In the past, when US riders have headed over to train permanently in England, they did so with the full understanding that they were more or less unplugging from the US team system.  They were trading attention from the team for the best competitive environment in the world.  Like so many other traditions of the past, having to make that trade-off has died with the new US eventing program.  Instead of taking a weekend off, David hopped on a plane after the Ocala sessions and went to England to coach up British based riders Jules Stiller, Clark Montgomery, and Tiana Coudray.  Tiana was kind enough to write to us about her experience from the training sessions.  As always, Tiana brings a level of understanding to training that belies her age.  Thanks for writing this Tiana and thank you for reading.
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From Tiana:

To start off, my report of our training session is going to be a little different from the California and Ocala recaps. We only had Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, and, with just myself, Clark Montgomery, and Julian Stiller, it was a very small group, so lessons changed over fast. I had three horses and Jules and Clark each rode two so there was very little time to watch anyone else. Most of all, in place of the oppressive 70* weather and cancer-causing UV rays everyone has had to endure so far back home, we’re in the UK. This means that for anything to take place, it requires a full kettle of boiling water, a ready supply of tea or coffee, and 6 more layers of winter clothing. Frequent disscussion about the weather, although not required, is highly recommended. For myself and Jules, this all is a prerequisite and doesn’t require much thought anymore. I wonder for Clark however if the consequences of his new relocation to the UK are still sinking in. Ah, what we do for the love of our sport!

At any rate, I was eager and anxious for this weekend to come as I have never ridden with David before. So while many American riders have grown up under the O’Connors and consider David and Karen a pair of surrogate parents, for me, this was David 1.0.  I like knowing what is expected of me, what a teacher is looking for, and I really like knowing the answers to the test.  When you ride with a new coach, you are starting from scratch.  You start with building an understanding with each other of expectations and respect, and until you are both on the same page you cannot begin to move forward.  With a coach I know really well, I can start a sentence and they could finish it, and visa versa.  You have history and context for where you have come from and where you are headed.  I can do my homework and come to class ready with the answers because I know what is expected.  Seeing Clark with David, this is the relationship they have. For Jules, myself, and many riders across America, that understanding has to start now. In the process, things you know and do well can turn into a game of Twister.  The aids for trot turn into “Right Hand Green, Left Foot Blue, try not to topple over.”  Simple movements become mechanical and artificial as you break apart things that usually happen all as one.  By my third dressage lesson Saturday, I thought David and myself were starting to speak the same language and understand one another.  But then Sunday we were jumping, and that brought on more unknowns.

In my first lesson, David changed my gag rein onto the snaffle, and when Finian bolted with me across the school thinking this was hilarious, David said to me “twist your hips.”  As I attempted a renditions of the twist and shout to no avail at full gallop, David shouted “NO, TWIST YOUR HIPS!!!”  So I tried more vigorously, as around the arena we went.  Strangely this didn’t have the affect he and I were seeking.  Clark was forced to sit for 15 minutes while David and I got ourselves back on the same page, Loughan Glen wearing a knowing look on his face.  As I rode my second and third horses, just like the day prior, things came easier and quicker.  I found I understood more and more what David was asking to see, and that we were able to have a good discussion at the end about all three horses and what the homework is for each one.

I know that you have to lay a solid foundation before you can build a good structure, and this training session, for me, was the beginning stages of that foundation.  Hopefully, by the next time David sees me and the horses, we will have done our homework properly and we will have progressed to David 2.0 or further.  I will say that without exception, all the horses looked wonderful and very exciting for the future. With as good a group of horses as we all have, we can honestly plan to take on not just the UK, but the World.  Lastly, thank you to David, Jules, and everyone else involved for allowing us to have a great two days of lessons at a superb facility.

Reports from Ocala jokingly suggest that we might have a new eventing power couple, but I’ll leave that to your considerable imaginations.  The awesome Lauren Kieffer was kind enough to write to us about her experience at the Ocala U25 Training Sessions last week.  Thanks for writing this Lauren and thank you for reading.
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From Lauren:

We have hit the ground running in January! After running a couple at the Longwood unrecognized horse trials, we headed over to Southern Cross for a schooling jumper show with a couple trailers full of horses and had a great time jumping Scott Keach’s courses.  That weekend we went off to the first event at Rocking Horse and all the horses performed really well.  It’s nice to have a run and get back in the swing of things, I always spend the first few fences of the first cross country run of the year going, “Here spot, spot, spot… where arrrrree you!”

Right after Rocking Horse we jumped into training sessions.  The 25 and Under Training Sessions were fantastic.  It was a week filled with education and huge improvements made in everyone and every horse. It was a great group of people and everyone discovered new talents.  Need a shoe put on?  Give Caitlin a call.  Knot in your horse’s bum?  Jenny has “magic hands.”  Want to learn how to “Dougie?”  Jacob and Nora are pros.  Our survival skills were put to the test when the arctic came to Ocala on Thursday, but with lots of horse blankets and some awkward snuggling, we survived.  There were also marriages, break ups, declarations of love, and the discovery that certain people fall off in dressage lessons (take a guess who in the comments section).

Throughout all of this we absorbed all the information DOC threw at us.  The use of video review was extremely helpful.  We were able to make immediate observations and changes by using the iPad in the ring and also spent an evening reviewing our rides on the TV (luckily Connor had some technical skills or we would still be staring at a blue screen).  At the end of the week everyone left feeling excited, inspired, and ready to get to work.

February will bring another schooling show at Southern Cross, Ocala 2, Rocking Horse 2, and a trip down to Wellington, so until next time, stay warm EN!

I want to extend a huge Eventing Nation thank you to Max for her training session reports.  They have been fabulous to read and extremely informative.  David is off to England for the weekend to teach our US riders who like bad food and driving on the wrong side of the road.  Thanks for writing this Max and thank you for reading!
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Photo via Joanie Morris

From Max:

THAT’S A WRAP!!

All horses and riders are on their way home from an outstanding week at Meredyth South.  Everyone has goals and homework, and the enthusiasm is contagious.

Over the last few days all the riders have had a chance to have a one on one meeting with David to discuss short term and long term goals, their program, strengths, weaknesses and answer all questions.

On Thursday, all the riders preformed a dressage test, either the CCI** or CCI*** (Caitlin did the CCI**** test), for David and their peers.  They would discuss the test and then work on parts that needed work.  They continued to work on straightness and accuracy to get the extra points.  David stressed that horses can’t always go their best on the day, so all points need to be grabbed wherever possible.

Randy Powlak, farrier for the OCET and Team Canada, stopped in to talk about feet, shoes, and shoeing.  He taught everyone how to pull a shoe off correctly.  Being able to do this right is very important when you have a horse with a sprung or twisted shoe so the foot isn’t too “chewed up” when the farrier has to put the shoe back on.  He also showed them how to put the shoe back on – Caitlin Silliman took on the task – she was a bit tentative at first, but got braver and finished swinging like a champ.

Dr. Jill Copenhagen also came and talked to the group.  She started the talk discussing basic anatomy.  She then talked about what to look for when you are jogging your horse; how it strikes the ground, how it moves its hips, etc.  The group had short Q and A session too.

Friday brought CROSS COUNTRY… way more fun than circles.

The beginning of the lesson started with the fundamentals of cross-country.  David explained that there are 3 positions for cross-country riding: galloping position, preparation position, and jumping position.  All the riders practiced these positions on horseback standing still before doing it at the canter.

David also talked about “types of canters” – what type of canter you have is determined by the face of the jump (rolltop, plank, brush), what is after the jump (ditch, turn, water, drop), and the terrain (hill, off camber, flat).

Everyone started with basic warm up of a single fence – and they practiced determining how far out did they need to be before they needed to change their canter – 10 strides, 8 strides, 5 strides?  Making the time isn’t necessarily how fast you go, but how little you slow down.  They jumped the single jump uphill and downhill.

Then they went onto cantering the mounds – watching the change of balance of the horse and how they should change their balance – then the mounds to a corner.

It was off to the bank next – where they spent a great deal of time.  The footwork involved and the exercises that can be created with a bank are invaluable.

They carried the principles on to a coffin and the water complex – I’s dotted and T’s crossed – the horses are ready for a run.

One thing is certain: the horses have earned a day off.  The riders have been inspired to keep learning and asking.  The week has been game changing for these people – they have made great friends with each other, have established a working relationship with David, and they are now ready for much more to come this spring.

Max Coran returns this morning with a recap of yesterday’s jump schools at the Ocala Training Sessions. I’m going to sound like a broken record, but group course setting, lectures by experts, and go cart racing–the US program has completely different vibe this year. Thanks so much for writing this Max and thank you for reading!
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From Max:

Putting practice to the test yesterday – the crew got to put a few learned techniques together and practiced over a jump course.

The riders started the morning setting a course and walking lines. The goal was to get very comfortable with their eye on the ground to determine related distances.

Like Groundhog Day – each group followed the same pattern. They would warm up over a few single fences and then jumped few of the lines. From there they put the entire course together. Each rider jumped the course at least once, some jumped a few times to solidify what they have ben working on. The jumps then got a bit bigger and all had another turn.

David’s main points were:
· Keep the rhythm of the canter

· Don’t turn their nose to the jump until you know where you are

· Keep a contact, but not too much – horses need to be able to use their head and neck to jump the jump

· Keeping your mind calm

The improvements throughout the week have been outstanding and the quality of these horses and riders is very exciting.

Today the riders are putting it all together again, this time in the dressage ring. Riders are choosing from the CCI** or the CCI*** test. David will judge and the riders will also help judge each other. They have been thinking about the geometry of the movements – we’ll see how they implement it.

Today there will also be lectures from Randy Powlak (farrier), Dr. Jill Copenhagen (vet), and potentially an outing to the go-cart track…

More soon…

Max Corcoran has been extremely generous to send us reports from the Ocala training session and beautiful Meredyth South farm.  I can’t thank Max enough and I’ll let her jump right into her report from Tuesday.  Also, thank you for reading!
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Thanks to Joanie Morris/USEF for the photo

From Max:

Circles, circles, and more circles…

We all think a full day of dressage should be boring – but the riders showed so much improvement on Tuesday, it was very encouraging!

