. 

Mr. Menet suggested that, whatever your discipline, you should work the horse long and low before your ride and following the ride to let the horse relax and he spoke very negatively about rollkur.

He explained that to get from working long and low to the performance needed at competitions requires first and foremost a correct half-halt.  The goal of a half-halt is to maintain the rhythm while shortening the frame and this requires being relaxed and supple as well as stretching and rounding of the horse’s back.  Every half-halt must go through the back.  Saddle fit is very important to helping with this because bringing the hind leg to the neck depends on the movement of the back.  Freedom of shoulder is also very important in allowing the horse to balance itself correctly. 

Mr. Menet explained that the principles of the correct position include balance, the ability to relax and be supple, and the ability to adapt to the horse’s movement.  He said that you should not change the horse to make it easier for the rider to have a correct position–always the other way around.  Mr. Menet believes in the correct position as a basis for perfect biomechanics. 

He said that being right or left handed makes people naturally crooked when we ride.  We tend to collapse our right side which blocks the left hind and lets the horse out the right shoulder.  His view was that a great deal of un-straightness comes from a rider’s lack of straightness and not the horse’s lack of straightness. 

He explained that when fitting saddles one key is to find the proper weight bearing area.  The goal is not necessarily to maximize the weight bearing area but to make sure the weight is distributed properly over the right area on the horse’s back.  He believes in keeping the weight on the horses back below where the rider would be without a saddle since this is the most natural approach.

Go Cats.

One key theme of the USEA convention this year has been a major increase in concussion awareness and safety.  Brain surgeon and concussion expert Dr. Allen Sills spoke at a forum on Saturday morning at the convention regarding concussion prevention and treatment.  Dr. Sill works at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and has been a big help to the USEA and USEF in improving concussion awareness and education in out sport. 

As a bit of history on concussions, in 1905 there were 18 deaths in football, many of which were likely related to brain injury.  This inspired President Roosevelt to put a panel together to address football safety.  Incidentally, that panel eventually became the NCAA. 

The formal definition of a concussion is a “non-permanent trauma-induced alteration in brain function.”  Dr. Sills emphasized what Dr. Halstead said yesterday–diagnosing concussions is an observational diagnosis and it is not diagnosable by whether or not the athlete passes out.  Brain injuries are a large public health problem–2 million head injuries in the US every year.  Horseback riding causes 11.7% of Traumatic Brain Injuries among recreational sports–by far the highest.

Diagnosing concussions is about observation because there is no great psyological concussion test available at this point.  This means that diagnosing concussions depends on the honesty of the patient.  A very non-comprehensive list of common signs of concussion includes headache, dizziness, blurred vision, and that the patient appears dazed or stunned.  Diagnosing concussions is made more difficult by a wide variety of concussion grading scales that are hard to compare.  Grading scales are now considered obsolete and doctors have to use a variety of factors to assess each case uniquely.  Dr. Sills believes that computerized cognitive testing is vital to observing and measuring concussions.  Dr. Sills supports the ImPACT test to evaluate an athlete’s performance on a computerized cognitive test, which is now being used by the US eventing team.  ImPACT baseline tests are being performed later today here at the convention.  Other assessment tools that are being used include analysis of an athletes balance skills.

90% of concussions are healed after a week, but the critical issue is finding the other 10% and making sure that they are fully healed before returning to work.  A step-wise return to play has been developed that makes athletes not do any physical exertion until all of the symptoms are gone.  Athletes are gradually put back into work and doctors eventually upgrade them to full effort or contact if they continue to remain asymtomatic. 

In the Q&A session Dr. Sills said unequivocally that a concussion can occur even if there is not a blow to the head.  He said that in fact the most severe type of concussion might come from a rotational trauma to the brain.  In response to the question of “how many is too many?” — Dr. Sills said that this includes a ton of factors including the importance of the sport to that person’s career. 

Between Dr. Sills and Dr. Halstead, we have been treated to two fantastic lectures by two preeminent experts on head trauma this weekend.  I’m very appreciative to Dr. Sills and Dr. Halstead for coming and to the USEA for organizing their lectures.  Hopefully this weekend will continue our understanding that concussions are an absolutely critical component of eventing safety.  If there was one message I could take away from both of their talks it would be that if you fall off of a horse and are showing signs of concussion you need to treat that very seriously and get help from a medical professional.  Go eventing.