A foggy morning burned off to be another stunning day.  Riders started their day with a lecture on dressage movements followed by one on one meeting with David.  Half the riders met Tuesday and the other half will catch up with David today.  David spent a great deal of time in the lecture discussing the geometry of movements and how accuracy can also gain points.

The riders were again divided into two groups of three and one group of four.   The groups change everyday, giving everyone the opportunity to ride with different people.

Each group started with a warm up of walking and introducing very simple lateral work at the walk to help get the horses connected and begin to move their backs.  Each group was made to wok in a drill team format, which proved a bit exciting for one horse. From there they went into trot and did the same simple lateral work, but then added some lengthening and shortening to continue to get the horses off the forehand.

The lateral work continued with some shoulder in which led to the exercise of haunches in – going straight – haunches in – back to going straight, which is a perfect introduction for half pass.  The crew worked more on leg yields and some 10-meter circle; David emphasized the geometry of the circles.

Canter work also consisted of lengthening and shortening.  A lot of time was spent in the counter canter – many people find themselves struggling to find comfort in cantering on the wrong lead.

The lessons ended with work on the centerline – the continuous theme of straightness was reminded.

Joe Pegan of Kentucky Equine Research gave the lunchtime lecture today.  He touched on the topics of basic nutrition and special needs of the sport horses diet.  Joe has been in charge of supplying and advising nutritional needs for the horses at the Olympics and the Word Championships for well over a decade.

Today brings more jumping – the morning will see some course setting and meetings with David.  The lectures tomorrow will be focusing on the woes of the young professional; sponsorship, social media, owner relations, etc.

More soon…

And the ESMA for most creative titles goes to…not me.  Good morning Eventing Nation!  Although some of the training session riders are experiencing David’s coaching for the first time this week, Max Corcoran has seen David’s favorite exercises probably hundreds, if not thousands of times, over the years.  It is thus from a perspective of unprecedented experience that she writes about what the riders went through in their Monday jump lessons.  As always, thank you so much for writing this Max and thank you for reading!
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From Max:

What a day at Meredyth South!

Monday at the Ocala training sessions was a very busy day!  First thing in the morning, everyone met at the jump ring to discuss different theories of jumping followed by course setting.

The first two groups of three rode before lunch and each lesson followed the same type of pattern.  The groups started off doing basic trot rails followed by canter rails – starting with one and finishing with three in a row.  David was emphasizing straightness again – some horses were trying to duck through the corners making people pull to get the right distance instead of keeping the rhythm of the canter.  It is a very basic exercise that many forget.

After the canter rails were conquered – each pair did an exercise consisting ground rail nine feet on the take off and landing side of a vertical.  This was to help the horses form and footwork before, during and after the jump.

The riders went onto jumping an individual oxer.  As the horses continued to warm up, the oxer got wider and a rail was put diagonally across the opening encouraging the horses to find scope and use their shoulders.

Next came a related distance – two simple jumps on a bending line.  Most of the focus was on each stride remaining the same and maintaining a balance throughout the line.  From there, a second jump was added one stride from the jump going out the line – again, the importance of regular steps was critical.

Lunchtime brought stable management lectures from yours truly – we discussed studs, show turnout, nutrition, and how to trot your horse up correctly.

Shortly after that, the last group was up and did the same pattern as the morning groups.

The crew was lucky to have Jo-Ann Wilson come to speak to them Monday afternoon.  Jo-Ann is an amazing massage therapist.  She has extensive knowledge in physiology and biomechanics of horses.  She was partners with the world famous Jack Meagher, who was the founder of sports massage for horses.  She taught them how to watch a horse walk and what to look for in the gait.  She then carried on to discuss the mechanics of the muscle and touched on what were the largest and most important muscle groups.  She then showed the group how to effectively work on those muscles.  Hoku was lucky enough to be the “demo horse” – lucky lady!

Another long day for everyone – there were no official night time plans, which was probably be quite welcome. Today will bring more 80-degree weather (have to throw that in, sorry – I did grow up in New England – I know the pain!).  The horses will be back in the dressage ring working on movements and Joe Pegan from KER is speaking about nutrition.

More soon…

Max Corcoran, a long time friend of EN, is kind enough to bring us reports from the Ocala training sessions, which started yesterday and will run this week.  Max, the veteran groom and stable manager at OCET, hardly needs and introduction on EN and I am incredibly grateful that she will be sharing her insights with us.  Max is an expert at horsemanship and is even assisting David with horsemanship lessons at the training sessions.  Thanks a million Max and thank you for reading.
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From Max:

Greetings from very sunny Ocala! The temps were a very balmy 75 on Sunday with the forecast in the 80‘s for the rest of the week.  Not a bad place to be.  Ms. Mars’s Meredyth South is simply stunning.  She is incredibly generous to host everyone at this great facility.

Day one is done and dusted. The big theme of the day was straightness and making the horse slow down and speed up using your seat as the primary aid.

The group met with David after stable chores for the first lecture of the week.  He discussed the German training scale and fundamental basics of dressage.  Everyone had a notebook and embraced David’s philophy of being students of the sport.

In the Sunday morning riding sessions there were 2 groups of 3 doing figures in the arena making their way through tennis balls on the ground.  Many riders were using their reins to create straightness instead of their legs.  David reiterated that the horses needed to be straight before you can ask them to do anything else.

Lunchtime brought a wrapping demonstration (stable wraps, not Eminem type) by David – all the riders had to test their skills under David’s watchful eye.  More stable management lessons will come throughout the week.

The afternoon session consisted of the last group of 4, again in the arena – David rode Jennie Caras’s horse and worked on getting him to remain connected in transitions within the gait; ie – working trot slowing down to a more collected trot and then back to working trot.  The visual for everyone to see what it should look like and then for Jennie to experience what it should feel like was invaluable.  David also sat on Caitlin Silliman’s mare Hoku.  He worked on allowing her to take the contact out and lengthen her neck.  He used his seat to change her speed creating more freedom in her neck and keeping her straight.

All went off to the Horse and Hound for a welcome dinner – and a shout out to Lauren Kieffer for having a BBQ Saturday night.

Today will bring gymnastics, stable management and temps in the 80’s… more soon!

Max Corcoran

I can’t thank Shannon Lilley enough for brining all of us around Eventing Nation right into the California training sessions.  In this post Shannon recaps the third of four days of David O’Connor’s first training session as US coach.  Thanks again Shannon and thank you for reading.
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Photo via Shannon and Two Point Photography

From Shannon:

I feel like I may need to qualify some of my statements about yesterday’s post.  When I likened Coach O’Connor to Gordon Ramsay I meant in the highest regard.  The juxtaposition comes from the level of excellence Ramsay expects as all good coaches would.  O’Connor expects that same level of excellence and does not put up with laziness, complacency or lack of knowledge.  All of these cause a lack of attention to detail from riders.  If someone wants to be the best they have to have qualities that drive themselves to be there, additionally, they have to have a coach who holds them accountable, which is where Coach comes into play.  The comparison may also have been influenced by the fact that I am a huge Ramsay fan.

Part of what makes a good coach is having conviction.  Believing in what he or she teaches, practicing it and not being afraid to compel other to believe the same.  If I have learned one thing this week so far, it is David O’Connor is a convicted individual and not afraid to show it off.  The old saying is, “you live by the sword; you die by the sword.”  Same goes for coaching styles.  We see it every day in various sports.  Coaches develop their own style and fear not to implement it.  However long the process may take, he or she believes, ultimately, it will win championships.

Coach implores upon the eventing U25 group that you must be a student of the game, no excuse.  No matter the cost, if you sacrifice and put in the time on all aspects of the process, you will get there.  The fact of the matter is, HE is a student of the game.  He has studied the world of eventing inside and out but, more importantly, he has studied other successful coaches who win year in and year out.  What it takes to be the best coach and produce the best players (riders).

Don’t you think if he puts int the study time, we should hold up our end of the bargain as riders?

The lecture Wednesday morning was predominantly a question/answer session with a lot of test riding keys as well as exercises to get there.  Coach is a firm believer that talent is not what gets you on the podium, actually, it is the least important.  Ambition, among other factors, is key – the level of desire one has to make changes, sacrifice, want to learn, hold oneself accountable as well as study the game has everything to do with how far that person will get.  Coach has a true belief in this.

Everyone had dressage lessons Wednesday morning, but this afternoon the eventing 25 crew rode their tests for David.  After the lecture I thought there is so much more to riding a test but, the truth is, the actuality of riding the test is extremely scientific.  Accurate test riding and producing horses that can easily win in the ring goes directly to the discipline for which each rider must strive to be the best.

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Another wonderful aspect of the ‘breath of fresh air’ surrounding the new coach is that on Wednesday night Dayna and Steve Pugh hosted a dinner for everyone and Coach actually came.  Not only did he come but he interacted with everyone there on more of an individual level  at one point in the evening or another.  I was truly impressed as myself, Coach, Dayna and Steve all discussed coaching styles and the potential future of the program, Coach was happy to engage in the conversation and discuss his philosophy.  Getting to know your players is key to the success of a coach but being transparent as a coach is key to getting the players to buy into the program.  That synergy is extremely important for the longevity of any program.

I have enjoyed this week tremendously and cannot wait for today’s sessions.  So far, I have learned an incredible amount about coaching styles, and how people retain, implement and grow.  I have also learned what it takes to be a good student on all levels of the sport, not just riding.   No matter the sport, when a coach changes, that individual needs time to implement his style.  O’Connor said to get the program where he wants it, it will take three years, like any good coach.  I, for one, like our new Coach, I am truly excited about the future, and, according to my sources, so are many others.

Shannon Lilley has generously sent us her report from day two of the California training sessions with David O’Connor.  Shannon’s description of returning to the basics at the training sessions has been echoed by a couple insiders I have spoken with over the past few days.   We have a long way to go, but it’s clear that David’s long term vision for the program involves taking however long is necessary to master the basics before moving to the next stage of development.  This is certainly not going to be a sprint to the top.  A million thanks to Shannon for writing this and thank you for reading.
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Photo from Monday

From Shannon:

Even if we don’t want to admit it, all of us love watching the proverbial raking over the coals of others because we all have been there and truly can relate.  This is why we watch shows like Hell’s Kitchen or liked Simon Cowell on American Idol.  Honesty, in coaching, telling it like it is and then guiding the person to better his or herself is extremely respectable.  A coach who tells you what you want to hear does nothing for either party, creates no growth, and can be potentially dangerous.

Tuesday at the training session I felt like maybe we were witnessing an episode of Hell’s Kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsey who, we all know, leaves no detail unturned.  Coach O’Connor is extremely detail oriented, which I gathered from Monday, but on Tuesday I realized nothing gets by him.  In the lectures yesterday, Coach stressed the necessity of being detailed oriented in this sport for a myriad of reasons.  Today it was evident he practices what he preaches.

We started out the day again with a lecture.  It was about jumping, particularly show jumping.  However, he did test the crew about some terms like the levels of the training scale and rider responsibility components.  Unlike yesterday, the Eventing 25 kids got it all right today!  An exciting moment to say the least.  These two concepts were not just quizzed because they got them wrong yesterday, rather because they were pertinent to riding over fences.  The components of rider responsibility are direction, speed, balance and timing.  Throughout the day, these were crucial to remember and execute.

The first group started around 9:45 with three members in the lesson.  Coach spent a significant amount of time on the warm up, making sure the riders could execute any movement on the flat in any type of position- forward seat, half seat, and full seat.  Once completed to his satisfaction, you were allowed to move on.  If you were not able to execute any of this in the accurate position, the Jekyll in David O’Connor came out.  If the person executed, paid attention to every detail of rider responsibility, and showed that he or she was thinking to the next step, then Coach applauded him or her.  The odds of that happening on the first try were slim to none.

The highlight of the day was in the second group when one rider was having some trouble as the horse was in a frame that could not allow him to go in the right direction maintaining any balance or speed, thus creating a scenario where the horse was completely detached from the hind end.  Coach emphasized the point that once a rider had lost the hind end, he or she has nothing.  O’Connor got on the horse and spent the better part of a half hour to basically retrain a few components as it pertained to direction, which lead to straightness.  The transformation from where the horse started to where it ended up was uncanny.  The horse started out looking strong, making a bid, and losing its shape in the air and by the time O’Connor got off, one might say the horse traveled like a hunter. Additionally, the rider got back on and was able to recreate much of the same work.  The result is incredible but the transition of David’s vocal range and looks are equally incredible and often sweetened with a sarcastic comment to lighten the mood of the crowd.

No matter how one gets from point A to point B, getting there is most important.  Coach O’Connor has his own style as many great coaches do.  The product is really all that matters.  Each and every horse and rider changed their way of going today for the better, which is the first step onto the path to success: leadership.

All of us eventers stuck in the north are filled with pity and heartfelt sorrow from the reports over the past few days of eventers suffering from heat stroke and dehydration in Ocala and Aiken.  I am just glad that some people in our sport are brave enough to take on 80 degree afternoons, good footing, and the stress of having to remember sunscreen.  Longtime friend of EN, my former fellow Area VIII young rider team mate, and 2013 Ocala training session selectee Lauren Kieffer was kind enough to send us a report from Ocala.  For more from Lauren be sure to check out her website.  Thanks for writing this Lauren and thank you for reading.
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From Lauren:

So John asked me to write a blog about the glamorous lifestyle of us eventers in the south. Clearly it’s been a long time since he competed and he has forgotten that manure smells just as bad down here in the sunshine as it does up north in the cold. Actually it probably smells worse since its warm…. but that is the price we pay to be wearing t-shirts in January.

But in all seriousness we are living the life down here at Jacqueline Mars’ beautiful Meredyth South. The farm looks great thanks to Justin Showalter’s hard work over the summer and we are gearing up to kick off the spring season.

After the last events of 2012, all of the horses got their shoes pulled (another perk of the sandy south) and had 4- 6 weeks off. They then spent four weeks walking and trotting and then we started up the flat work and jumping.

The horses are all going great and we will start off the season with some of the young horses at Longwood’s unrecognized HT, hit the schooling jumper show at Southern Cross Equestrian, and then Rocking Horse 1 and Ocala 2.

I will also bring you updates from the 25 and under training sessions here the last week of January.  I will be riding Ms Mars’ lovely Cosima who I rode in the CCI** at Fairhill this fall and was found by Karen O’Connor and Marilyn Little last summer.

I am very excited about this year, we all start the year with big plans and expectations, but all of us in this sport know that we will be lucky if 10% of what we “plan” happens, but no matter what does happen I have an amazing group of horses to ride and the best support team, owners, supporters, and sponsors backing us.

So until next time, stay warm northerners and bring it on 2013!

Snow in Colorado on Sunday is beautiful, but also disrupting travel plans

Three major themes stand out to me from this year’s USEA convention.  First is the fact that eventing in the US enjoys a really strong position right now, looking at the safety of the sport, the quality of our leaders, and the financial health of the USEA.  Second, the future of US high performance eventing has never looked brighter.  David O’Connor has presented some amazing ideas for the future of US high performance.  Just a few days of his leadership have created an inspired and enthusiastic tone in the conversations of fans and riders alike.  Third, the generosity of our sport’s big financial supporters.  Ms. Mars has led a group of incredibly generous people who have opened their pocketbooks for the future of our sport this weekend.

The USEA Board of Governors meeting was the last item on the schedule for the 2012 USEA Convention, as is tradition.  I arrived to the meeting a few moments late, as the Board was working through a few preliminary housekeeping notes.  Below are my notes, with the usual apologies for typos.

The first significant item on the agenda was a debate about how to handle all of the old archived USEA (and USCTA) magazines.  Those archives have been digitized and they are ready to be put up on the USEA website immediately.  The USEA Board debated whether to allow the archives to be accessible for free to any visitors forever or to potentially restrict access to only members at some point as a way to add value to people holding membership.  The Board decided to make the archives available for free until the August USEA Board meeting, where traffic metrics will be used to analyze if a membership wall should be created.

Malcolm Hook then briefly mentions the various rule changes that have been discussed throughout the convention at the request of the Board of Governors.  He said that Derek Di Grazia has spent countless hours constructing a spreadsheet explaining the new FEI qualification rules.  That spreadsheet is on its way to higher USEF committees for approval and will hopefully be distributed publicly soon.  As I mentioned yesterday, the FEI qualification rules are still being worked on by the FEI and the USEF Technical Committee has requested extensions, so the entire qualification situation is still a moving target.  He said the one fall rule is going ahead with the approved wording to the USEF Safety Committee for comment and if it passes there is will go on to the USEF Board.  Malcolm said that the Safety Committee may address it in a call or at the USEF annual meeting in January.

USEF President (for just a few more days) David O’Connor then addressed the board.  David reported that the USEF website is introducing a new feature that will give each member their own page that can be customized by each member.  David mentioned the FEI unrecognized events debacle and reiterated that the FEI was targeting independent show jumping competitions and not unrecognized events as we know them in eventing.  David praised incoming USEF President Christine Talbert, who comes from the jumper world. David concluded by thanking the USEA for their support during his presidency. President Sabo led a round of applause for David.

A report from the USEA Endowment Trust, read by Treasurer Jerome Broussard, praised the Beacon Charm and Essex Grants, as well as the Rebecca Broussard Developing Rider Grant. The Trust enjoys strong and growing financial strength. Jerome’s voice broke as he read a brief tribute to former Trustee Dick Thompson, who passed away earlier this year.

Young Rider co-chair Tim Murray described a few developments for Young Riders over the convention, including a new development program for the lower levels being piloted in Area II by Lynn Symansky and Skyeler Voss.  He also mentioned an effort to try and coordinate YR qualification for all areas moving forward.  Tim said that he thinks eventers tend to be a little hardier than other disciplines and that at times we might accept inferior stabling and accommodations at Young Riders.  He said we are going to try to be a little more vocal this year at Young Riders.

The amazing Jennifer Hardwick, the USEA’s convention organizer, gave a report on the convention.  369 people attended the 2012 convention compared to 348 the last time the convention was in Colorado (2007).   Jennifer also thanks the Broadmoor for being lovely hosts and working closely with her.

The 2013 convention is being held in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Queen City and my birthplace.  Because I know you wanted to know that.  The Hyatt in Cincinnati charges $139 per night according to Jennifer.  The dates are December 3rd to the 8th, 2013.  Las Vegas, Reno, Chesapeake (MD), and Indianapolis are some possible locations that were mentioned for 2014.   Phyllis Dawson said that she thinks we should make the conventions as affordable as possible to raise attendance by membership.   Jennifer raised the potential of having the convention in one place for two years in a row to increase negotiating power on room rates with the venues.  President Sabo mentioned the USEF model of keeping the annual meeting close to headquarters to save money, particularly on staff travel cost.  Several members of the Board voiced support to move the meeting around at least every other year because the host area gets a boost of enthusiasm and fundraising.

President Sabo then raised the issue of moving the Hall of Fame inductions from a four year cycle to three years.  The argument for keeping a four year cycle is that Hall of Fame dinners are very expensive for members and the USEA, particularly because of the trophy and former inductee display transportation costs.  Sarah Broussard Kelly raised the very sensible idea of moving the Hall of Fame inductions back to three years but keeping those meetings close to home to save on costs.  President Sabo said that would fit nicely with the idea of doing convention in Maryland for both 2014 and 2015, so that the 2015 indiction could be close to the USEA’s Virginia home.  The decision was made to not vote on the 2014 location until more information was gathered.

Sarah made a motion to move the Hall of Fame inductions to a three year cycle and keep those years in a place close to the USEA headquarters to keep costs down.  The motion was passed by the Board unanimously, meaning that the next HOF inductions will be in 2015.