Don’t worry videos are coming shortly

The Training Solutions from Top Riders forum is easily my favorite forum at the USEA convention each year.  Karen O’Connor, Boyd Martin, Phillip Dutton, Leslie Law, Clayton Fredericks, Buck Davidson, Shannon Lilley, Hannah Burnett, and Lynn Symansky took and and all training questions from the audience for an hour and a half.  One audience member would ask a question and then all of the riders would answer the question.  You will be hard pressed to ever find a group of better riders to answer questions.  As an aside, I am uploading videos of the forum and I will be posting them when they are uploaded.

Mr. Nunn from Bit of Britain started the forum off by asking about what unique technology the riders are using these days.  Karen said that she uses leather bits a lot when a horse tends to grab ahold of traditional bits.  Boyd said that he tries to compete all horses up to prelim in a snaffle.  Boyd emphasized that there are risks in using too strong of a bit too early.  Phillip said that he sometimes uses a standing martingale when training at home (they are not allowed in competition of course).   Leslie Law said that he typically prefers a very natural approach to training.  After a quick plug for Southern Star Saddlery, Clayton Fredericks said that he is a fan of simplifying the nosebands that he uses and often checks his horses’ mouths to make sure they are in good condition.  Buck said that he prefers to actually take things like stirrups and reins away to teach the horse and rider to be more independent.  Hannah Burnett won the quote of the day award by saying “I love breastplates” and said that everyone should use one when jumping.  Lynn echoed what Buck said and suggested working students on the lunge to focus on the rider’s performance. 

What to do about helping horses to stop horses from grinding their teeth? — Karen said that if nothing else works, putting a little spec of dirt in a horses mouth right before they go into the arena will stop grinding.

What to do about nervous horses in the warmup who as spooking from other horses, etc? — Shannon said that she tries to do as much desensitization training at home as possible.  She also said there’s nothing that can replace going away from home as an experience for the horse.  Hannah said that she tries to break things down for the horse and gradually introduce them to more and more complex situations.

What to look for in a young horse? — Boyd says it all depends on what you want to do with the horse.  He said that for him the goal for every horse is to do a 4* so he needs a horse that can gallop and jump well.  The next big priority is having the movement in the dressage.  He said that he looks for 60-70% or more Thoroughbred.  Phillip said that he really suggests people look at the attitude of the horse.  That’s advice I didn’t take from Phillip once and spent the next year and a half learning a lot of patience.  Leslie said he looks for heart, but that this can be really hard to diagnose in a 40 minute pre-purchase test ride.

What’s the difference in quality in buying from the US or overseas? — Boyd said that in Europe there are literally thousands of people specifically breeding event horses and they are all within a few hours drive of each other.  Shannon Lilley agreed with Boyd and said that you can see 15 or 20 horses in a day in Europe whereas you can usually only find one or two suitable horses for purchase per day in the States on a purchasing trip.

Which horse would the panelists most like to ride? — Hannah Burnett said Neville Bardos.  Leslie Law said Inmidair, mentioning that the horse has all of the skills: “that horse could medal.”  High praise from someone who knows a thing or two about winning an Olympic medal.

How do I make a horse who is short in the neck reach down into the bridle?—  Buck said that transitions are his key to getting the horses to reach out into the contact.  Clayton said that he likes the horses really light in the contact. 

Dr. Kevin Keane asked about how the riders have evolved to the short format in terms of preparing the fitness of their top horses. — Leslie said “a fit horse is a fit horse” and said that he hasn’t changed his fitness program a great deal over the years.  He said he believes in interval training and then sprinting the horses closer to three-days.  Clayton said that there is a greater intensity at the CIC format because there is less galloping between the fences.  He explained that they do more sprinting now than perhaps they used to for the long format.  Buck said that different horses have different fitness ceilings and that he does a lot of trotting and perhaps fewer gallops.  Buck suggested that the riding has changed for the better in that riders are pacing their horses on course now more than when the short format first started.

How much time off should horses get after a three-day? — Lynn said that she believes in giving a month off when possible and then bringing them back gradually but of course every situation is different. 