Dr. Mark Hart raised the complicated issue of compensating Board members for some travel expenses to the convention as a way to make sure that the Board can accomodate all potential members.  Dr. Hart said that he thinks doing this with USEA money would create a bad perception amongst much of the USEA’s membership that they are paying for people to sit in a meeting.  But on the other hand we don’t want cost to be prohibitive to sit on the Board.  He proposed the compromise of making a confidential voluntary donation fund that is controlled by the CEO, President, and VP of Finance to help Board members who need travel support.  New Board member Rick Wallace raised a point that this is a very slippery slope.  Jon Holling said that he has a huge problem with the proposal because it is a slippery slope, joking that his wife Jen would argue that he can’t afford to be at the meeting.  He proposed compensating the Board some for the August meeting, which only the Board attends, rather than creating a secret fund.  I was interested to see that most of the professional riders in attendance, probably the Board members with the least financial flexibility as a group, were opposed to the idea.  As an editorial note, I fell that I would be fine with this as long as people of the quality of Dr. Hart, Presiden Sabo, Jo Whitehouse, and Mike Winter are in charge of the fund, but unfortunately these people will not be leading our sport forever.  I will say that I have no doubt that the program would be implemented with the best interestes of the USEA at heart, I’m just worried about setting this type of a precedent   President Sabo said that this will be discussed further and addressed at future Board meetings.

I want to extend a huge thanks to the USEA for hosting the convention, including President Sabo, CEO Jo Whitehouse, Leslie Mintz, Josh Walker, Leslie Threlheld, Frankie Thieriot, and Jennifer Hardwick, the amazing convention organizer.  Our area IX hosts have been amazing as well and I can’t thank them enough.  The Broadmoor has been a beautiful, if slightly expensive, setting.  Thank you to everyone back at the EN headquarters including the chinchillas for keeping everything running smoothly this week.  Thank you to our sponsors, whose support made this trip and our coverage possible.  Last, but most importantly, thank you very much to you our readers for joining us for our coverage and commentary.  Word is that a few eventers are headed to the mountains for a few days of skiing and there’s a rumor that I’m one of them.  Stay tuned for full coverage as we turn EN into Ski Nation.

Now, more than ever, go eventing.

The USEA Hall of Fame Dinner featured unbelievably moving speeches by presenters and inductees alike.  Amy Tryon’s introduction speech by her long time team mate David O’Connor and then her induction speech by her husband Greg had the entire room in tears.  Tonight’s inductees were Amy Tryon, Roger Haller, The Grey Goose, Lana Wright, and Giltedge.  I believe the USEA will post videos of the speeches, so I will not try to recap them any more than to say that MC Jimmy Wofford led the night with his typical oratory brilliance.

The big breaking news of the evening came after Giltedge’s induction speech when USEF sport horse program director Jim Wolf walked to the podium and announced that longtime major eventing supporter Ms. Jacqueline Mars has started the Giltedge Challenge, which pledges $500,000 to support US eventing programs as long as the donation can be matched by the eventing community by June 1st of next year.  Jim said that thanks to support from top eventing supporters including the Wildasins and Broussards, we are already well on our way to meeting the match.  Jim then asked for help from the rest of the community to match the initiative.

Ms. Mars has owned some of our country’s top horses for many years as well as generously supported eventing initiatives including the young event horse program.  Tonight David O’Connor called Ms. Mars the greatest supporter our sport has ever had and I am very much inclined to agree with him.  David’s new US high performance program is going to take a lot of funding to accomplish, and I want to thank Ms. Mars and the other generous supporters for helping our program tonight.  Go eventing.

Scheduling the rule change open forum at the end of Saturday afternoon at the USEA convention is the USEA’s best effort at driving me past the point of madness.  Only Malcolm Hook’s dulcet tones stand between us and the freedom of the Hall of Fame Gala.  Below are my notes from the meeting with an editorial note that you the reader are hereby absolved of any responsibility to read further in this post.  Skip below for video of Mary King’s speech and a recap of the London 2012 team review.

[List of Proposed Rule Changes]

–A new national rule clarification will stipulate that the Ground Jury “may direct” that someone who has a bad fall unrelated to an on-course fence (such as in warmup or galloping between fences) must be examined before they are allowed to continue.

–Another rule change proposal stipulates that  the 3rd stop on course will now mean elimination, whether at one or multiple fences for Prelimary, Intermediate, and Advanced.  The lower levels will still get 4 total on course or 3 at one fence.

–One fall and out rule.  I have written a great deal about this over the past few days and nothing new was presented in today’s meeting.  Malcolm described the current rule change proposal as reading the first fall of competitor where they land on feet with no apparent injury meaning elimination 65 penalties for beginner novice and novice.  He said that he thinks this version will have the best chance to sell to the USEF Safety Committee.  Malcolm reiterated the political factor that there is no way this rule change will pass the USEF Board unless it passes the USEF Safety Committee.  As we already know, Malcolm has been asked by both the USEF Technical Committee and the USEA Board to withdraw the rule change proposal before it gets to the USEF Board if it is voted down by the USEF Safety Committee.  Once again, Malcolm defended a rule that the Technical Committee which he chairs passed but that he personally opposes.  He did wryly point out that rule change comment form is still open for submissions.

–Malcolm then discussed a few small USEF rule changes for all disciplines.

–FEI qualification rules.  If you are confused about the FEI qualification rules, just understand that the USEF’s best of the best rule experts are as well.  Shealagh Costello said that the USEF Technical Committee has asked for clarifications and extensions from the FEI and that the FEI is still changing the rules as of Friday night.  She begged the audience to stay patient as the qualification rules are clarified and studied.  The new FEI rules have also led to some new national rule changes that are still in progress.  Malcolm did say that very little has changed for national divisions as a result of the new FEI rules.  We will continue to bring you updates and better explanations on the qualification rules as we get them.  I have written a great deal about the FEI qualification rules from the convention, but please note that the qualification rules are still a work in progress.

Clear as mud?

There are rumors of a huge announcement at tonight’s USEA Hall of Fame Gala and Induction Ceremony.  My guess (and it’s just a guess) is that the announcement will involve a big donation to support US eventing high performance.  Stay tuned for more.  Go eventing.

Mary King obviously needs no introduction to EN readers.  The only commentary I will add to the above videos is that her enthusiasm should be a model for all riders.  I’m a huge believer about the power of enthusiasm to inspire people and Mary absolutely exudes enthusiasm and positive energy.  If you are an up and coming rider and want to know how to find and keep top owners, watch Mary’s speech.  We have spent a lot of time over the past few days asking how we can find more owners for our sport and I think we could go a long way by learning from how Mary presents herself and her program.  Go Mary.

Jim Wolf, who expertly directs the USEF’s sport horse programs, opened the US Olympic Eventing Team review session by introducing the team members in attendance–former coach Mark Phillips, Karen O’Connor, Will Coleman, Phillip Dutton, and stable manager Dougie Hanum. Jim Wolf started by saying that we all know the Games didn’t go as planned for the US Team, but that the Olympics were a tremendous success nonetheless. He described the achievement of hosting the equestrian events at Greenwich Park, the great effort by the London community, the transportation success, and the positive publicity that our sport received as a result of the equestrian events going so flawlessly. Jim said the XC day was the most spectated event at the Games. He said that he believes the success of equestrianism at the Games has secured our sport’s spot in the Olympics for the future.

Mark Phillips then addressed the preparation for the Games. He said that the focus leading up to the Games was to give the riders the opportunity to prepare their horses as they best saw fit. He said the mandatory outing at Barbury featured fantastic footing. He praised Eddie Stibbe’s training facility used by the team before the Games. He said that Phillip proclaimed the trip one of the best organized the team has ever had.

Mark said that, despite quality preparation, the Games just didn’t go as planned. “We just had one of those events where nothing quite went right over all three days…and we came away disappointed.” Mark said the team hoped for a bronze or better but it just didn’t come through. In an emotional moment at the end of his short speech, Mark thanked the team that hired and supported him over the years. He finished by saying “thank you everyone” and the crowd rose in a standing ovation.

Jim Wolf then opened the floor to questions.

Marilyn Payne asked Phillip and Karen to speak to what riding the Greenwich cross-country course was like compared to Hong Kong. Phillip responded by saying the Olympics courses have been geared down to accomodate all nations. Phillip said the courses have become not all that fun to ride and not that great for the horses. He said that Sue Benson did a good job with what she had to work with. Phillip then said that his result was disappointing and took full responsibility by saying “it all comes back to me.” He thanked all of the supporters and fans and staff who made the event possible. “It’s a big event and there’s no room for error.” Phillip is the best in the business because he fully owns mistakes he makes, as few and far between as they are.

Karen said that she thinks Olympic courses of the future will be much like Greenwich because land is becoming more and more a premium at the Games. She said that if she had one regret it would be not getting to stay in the Olympic village (the US equestrians stayed closer to the venue). Karen also said she regretted not getting to attend the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Will Coleman was then asked what his first Olympic experience was like. Will said that the Olympic experience itself was incredible. He thanked his support staff, Twizzel’s owner Jim Wildasin, and his fellow team mates. Regarding the moment Twizzel refused to go down that bank, Wills said it will “haunt me for life.” He said that fortunately the journey isn’t over for him and the experience has put a thorn in his side to do much better for the future. Like Phillip, Will completely owned the mistake and I wouldn’t have expected less from such a quality competitor.

The meeting concluded with a few fun stories, including how Dougie scared the London security by climbing onto the rider house roof with a long flag pole that looked like a rifle. Will told the hilarious story of how he and Mark were looking for a party, scaled what they thought was the 5 foot wall surrounding the party because the gate was locked, jumped in, and found themselves stuck in a poor Londoner’s yard since the landing side was a few feet lower than the takeoff, making the wall out about 9 feet. The gate out was locked, and the gentleman had to come down to let them out.

The session ended with a standing ovation for the entire team. Today’s meeting put an at times emotional and at all times congenial bow on the Mark Phillips era. Go eventing.

Front row at Mary’s speech, we’ll be posting the full speech shortly

The always gracious USEA President Brian Sabo opened the 2012 Membership Meeting with thanks to the awesome USEA staff members who keep our country’s eventing organization thriving each and every day.  President Sabo also thanked the USEA’s Board of Governors, which is a completely volunteer team–President Sabo explained that they pay all of their own expenses associated with their service including convention registration and travel to the convention.  President Sabo also recognized the expense of this year’s convention for the membership and said that next year’s convention (Cincinnati, Ohio) will be considerable cheaper and that the USEA is working on ways to make future conventions more and more affordable.

USEA Treasurer Mike Winter then addressed the membership meeting with the 2012 financial report.  I had the pleasure of meeting Mike for the first time last night.  He was the my Area VIII coordinator during my Young Rider days and I took the meeting as an opportunity to apologize for my two terrible show jumping rounds at two straight Young Riders.  Mike is terrific at simplifying the financial numbers for the membership to understand.  In simple terms, the USEA is in incredible financial shape right now, perhaps the best financial shape ever.  The USEA ran a total budget surplus of $228,000 in 2012, well ahead of projections.  Mike said that this excellent performance is the result of strong membership numbers, very strong start numbers, horse registration numbers exceeding expectations, and an increased and unexpected private support of the young horse program (see below).

Our brilliant CEO Jo Whitehouse gave the CEO report with first and for most thanks to her awesome staff.  She also thanks Ms. Mars for her generous support of the Young Event Horse program moving forward.

Nominees for the 2013 USEA Board were then put forth to the membership and approved unanimously.  The new Board then chose its new officers in a brief private session (as usual) just outside of the meeting hall.

Following the private meeting, Diane Pitts of Dallas, Texas was named the USEA President-Elect for 2014.  President Sabo will serve one more year as Diane becomes acclimated to the responsibilities of president.  Mike Winter will remain as treasurer.  As for the other executive Board members, Cathy Jones-Forsberg is the new Secretary, Jon Holling remains the VP of Active Athletes, Sarah Broussard Kelly replaces outgoing Board member Carol Kozlowski as VP of Safety, Marjorie Malloy is the VP of Competitions, Lou Leslie is the VP of Area Affairs, Dr. Mark Hart remains VP of Membership and Program Development, and Phyllis Dawson is the VP of education.  On behalf of all of Eventing Nation I want to welcome the new Board members and thank them in advance for their service.

President Sabo closed the meeting with thanks to Mary King, all of the members who attended the convention and his wife Lisa.  We will post Mary King’s convention speech shortly.

Last, but not least, a big theme of the meeting from President Sabo has been the promotion of the USEA’s new useventing.tv program with their awesome videos from horse trials throughout the year and the convention. Here is Friday’s video:

Go eventing.

US high performance riders visited the USOC training center here in Colrado Springs this morning

USEA Open Forum:

USEA President Brian Sabo started the open forum with a review of many of the topics that have been discussed at this year’s convention and written about here on EN.  As always, please forgive typos.

President Sabo started by mentioning something that thankfully has not needed a ton of attention at this convention–safety.  The leadership of former President Baumgardner and President Sabo has led our sport out of the very dark times of several years ago and President Sabo was able to say that eventing in the United States today can be considered a safe sport.

President Sabo addressed rumors from the convention that there could be a redistricting of our areas.  President Sabo said that there is no desire to do this over the wishes of the areas and this has nothing to do with drawing in more revenue for the USEA.  He said that if it does go through and that it will take a while for them to go through, that the desire is just to level the playing field for different areas.  He said the current area system was drawn up 40 years ago and the demographics and competitions in those areas have changed over the years.

President Sabo addressed the age of leadership in our sport.  He said that if you don’t want it to be an “old boy’s club,” then get involved however possible, especially as a volunteer.  “The volunteer issue nationwide is going to emerge as the biggest problem we have.”  President Sabo said that volunteers are the most critical part of our sport and asked that younger people get involved as much as possible.  He pointed out that the inductees to the USEA Hall of Fame have all spent time volunteering and giving back to our sport.

President Sabo then opened the floor to the audience for questions.

An attendee from Area IX explained that if you want to be a member of the local combined training club in their area, you are required to volunteer for 4 hours — this does a great job of getting the kids engaged.  The forum continued to discuss the importance of volunteers, not just to make events happen but to raise the quality of riding in our sport.  John Nunn said that when he is walking a course while horses are on course he always tries to thank each volunteer and he is always shocked to hear back “thank you, that is the first time I have heard this today.”  President Sabo chimed in and said that organizers are another group that deserve but often don’t get thanks.  John Nunn said that as a sponsor he pays close attention to which events lead to the most thank you notes for prizes.  Lisa Sabo said that volunteerism and generosity separates eventing from other sports–our athletes love to give back.

Robert Kellerhouse said that he believes different sports have different cultures that draw different types of people and he feels very fortunate that the culture of eventing draws the people that it does.

President Sabo said that in terms of incoming memberships, right now we are weakest in the younger demographics.  He said we need to look at other horse sports such as hunter/jumpers as good models of how to develop younger riders.  We are strong in the adult amateur demographic, but we need to focus on the kids.  One audience member said that the USEA needs to do a better job of connecting with the local eventing associations.

I started writing for Eventing Nation three years ago during a very tough time for our sport.  The fact that the USEA Convention Open Forum was dominated by a congenial discussion of volunteerism, thank-you’s, and eventing culture puts a huge smile on my face.  We always have things to improve about eventing, but a clear theme of this convention is that the sun is shining above our sport right now.

“It Takes A Sport” Round Table Discussion:

Olympian and longtime friend of Eventing Nation Peter Gray joined David O’Connor and President Sabo at the front of the room for the round table discussion.

Peter started the discussion by saying that he is a big believer that the culture of a country impacts the culture and therefore performance of an eventing program.  Peter said that one of the things David did really well with the Canadians is starting with a younger group of athletes who were aggressive and ready for coaching.  He said that David changed the mentality of Canadian eventing from just going to have fun to going to win.

Peter believes that the natural cultural inclination of the United States is more serious and more ambitious than Canada, but he believes the US will still have a challenge taking the competitive step up to compete with the very best nations in the world.

Peter said that he is so impressed by the comprehensive program that David has put forth, stating that David has clearly left no stone unturned from the grassroots to the very top.  Peter observed that having a great business and a great family life is important, but he thinks riders will have to become a little bit selfish to thrive as top world riders under David’s program.

David then addressed the audience and said that clearly not everyone has the time, the drive, or the opportunity to be a top rider in the world, but he believes that it is important for a program to give really high quality educational opportunities to every level of the sport.  David says that the quality of the education shouldn’t be different for various dedication levels, the difference should just be the aggressiveness of the participation by the riders.   He said that the top athletes at every sport are a little “manic” (think crazy).  The very best is separated from the best by personality.

Our new coach stressed the importance of breeding and training horses in the US rather than relying on buying horses overseas.  He said that inevitably we are going to be out bought and over spent.  David says that we have an opportunity to build an entire industry of people who specifically dedicate themselves to developing horses from 3 years old to 7 years old, when the horses can be passed along to the “manic” people.

David said that there is no doubt that becoming a top professional rider comes at a price.  The question is whether or not the rider wants to pay that price.  He said that he never anticipated making a living until after he stopped competing, he just had to make enough money to keep surviving as a rider.  He said a big part of his decision to retire in 2004, relatively early for a rider, was made because he felt it was time to go make a living and have more of a life.  David says that he doesn’t believe the athletes can have it all while competing, but they can have that spot on the podium and that is one of the most important things that they will ever have.

Peter then introduced an interview from Chris Stafford with Michael Jung where Micahel Jung responded to a few questions related to being a top professional.  Michael said that his father was a major role model in his life.  Michael Jung said that he prefers the thoroughbred horse because they have more power and they are very good learners.  Michael said that he concentrates on his own training rather than giving lessons or running a sales business.  He said that all of his horses are owned by owners or sponsors.  He says he has around 25 horses owned by sponsors–this drew gasps from the USEA audience.  Michael thanked his team that helps support him and said that his favorite part of riding is the training and development of young horses.  So basically Michael Jung spends his entire day riding a stable of 25 amazing horses without having to worry about lessons or selling horses–no wonder he won two gold medals at the London Olympics.

David then stood up and said that he knows Michael, and that Michael has done a great job of setting up a family support system.  His program is family based and completely dedicated to getting him at the top.  Michael is clearly one of those “manic” people that has the personality to win at the highest level.  David said “there is no question that Michael has set the standard.”  We need to get better and set a new standard to compete with Michael and beat him, and David made it clear that he thinks Michael is beatable.  David also explained that the Germans took a very structured approach to breeding their horses, going to 4-5 of their top breeders and requesting specific lines of horses.  It has been abundantly clear all weekend that David has an incredibly high amount of respect for the German program and that he is completely driven to find a way to beat the Germans.

A member of the audience raised the issue that being like Michael Jung and riding 25 horses without having to teach takes an incredible amount of funding.  I definitely agree with the point that if we want the US to win internationally somehow we are going to have to find a way to help our top riders be able to focus almost exclusively on riding.

President Sabo offered the balanced perspective that eventing is a sport with a huge number of constituents who have no ambition to ride advanced.  He said that this discussion is about the complete US eventing program and community.  As an editorial note, I think that having a successful US high performance program is crucial to the long term health of eventing.  I decided to dedicate myself to riding after watching David win gold in Sydney.  Spend time at Rolex watching how the children look at their heroes galloping around the course.  But, I also agree with Brian that high performance issues only personally touch a small percentage of US eventers and we always need to think of success for eventing as about having great programs from the top to the bottom levels.  President Sabo said that the USEA has performed studies and seen that it takes just two cross-country rides to get someone hooked on eventing.

The conversation turned to whether or not we can encourage colleges to back equestrian programs more to develop our athletes at the college age.  David said the USEF has been working for a while on a program to get equestrianism made a Division III NCAA sport.  We just need a few more colleges to sign up to make that happen.  David said that equestrianism in the US in $100+ billion industry, spread out between racing, sport horses, and recreation.  He highlighted that there are many, many careers in horses beyond riding.

John Nunn said that eventing needs to treat itself like a retailer in the sense that we need to be agressive about reaching out and selling ourselves to new potential customers.  This drew applause from the entire room.  Sally O’Connor stood up and said that the US has a great number of horses and we should take advantage of the opportunity to recruit those riders and horses.

Next up: The USEA annual meeting lunch with keynote speaker Mary King.  Go eventing.