What’s your favorite exercise to teach horses to be brave jumping? — Boyd explained that he thinks it is very important to be careful that event horses don’t ever get the idea about stopping.  As a rider, our responsibility is to never scare the horse.  Clayton said that it is critical for the riders to have a good position with their body so they do not have to interfere with the horse’s head and neck.  When this starts to become a problem it can easily turn into a vicious cycle. 

How often do you jump your upper level horses over bigger jumps? — Hannah said that it really depends on the horse and that she has one horse who hardly ever jumps larger fences because he needs practice at being calm. 

How do you avoid having to use a bigger bit? — Boyd explained most problems are related to training questions.  He said that if a horse doesn’t slow down on the cross-country you haven’t trained the horse to slow down at home.  Leslie said that he always tries to avoid using a bigger bit, but he would rather use a bigger bit that a horse listens to rather than have to pull on a horse’s mouth constantly with a snaffle. 

What to do with a problem horse? — Buck said that he likes to reduce the issues into as simple of a situation as possible such as riding in a confined indoor arena.  He also mentioned that sometimes you just have to realize if things aren’t going to work out and try to find a different horse.

When is the right time as an instructor to step in and tell their students that a horse might not be working out? — Boyd explained that he believes a rider can help improve a horse but that we can’t fundamentally change them completely.  Lynn said that often times bad behavior by a horse is about the horse not being a good match for the rider rather than the horse just being a bad horse. 

What are your favorite exercises for indoor arenas? — The question was asked by a Minnesotan who said she has to spend 5 months each winter in an indoor due to less than ideal weather.  The panelists sheepishly admitted that they don’t spend enough time up north in the winter to have to work in an indoor for extended periods of time.  Buck said that the biggest thing that he sees from people who work in indoors all the time is that the horse gets behind their leg.  He said you have to constantly test the horses. 

What can we do to get the most fitness out of the riders?  Leslie said that before Athens he would work out in a heat chamber set to the conditions they would have to deal with in Athens.  Leslie finds that aerobic fitness is most important for riding.  Clayton observed that riding is a core strength sport and suggested lots of work on an inflatable workout ball.  Clayton said that working out is important to improving a rider’s mental toughness as well.

Go eventing. 

Any rule discussion should begin with a recognition of two principles.  First, writing good rules is very very hard and second, no rule can make everyone happy.  Also, please note that the open rules forum is just an open discussion for proposed rule changes and it is not certain that the rule changes will actually be approved by the USEF.  With this in mind, let’s get to the discussion.  Malcolm Hook led the rule discussion.  Here is an overview of the most notable rule change proposals, saving the most interesting for last:

False starts — The false start rule change proposal is to eliminate the current 5 second penalty for leaving the start box before your start time.  One potential issue with this is that without any penalty for leaving early more riders might false start more often.  Brian Ross proposed that it might be time to think about eliminating the start box all together and just using a start line.  This makes a lot of sense to me but this is yet another example of something that will probably only happen if the FEI also decides to change their rule.

Doing away with hollow PVC rails — A proposed change to the SJ fence construction wording would require top rails to have a wood core which would allow for either solid rails or the plastic rails with wood cores.  This would not affect the warmup jumps and there didn’t seem to be any major objections from the room.

Larger advanced and intermediate divisions — At the request of the PHC, this rule change eliminates the rule that currently forces organizers to break up intermediate and advanced horse trial divisions with more than 40 entrants.  This change gives organizers more flexibility and the potential for more prize money in intermediate and advanced.  Again, this rule seemed to have wide support from the attendees other than a few wording clarifications.

Eliminating the one fall rule for training level and below  —  Let’s talk about falling off.  This rule change proposal has been much discussed over the past several years and earlier this year the USEA Board voted unanimously to suggest a repeal of the one fall rule for training and below to the FEI.  This would allow riders at training level and below to remount after the first fall of the rider.   The current proposed wording is the same as the pre one-fall-rule-wording except that the rider can get back on only if he or she maintains control of the horse during the fall.  There was a lengthy discussion about the best way to handle this so as to avoid encouraging riders to dangerously hang onto their horses while falling.  This portion of the rule is clearly still under discussion.