The Broadmoor pond has started to freeze

The Equestrian Medical Safety Association hosted a talk from EN sponsors Point Two on Saturday morning at the USEA convention.  I arrived to the meeting a few minutes late, so I missed the full introduction by EMSA, but they said they were a volunteer and donation driven non-profit focused on equestrian safety.  They hosted both Point Two and Hit Air to present their air vests to the audience.  Representatives from Kan Taq and Charles Owens were on scene and regularly jumped into the discussion.  Below are my notes from the meeting…

Lee Middleton from EN sponsors Point Two started by describing the shortfalls of the current level based rating system for static vests.  The current Level 1 through Level 3 system is tested essentially by dropping an anvil on the foam protectors and measuring the energy that goes through the foam–this is a measure of sharp energy reduction, nothing more.  Lee said that this testing isn’t an ideal format.  He said that Point Two tested the leading body protectors on the market and said that most body protectors in the US don’t reach the Level 1 (20 Joules for the narrow bar test) impact standard, whereas Level 3 (45.0 Joules) is required in England.  Lee then said that putting an airbag in combination with a top body protector leads to a dramatically higher level of protection according to these tests, although, again, the tests are not ideal.

Lee then showed several fall videos to demonstrate why fast deployment of an air vest is important.  They are the videos most of us have all probably seen already and I don’t think anyone disagrees that if you want an air jacket to deploy you want it to deploy as quickly as possible.

Lee made a clear point — “these are not going to completely stop people from having injuries, what we are saying is ‘is there a window where an airbag can save someone’s life?’“

TRL impact testing — Lee had the TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) try to recreate a test where there would be potentially fatal impact to the chest.  The test video showed a dummy being dropped on a block on its chest.  The Point Two air jacket reduced levels of chest compression seen in severe chest impact by more than 55% of those seen in an unprotected fall.  In an equivalent impact, a Level 3 body protector shows only a 9% improvement on chest compression measures compared to no protective clothing.  A rider wearing a Point Two  could sustain four times more severe impact than a rider with no chest protection with approximately the same predicted injury outcome.

One interesting question raised by an audience member is the question of testing under different temperatures.  Lee said that the above TRL test has not been performed under different temperatures.  The audience member then expressed the concern that different temperatures effect the pressure of a gas and at lower temperatures there could be dramatically less pressure.  Lee explained that since there is excess liquid CO2 in the canister the pressure is held constant up to the point where is slips out the release valve.

Another member of the audience made a great point that the advertising for vests (all vests) typically show a rotational fall with horse on top of rider, but none of the testing has come close to matching this advertising.

Lee said that he is working on introducing the air jackets to the horse racing industry and he said jockeys have been very skeptical about the vests so far, but he said no more skeptical than eventers were in the beginning.  Lee said that more and better testing needs to be done but in every test they have performed the Point Two increases protection.

Tom from Hit Air then stood up and said that the biggest reason people wear air vests is to protect from impact.  He gave a quick demonstration of the vest deploying, saying it takes about 65lbs of pressure to activate the lanyard.   Tom had Lee inflate his Hit Air and showed how the vest protected his neck and lower back.

Tom’s presentation lasted just a few minutes and the room then moved on to a discussion about how important it is to use both a static body protector and an air vest.  Much more from the USEA convention throughout the day.  Go eventing.

Welcome to the weekend Eventing Nation! The 2012 USEA Convention is charging ahead at full speed in Colorado Springs. Friday afternoon featured a smorgasbord of meetings. I tried to make it to as many as possible and my notes are below. Enjoy!

USEA Awards Lunch:

The USEA Awards Lunch featured too many great awards for our sport’s awesome competitors, volunteers, owners, course builders, and other members of our community to list them all here. I will just make a couple of quick notes that Tamra Smith won the $15,000 Rebecca Broussard Travel Grant and Jolie Wentworth won the $30,000 Rebecca Broussard International Developing Rider Grant. At the end of the awards ceremony, USEA President Brian Sabo announced that a new Young Event Horse Grant has been created. The Holekamp/Turner Le Lion d’Angers Young Event Horse Grant will offer $17,500 to the top YEH if they are US-bred or $8,000 if the top YEH is foreign-bred for both the east and west coasts. The grant will be used as travel money to compete at the FEI World Championships for Young Horses at Le Lion d’Angers in France. Lastly, President Sabo announced that the prize money for the 2013 AECs will be $40,000.

PRO Annual Meeting:

PRO director Samantha Lendl opened the meeting with a quick introduction and then turned the floor over to PRO president Phillip Dutton. Phillip started by praising the PRO participants on a great year. He said that PRO has had success over the past year helping to organize particular events, such as Plantation. Phillip also thanked all of the owners and said that PRO has been doing a good job connecting riders and owners. Phillip said that the PRO Derbycross in Wellington has not gotten as much traction as hoped.

Samantha mentioned that PRO has merged with the Eventing Radio Show. Samantha Lendl said that the amazing Samantha Clark and Jess Montgomery move forward as co-hosts. Joe Meyer and Nate Chambers will also be helping as co-hosts–heaven help us all.

Then Buck Davidson and Michael Pollard stood up to talk about new event ideas. Buck spoke about Chester Weber having the goal of creating an Aachen-like event in Ocala with multiple disciplines and big money. This is a goal for the more distant future and Buck mentioned getting it going in 2014.

Michael Pollard said that PRO has been very successful about building the spectator experience at certain events, again referencing Plantation in particular. He explained that a group of riders got together at Galway and discussed the idea of wanting to create a US event supported by PRO that would do the absolute maximum to make a great spectator experience. Michael said his vision is that making a good spectator experience is a great way and perhaps the only way to make eventing sustainable and viable for events and competitors, and to grow the sport moving forward. Michael discussed using the May Chattahoochee Hills event as an exact model that PRO wants to use as an example for an event that can really attract spectators. A few things that Michael envisions for the event include catering to individual key demographic groups (such as having a family section), having a jumbotron to improve the spectator experience, put dressage at a time when no one will be there to see it (Michael was half joking and this drew a lot of laughs from the audience), show jumping on a Friday night under the lights, and running cross-country in reverse order of standing. The trial case would be the May 17th to 19th Chattahoochee Hills CIC3*. Michael said “in order to have an event become sustainable and successful moving forward you need to get eyes [spectators] there.” He said that we have a sport that people want to come and watch, but we need to make this sport provide a safe and fun weekend experience outdoors to get real numbers of spectators. Michael said “I really think if we can create one model event that shows we can attract spectators and put on a viable event then we can take that model to other events.” Phillip explained that the original idea was for PRO to run its own event, but that having the Chattahoochee Hills infrastructure, venue, and event date make it a perfect fit. Frankly, I completely agree with Michael’s vision that we need to grow the spectators of eventing and I’m a big believer that we have such an amazingly awesome sport that many of the people we get out to watch an event just once will become lifelong fans. I am really excited to see what can be created with this event.

One big theme in the PRO meeting was improving the ownership experience. Mark Hart, leader of the Event Owners Task Force, spoke about the mutual goals of PRO and the EOTF in bettering the ownership experience. Samantha spoke about the idea of having owner-rider dinners, getting events to comp owner tickets, and looking for future opportunities to make owners bigger parts of events.

Marcia Kulak spoke about the PRO Junior Training Scholarship that she helped organize a few years ago. She thanks the riders for their support of this scholarship and stressed that PRO needs to keep putting a priority on bringing in younger members.

Samantha Lendl opened the topic of improving communication with riders. Samantha said that communications among PRO riders, between PRO and the riders, and between riders and sponsors needs to improve. She spoke about the power in getting PRO riders to work together to communicate about PRO and PRO sponsors on social media and in general.

Allison Springer, Samantha, and Buck then presented a few of the membership benefits that PRO provides. One of the highlighted benefits is the PRO group accident and disability health insurance plan. She said that all members of PRO under the professional membership level are covered under the plan, including professional riders, professional grooms, and other equestrian professionals. She said there is a $5,000 deductible and the coverage is for any accident related to equine activities and that riders can claim both accident and disability insurance or one or the other. A buy-up option is also available to increase coverage.

Next up, Samantha introduced Ron Nash to give a lecture on how to use social media more powerfully. After a quick game of simon says, he got down to business and said that social media is like one person setting a certain cadence by clapping their hands and other people catching on. Ron asked what we would say if we had a 30 second commercial to the world about our riding program. His point was that he wants riders to think very clearly about their goals and what they want to project to the world. Ron said that most individuals are not effectively incorporating social media into their programs–it’s not simply enough to have a bio online somewhere, we need to leverage social media in our personal and business lives. He pointed to the rise of social media in the Olympics–the Olympics have nearly a billion Facebook fans–as an example of how social media can be popular with our potential fans. According to Ron, Nate Chambers looks like a Backstreet Boy. I’m just a reporter passing along what was said folks. It’s my job. Ron is a LinkedIn expert and said that it is often a decent business tool because people go there for business. He also said that he is a fan of simplifying social media and relying on one platform (presumably LinkedIn) rather than using multiple platforms. Ron’s an expert but I’ll just add an editorial that Facebook is likely the platform I would recommend to riders wanting one and only one platform to use because I think Facebook is the only social platform that a significant percentage of the people in our world is using.

The Care and Coaching of Future Olympians: The Pursuit of Excellence —

Once again David O’Connor and his vision for the future of US eventing high performance took center stage at the USEA Convention. The Friday morning open meeting was a seminar where David presented to the public many of the ideas he has been expressing to the riders in the high performance seminars over the past two days. David started by saying that his goal over the past two days has been to create a platform for building the program moving forward. Let me just reiterate once again that one point I haven’t mentioned enough is that David’s plans for the US program still need to be approved by the USEF Eventing High Performance Committee, which controls funding for the programs. I expect the Committee to approve almost all of David’s plans…these ideas are why they hired him, but I will also say that David is proposing some pretty aggressive (and expensive) travel plans for 2013. David joked in the meeting that “everything I am about to show you hasn’t been approved yet…I think some of the details such as soft dates might change.” There is an HP Committee meeting this evening, where David will present much of this to the Committee for approval. While this timing likely seems a bit backwards, recall that three days ago David worked for Canada. All I’ll say is that with the enthusiasm shown by the riders and the fans to David’s presentations over the past two days, I pity any committee that tries to stand in his way.

David said that his plan is to bring all of the high performance riders to the USEA Convention every year because he believes our sport is really pretty small. He guessed we have around 300,000 eventing enthusiasts around the country and said “we can’t afford to be separate.”