There are two very legitimate sides to this issue and I’ll try to present both sides in their best form.  One side of the one fall rule argument; Malcolm Hook emphasized the idea that there is no such thing as a “nothing fall.”  He mentioned a story about a hunter rider who fell off several weeks ago when her horse bolted at a show.  She got up, said she was fine, and went back to the stables.  30 minutes later she had symptoms of concussion and a few hours later she passed away from a brain injury at the hospital.  That’s an anecdotal argument, but the big concern with this rule is that there is not a good way to make 100% sure that a rider is fine when you let them get back on their horse. 

There is a liability issue here, but former USEA President and defense attorney Kevin Baumgardner said that legislating eventing against liability is simply impossible and we need to look at the safety issue first. 

The other side of the issue is that fallen rider surveys indicate that 66% of falls happen at the lower levels and many of the survey respondents expressed interest in having an opportunity to finish what they started, continue to educate their horse, etc.  The anecdotal model for this argument is the rider at novice level who pops off at the third fence and lands on their feet.  A strong argument from proponents of the rule change was that riders do not want to have this safety issue legislated to them.  One contributor to the discussion said that most of the time riders know enough about safety to know whether they can or can’t continue.

President Sabo spoke and said that the overwhelming feedback from USEA riders is that they do not want a one fall elimination rule.  He mentioned that the Board of Governors feels strongly about changing the rule to eliminate the one fall rule for training and below.  President Sabo also reminded the room that this opinion is based on considerable information from a British Eventing study that we have written about several times on EN.

The British Eventing study was a six year study which showed that having had a fall, a rider was no more likely to have a fall later on course.  In the British Eventing study 40% of riders who fell elected to not continue.  Admittedly, this study did not evaluate whether or not the riders had a brain injury when they got back on after the fall.  British Eventing has decided to let riders get back on after one fall at any level.  President Sabo also mentioned that British Eventing has happily lived without a one fall rule for a number of years. 

The rule change will likely go through slight wording changes throughout today and it will be voted on by the USEF’s Eventing Technical Committee Saturday morning.  Let’s have a quick Eventing Nation straw poll, admitting that we still don’t have final wording for the rule.  We had a very similar poll on EN in June with 70% of voters supporting a change.  Vote below:

Go eventing. 

The Friday morning official activities started with the USEA Board of Governors Meeting.  Here are a few quick notes from the meeting:

Financial Report — In my opinion, the most significant news of the meeting is that the USEA’s financial health has continued to improve from the tough economic times in 2008 and 2009 to the point that the USEA is now standing on very firm financial footing to continue to serve our sport.  The news at last year’s annual meeting was that the USEA was slowly but steadily improving.  I’m very happy to report that the news from this year’s convention is that the recovery has continued in a big way.  As the treasurer Mike Winter, said “at this moment, the USEA is in great financial shape.”  The USEA has no debt, we have cash, and we are making more than we are spending.  Mike explained that the USEA doesn’t have significant amounts of excess cash, but the USEA is approaching the time when we might be able to look at larger cash expenditure possibilities.  According to Mike, the scarcest resource in the USEA right now is people.  

Legal — The legal committee report was made by Kaiti Saunders.  From a legal perspective the USEA is in really good shape.  Katie credited CEO Jo Whitehouse and President Sabo for managing any situations that did come to avoid any major legal issues.  Katie is cycling off of the board due to term limits and from having had a couple of conversations with her in the past, I’m very sad she is leaving.

Professional Horseman’s Council Report — The PHC report was made by co-chair Jon Holling.  Jon recapped the PHC meeting from yesterday that we wrote about.  He emphasized the cross-country footing initiative using compaction and moisture tests as something that has a lot of potential moving forward.  Jon said that his feeling from the one-fall-and-out rule is that most of the PHC wanted to see a change in the rule. 

Competitions — Robert Kellerhouse led the competitions discussion.  In good news, 2010 to 2011 saw an increase in starters.  This was a great result considering bad weather and a EHV-1 disease scare out west in 2011.  Mr. Kellerhouse praised the training three-day format and said that those divisions are seeing steady growth.  He also said that the beginner novice and novice three-days have been a quality addition to the competition array to give riders at all levels a three-day goal.  President Sabo reiterated the support of the USEA for these levels as an educational and competitive obligation of the USEA.  He told an anecdote from one of Robert’s events where the beginner novice horses came off of the steeplechase with lower temperatures than when they started.  The question then of course was whether or not to ice the horses.