David restated the pillars of excellence that he described in Thursday’s Event Owner Task Force Meeting: respect, integrity, transparency, and consistency.

Goals for the Program:

1) To be the number one eventing country in the world

2) To have the number one rider in the world 3 out of every 5 years

3) To have 3 riders in the top 10 every year

4) To win four-star events around the world (including our own)

5) To win Nations Cups — David spoke about the experience of going to Europe. He said the plane ride is a great experience, but the real experience as a rider is going over there, getting beaten by the best, and then thinking “ok, what am I going to do about this?”

What does it take? — More money? More competitions? More horses? Better fans? Better technique?

David said that he will defend the riders to the public, but he wants the riders to be honest about what mistakes they made when they have problems, rather than making excuses.

Money — David said that with grants such as the Rebecca Broussard grant and the Jackie Mars grant and USEF funding we have the potential to send 17-18 horses over to Europe if we need to. He said that funding is going to be much more spread out and targeted so we don’t deplete our good events here.

Competitions — David said we have great competitions over here and, while we would like more, he doesn’t believe the answer is more competitions.

Horses — Producing good horses is a constant battle and we need to get better about this, but David explained he doesn’t think our horses are a huge weakness.

Fans — Do we need better fans? David said absolutely not, we have awesome fans!

Technique — Do we need better technique? David said absolutely! David said the Germans made a decision in 1992 that they weren’t good enough and went about improving their program–and then they dominated the Olympics. He said Germans brought their riders to a central location, educated them, sent them out to mentor with top riders, brought them back to teach them how to run their businesses, and then they started winning. They started winning in 2004 — 12 years after they started their program.

Head Coach’s Role:

–To set the plan for the program

–To asses where we are on that road

–To help athletes achieve technical excellence

–To help athletes plan the achievement of their goals

–To set a positive environment for athletes, owners, and fans

Self Assesment (How Good Are You?):

–Technical riding

–Selection of horses

–Owner management

–Stable management

–Sports psychology

David has asked the riders to do a personal SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat) for their programs and fill out a rider bio for the USEF. David has been meeting with the high performance riders over the past few days to have a personal discussion of their programs.

The Four Year Plan (The Lists):

—The US Global Talent List — The ability now to win anywhere in the world. This might not be a very big list right now.

—US World Class — The ability to compete anywhere in the world.

—US National Potential — Competitiveness in US international classes

—US Under-25 — Talent and attitude to be an elite rider/trainer

—US U-18 — Talent and attitude to be a world class rider

2014 Goals:

–To medal at the WEGs and qualify for the Olympic Games

–This is part of the building process

–Asses the right type of horse to compete at this competition

–To win 4* events

2015 Goals:

–Win the Pan Am 2* Games with mixture of emerging athletes and veterans

2016 Goals:

–Team medal at the Olympics

–Individual medal at the Olympics

David says he really believes his program will take 2-3 years to start working and he asked for the audience’s patience while things get going.

Education:

–We need to be very strong on education

–Encourage riders to use personal coaches

–Training sessions: the first goal of training sessions will be about assessment

–David isn’t going to select assistant coaches at this point

2013 European Trips:

— Saumur: May 23-26 — This is prep for WEG because the WEG course designer, Pierre Michelet, is also the Saumur course designer and his courses have a really unique style. David said the style is big and bold jumps to narrows and you can’t pull back.

–Luhmuhlen CIC: June 13-16 then…

–Aachen CIC Nations Cup: June 25-30 — David wants the riders to do the Luhmuhlen and Aachen trip as one (they are two weeks apart) to learn from the top of other disciplines at Aachen and show the Germans that we are coming for them.

–Boekelo CCI*** Nations Cup (Oct 10-13)

–Pau CCI*** (October) — Again WEG prep since Pierre also designs Pau

–Burghley, Badminton, and Blenheim may have a few riders with grants, and they will definitely be supported by personnel. David says he doesn’t believe in going to Burghley or Badminton unless the rider thinks they can win.

–Haras du Pin (August 22-25) — The WEG test event. David said we will be there at least as spectators.

David extended an invitation to the audience that if they are going on vacation they should come with the team to competitions as spectators. He said the USEF is working on group seating to have USA sections, course walks, and everything to make fans and owners very much a part of the experience.

2014 trip plans will be altered after the XC designer has been selected for the Olympics. We will also do Luhmuhlen and Aachen, Burghley in September, the Rio test event, and the Boekelo Nations Cup as well.

David finished the seminar by saying “and that’s what we are going to do!“

Call me a hapless starstruck fan, but I’m completely pumped. Simply changing the tone to an open, transparent, and optimistic program has and will continue to have a really positive impact on US high performance. From talking with many of the high performance riders over the past two days, the change in attitude about the US program and the mounting excitement is absolutely palpable. One rider joked with me that “I am so frustrated it’s still December, I want to get going today!”

If you’re going out tonight, be sure to stay safe and have fun and go eventing!

I skipped the first part of the Board of Governors meeting to attend David’s high performance breakfast.  As a quick note that I should have made in my reports from David’s seminars, all of the changes that David is discussing are pending approval by the USEF High Performance Committee.  David made this clear at the beginning of his Wednesday seminar, which I missed due to travel.  We joined the BOG at the beginning of the committee chair reports.  My notes are below…

Jon Holling — Active Athletes and Professional Horseman’s Council — Jon recapped the PHC meeting from Thursday.  The biggest point he made is that the riders are most concerned with the new FEI qualification rules, both from the standpoint that the rules are hard to understand and that the new categorized rider system seems to put different professionals on different levels since a higher categorized pro could move a horse up the levels more quickly and thus might be more appealing to big time owners.

Lou Leslie — Area Affairs — Lou said that the new Advancing Athlete program is in development.  Lou explained meetings are ongoing and that we will hear much more on Sunday.  I, for one, am very excited to learn more about this program.

Robert Kellerhouse — Competitions, Gold Cup, AECs, Rules, Course Advisors, and Classics Series — Robert is a busy busy guy!  He explained that the prelim three-day has fallen by the wayside, but the training and novice three-days have been really strong this year, “providing a nice entry and mid level competition for people to reach for.”  Robert said the Gold Cup is running strong thanks to great events and terrific sponsorship support.  Robert hinted at some exciting new initiatives for the AECs.  As for competitions, Robert said that starers are up 4.5% over the past year, and he projects modest growth for next year.  He guessed we will break the USEA annual entry record in 2013.  Robert addressed the FEI rules, saying that that the FEI rule details are still in development including a phone meeting last night of the FEI eventing committee.  He said that the timing of the rules implementation is frustrating, but that it is a product of the FEI’s system of making rules.  Robert, who sits on the FEI eventing committee, has been a tremendous ambassador at the convention for the new FEI rules because he understands the frustrations and tries to explain the logic behind the FEI decisions.  Robert explained that the categorized rider system was born from a licensing provision where the FEI wanted to stop qualifying all riders in the same way.  The FEI will always be under pressure to push down qualifications for elite riders.  The uncategorized riders will be treated the same way for qualifications as in the past, but the rider will have to qualify all the way with one horse.  The categorized system was then built to give more experienced riders a faster track to qualification.  Robert said that this change is a result of feedback that the FEI eventing committee received from national federations.

Phyllis Dawson — Licensed Officials — Our beloved officials are getting old!  Jack Leary has performed a projection on the number of officials that we will need over the next 10 years based on retirements (assuming a retirement age of 70).  Phyllis said we will lose approximately 40-50% of our officials in the next 10 years.  A big concern is that we will retire 66% of “R” judges (29) and “R” TD’s (26).  This is concerning because the pipelines for these officials is much harder than lower level officials and we don’t have enough people in the pipeline to fill the spots right now.  These projections also do not take into account the growth of the sport over the next 10 years.  It seems that an issue with the pipeline is that the people who are qualified to be officials are still riding and don’t have interest in being officials at this point.  USEA President Sabo said that he wants to put as much energy and attention as possible into recruiting new officials.

Dr. Mark Hart — Membership and Program Development –Dr. Hart explained that the one interesting thing about USEA membership is that it is incredibly diverse.  He said that the USEA had 14,000 members in 2004 and we have 11,612 members today.  He said that one thing to consider with the decline is the economy.  Even if our membership number stays steady the important thing to understand is that it is a fluid membership group, with people coming in and leaving every day.  Growing membership depends on reducing exiting members and brining in new members.  Logically, Dr. Hart posed the rhetorical question about why do we want to grow?  He said that more members generally means a lower cost per member of all of the USEA’s programs and more membership attracts better sponsorship dollars.  Dr. Hart said that conversations with rider affiliates have revealed that there are 2-3 times the number of people eventing (at unrecognized events) than people who aren’t part of the USEA.  Membership in the USEA is required to compete at USEA events.  He said that the low hanging fruit for new members are the people who already event but aren’t members.  He suggested trying to bridge the gap between recognized and unrecognized events as a way to bring in new members.  Dr. Hart mentioned the awesome development of the USEA website over the past few years and suggested that it makes sense to restrict viewing portions of the website to members only.  He said that 40,000 unique people a month visit the USEA website and the USEA has 11,000 members.  Around 18% of the members leave the USEA each year currently and about that same number of new members.  New members are often young riders.  The big drop-off of members occurs in the 20-30 year old demographic (riders go to college), and then, surprisingly, the drop off rate is steady from 30-70 (Dr. Hart said he would expect older members to drop off more rapidly, but this isn’t the case).  President Sabo said that two keys to growing membership are bringing in more younger members both as riders and as non-riding members.

Carol Kozlowski — Safety Committee — Here we go.

Carol recapped the history of the rule change proposal at last year’s USEF convention, from the USEF Eventing Technical Committee changing the language from reversing the one fall rule for training to below to all levels, to the USEF Safety Committee voting against the rule despite all eventing members of the committee voting for the rule change, to the rule going to the USEF Board, to the Board not approving the change as a result of the disunion.  The USEF annual meeting was a wake up call for eventers to get a more unified voice on the issue.