Membership — Dr. Mark Hart gave the membership report.  The USEA has 74 less members than last year, which is less than a 0.5% decline.  Most members are actively competing but  there are a wide variety of non-competing members as well.  Dr. Hart said that we loose 1500 members per year, which of course means that we are also bringing in about 1500 members.  Over 1/4 USEA members are young riders, which is a huge percentage.  The conclusion of this report was that growing membership is both about maintaining current members and about looking at who we can target for new members.

*Safety Committee — The rules committee report discussed perhaps extending the penalty for dramatically slowing or circling to make the time to the last third of the course.  The falls report said that 2011 falls were dispersed evenly on course.  1/3 of falls were at combinations and 67% of falls were at training level or below.  Rider fall report analysis yields that 77% of the riders would have done something different.  Many of the riders who filled out the fall form observed that they wish they had had an opportunity to get back on immediately after falling so that they would have the opportunity to fix the issue.

USEA TV — Josh Walker gave a presentation about a great possible initiative of the USEA to create an online video platform for eventing training and competition videos, much like the successful USEF and FEI networks.  The goal is to make consistent and positive video promotion of eventing on a USEA run website.  Josh explained that the format would have a feature video as well as of course an ability to find and view past videos.  The website would have full access for current members and then trailer/teaser access for non-members.  Robert Kellerhouse emphasized the advantages of being able to control the coverage and to present eventing in a positive light.  Of course the issue is cost but we absolutely love Josh’s videos and I hope we will see the fruits of this initiative starting in 2012.  

Go eventing.

Behold photographic greatness

The Thursday activities at the USEA convention–or at least the activities I will write about–concluded with the Event Owners’ Task Force meeting.  Before I jump into writing about syndicates, let me just apologize in advance for the many typos I will have this weekend.  I write most of these meeting recap posts as the meetings are going on so that I can make it to as many meetings as possible.  It’s a perfect storm for grammatical and spelling incompetenec.   Also, I am here to serve your reading desires, so if you have any special requests for convention coverage please let us know in the comment section of this post.

The Event Owners’ Task Force meeting was all about syndicating event horses as a way to get more owners involved and give riders better access to funding.  The beauty of syndication is that splitting horses up into less expensive shares allows more owners to become involved with more horses.  The EOTF is a great resource to help facilitate the formation of syndicates and it can provide significant experience and cost advantages to help make syndicates happen.

A few key points that were stressed by the EOTF’s Dr. Mark Hart:

–A well designed syndicate proactively protects both owners and riders.  There have been several high profile ownership messes in the past year that could have been avoided with quality legal contracts.
–Every syndicate is different and it should be shaped accordingly.
–From experience, syndicates work best when the horse is managed by the rider in consultation with the owners.
–A reasonable legal cost for a syndicate through the EOTF is around $2,500 by modifying their existing contracts rather than $15,000 for drafting completely new contracts without the EOTF.

The EOTF asked Boyd to give a speech about his successful experience syndicating both Neville and Otis Barbotiere.  Boyd owned Neville for a long time before syndicating him into 10 shares for $15,000 per piece and $3,000 per year.  When Boyd found Otis he couldn’t gather enough people to fully syndicate the horse so he partially funded the purchase himself.  Boyd then sold off the remaining shares of Otis over time and the horse is now fully syndicated. 

Boyd said that he was comfortable finding a horse, purchasing it, and then syndicating it after the purchase, but this is obviously a high risk strategy.  The advantage is that you can secure the horse and demonstrate commitment while you take the time to find owners.

Boyd strongly suggested not using syndication as a means of financial gain for the rider.  He also suggested that the rider should update the owners consistently with good and bad news.  Boyd also recommended insurance for a syndicated horse because the rider is typically liable for expenses above what the owners agree to pay each year.  Coordinating travel plans/accommodations with owners, having dinner with the owners at events, and making sure that the owners are invited to all of the social functions at events are other important steps that Boyd suggested to keeping owners happy.

One thing I think was very smart that came out of the discussion is that the rider should ideally own at least one share of a syndicated horse.  This shows the other prospective owners that the rider’s interests are aligned with their own.  We were sworn to secrecy in the meeting, but stay tuned for an exciting new initiative of the EOTF coming soon to a computer near you, soon.  Go eventing.

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.