In August, the USEA Safety Committee voted 11-3 to approve the rule change for allowing training and below to continue.  The USEA Board approved that provision in August 13-7, with the belief that the rule should go forward without being changed.  While all this was happening, Dr. Mark Hart was working hard to somehow define a fall as safe to continue or not safe to continue.  The issue is that it looks like the USEF Safety Committee will not pass the rule change that might allow potentially concussed riders to continue–falls need to be defined somehow.  Thus, the latest rule change proposal provides that the rider has to land on their feet, with the language being further modified yesterday to say that the rider has no apparent injury.  The latest proposal also struck training level from the levels allowed to continue, with the hope that it could be expanded to training level in the future.  Carol does not feel that the rule will be able to be changed for levels any higher than training level, ever.  With yesterday’s Technical Committee approval, the rule change will now go on to the USEF Safety Committee at the USEF’s annual meeting in January.  Carol thus had to explain that the change that was voted on yesterday was not the change that was approved by the USEA board in August.  Remember that the USEA can only advise the USEF on rule changes, it is up to the USEF committees to make the rule changes and the USEF Board to approve them.

Malcolm Hook, who chairs the USEF Technical Committee and is the incoming chair of the USEF Safety Committee, then addressed the Board and said that he will have the challenge of selling the Safety Committee on an idea that they rejected earlier this year, although the rule change is significantly different (novice and below, remain standing and uninjured provisions).  Malcolm seemed optimistic that the USEF Safety Committee would pass the newer version because the occurrence of head injuries are significantly reduced at those lower levels.  Malcolm also echoed Carol’s sentiments that the rule change is very unlikely for any level above preliminary.

President Sabo mentioned this, but I want to give Malcolm a ton of credit for taking the rule change forward as best as he possibly can despite the fact that he opposes the rule change personally.  I wouldn’t expect anything less than this show of fairness and class on behalf of our members from Malcolm.

President Sabo then said that he wanted the USEA Board to vote on the rule up or down.  President Sabo also echoed Malcolm’s sentiment from Thursday, that if the USEF proposal does not pass the USEF Safety Committee it should not go on to the USEF Board.  Malcolm Hook said the USEA Board didn’t need to vote for it, but that since the wording has changed from August a vote would make sense.  The rule in its new form (first fall of rider for beginner novice and novice where rider lands on feet with no apparent injury is 65 penalties rather than elimination) passed the USEA Board 16-2, a stronger approval than the 13-7 vote in August.  The rule change proposal will now go onto the USEF Safety Committee at the January USEF meeting with the blessing of the USEA and USEF Technical Committee.

Carol is leaving the USEA Board after this year and she, along with all of the departing members, deserve our thanks for their service over the past few years.

Marjorie Molloy — Organizers — Xentry Discussion — The Board took 10-15 minutes to discuss the issue of a lack of comparability between paper entries, EventEntries.com, and the USEA’s Xentry.  Riders gave feedback about ways to improve Xentry and organizers, such as Steve Symansky, explained that a big issue is the lack of compatibility for organizers who use the Event Entries software to be able to import Xentry entries.

Go eventing.

An awesome photographer taking a picture, Leslie Threlkeld of the USEA

Friday is the most hectic day at the USEA convention with 2-3 events running simultaneously all day.  I’ll do my best to get to as many as possible, but I won’t be able to get to everything.  Friday started with another high performance seminar.  Incoming US coach David O’Connor addressed selection in Friday morning’s high performance seminar.  Below are my notes from the meeting, as always please forgive typos.

David started by reminding the riders of a theme from Thursday morning–everything starts with ambition.  There are only 6 WEG and 5 Olympic spots that the riders are competing for and David described it as a “fight to stand on the podium.”

The Selection Committee:

–Separation and independence: David stressed the importance of keeping the selectors independent.

–David said that the selectors will not be the primary source of information to the athletes, he will be that primary source of information.

–The selectors will be comprised of 4-5 selectors, plus 4-5 scouts.  David mentioned that the selectors are being…selected…today.  The eligible athletes have input on making recommendations about who they want to be selectors.  The scouts will be based around the world to keep the high performance program appraised of what is going on.

Veterinarians:

–The US program will work under a vet team rather than one head vet this year, especially because there are so many competitions in Europe in 2013.

–No vet evaluations on the Monday morning after CCI’s in 2013.  David said that the evaluations will be made during the training sessions rather than after events for 2013.  He said that this means the focus will be very much about prevention of injuries.

–David stressed that there will be evaluations before public (USEF) money is spent on any horses, ie before grants are given, before flights to Europe are paid for.

–David said that he and the vet team will be in the barns at competitions to assist and watch the horses.

—Transparency has to work both ways.  David explained that he wants the vet team to be transparent with the riders and that he wants the riders to be transparent with him about what is going on with their horses.

–David explained the difference between a horse being “hurt” and “injured.”  He said when a horse gets hurt, such as by a heel grab, it can be helped and healed quickly.  An injury would be a more serious situation needing longer recovery.  David stressed that the vet team will be talking about being hurt and injured and that when riders watch other horses jog at team events they shouldn’t be as worried about speculating because a horse might be hurt or injured.

Farriers:

–Veteran farrier Stephen Teichman will continue to head the farrier team for US eventing high performance.  David stressed that Steve will not be the one and only farrier riders can use and that if riders have a good farrier program already then their farriers will continue to shoe the horses.  Steve will be there to help assess each horse and help out when necessary.

–The US squad will use several farriers for trips because there are so many trips planned for 2013 and it would be impossible for any one farrier to make all of the trips while maintaining their home practice.

Selection Timeline (Earlier Selections):

–Application deadline for trips up to July 1 will be March 15.  Recall that David said yesterday that he wants the riders to be the driver for pushing their horses to a particular trip because that competition fits their horses.  The theme of a rider-driven program continues.

–David explained that the travel grants for 2013 competitions will be around $20,000.  This will cover the flight and

–Application deadline for events July 1-Nov 1 will be July 1 (approximately).

–David said there are two philosophies: select early or select late.  Early selection allows riders to build continuity and camaraderie before events, while late selection keeps the riders on edge and fighting at their absolute maximum.  David said that he has decided to go with the early selection route because he is such a big believer in team building and morale amongst a team.

–WEG 2014 decisions will be made July 1st (approximately)

–David hopes that four pairs will be sent to Saumur, four sent to Aachen for the nation’s cup team competition, and helpfully 6 for Boekelo.  David said the exact number of pairs for many of the trips are still being set and that they depend on funding and event entry availability.  His hope is for many riders to find ways to fund trips before they receive “public money” so that they can get good experience before they reach the level of getting grants.

–2015 Pan Am Game selections made by June 15th (approximately)

–2016 Olympic Games selection decisions by June (15th)

–The USEF’s Jim Wolf chimed in that the exact selection dates are approximate right now, but the point is that the team has adopted the philosophy of selecting earlier.

–David then said the riders won’t like this next part…He said that the selectors will be able to remove a pair from the team for a subjective reason other than soundness.  He said that the tendency for first time selectees is to get too conservative with their competition program once they have been selected because they want to go so badly.  He said that he wants pairs to prepare the same way for a team competition that they would for any other major competition.  Reasons include loss of form or not preparing a horse to necessity.

–David said that making team selection earlier is a big change.  He said that this is the first time since he has known the US program that things will be done this way.  He is a big believer in this, but if riders challenge it then we will have to revert back to the old system of last minute selections.

Expectations:

–Dressage: Better than 70% in the dressage (45.0 in FEI terms).  David explained that he wants the 70% to be a “body of work on every horse at every level.”  He said that he is going to give the riders 4 months on every horse they ride to reach the 70% mark at every level.  He consulted Marilyn Payne to chime in that a 7 for dressage judges means “fairly good.”  He said “I want you to walk out of the ring on a training horse and ask yourself ‘would that have benefited the USA?'”  He wants the riders to put pressure on themselves because we are on an island and don’t have many other nations around us (like Europe) to put pressure on us.

–XC: The ability to be quick and clean in any situation (within 10 seconds).  David said that he knows no one should push their horse for time all the time at national horse trials, but he wants riders to tell him before they leave the box so that they can judge themselves at the end.  He said that he believes in clicking watch at beginning and then not looking at it until the end as an exercise to get a rider better at judging pace.

— SJ: The ability to jump clean in many situations, horse’s comfort level, surfaces and weather (never more than one rail).

–David says that he isn’t looking for pairs that go to a big event, have a problem, and then go and do well and another big event soon thereafter.  He said the Olympics is about one day and that he wants riders who can step up on every big day.

Selection System:

David’s selection system is inspired by football and baseball scouting systems.  His goal was to create a scoring system for objective and subjective scoring system.

Objective criteria:

–Dressage score as an average of percentages i.e 7.5 (score of 1-10).

–XC score (1-10) as an average of performances: 0 points if you didn’t finish, 10 points for clear, 2 points off for each stop, 1 point off for every 10 seconds below fastest time of the day.

–SJ score (1-10): 2 points off for one rail, 3 points for the second rail, 4 points for the third rail

–Soundness (1-10): decided by veterinary team

Subjective Criteria:

–Character (1-5): Does a rider have a positive or negative effect in a team environment?  How does a rider handle travel, how do they handle team situations, etc.

–Will and ability to win (1-5): Big day temperament

–Experience in CCI’s and team competitions (1-5)

–Suitability of combination for planned event (1-5)

–Rider instinct and technique (1-3)

–Rider fitness and soundness (1-3).  David says that he wants to build better criteria for riders in coordination with the USOC than just cardio strength, etc.

–Four-star results will have an objective criteria and soundness multiplied by 1.5.  As a result, four stars will be 70% objective and 30% subjective, three-stars will be 60% objective and 40% subjective.  There will be scores for CCI****’s, CCI3*’s, and CIC3*’s as averages over the past 2 years.

David said that this criteria is still a work in progress.  He has spoken with USOC folks and they said that other sports have used numeric processes with considerable success.  He explained that they have tested this system with riders to see how it works and it actually works pretty well.  This will be used as a guide for selection, but perhaps more importantly it will be used to provide riders and owners with feedback on how their programs are working.  David said that there will be some subjectivity particularly because of trends in the final 6 months before selection.  David said that there are only 2-3 people with an average dressage score above 70%–this isn’t nearly good enough and one of David’s big goals is to raise this figure.

Go eventing.

–

In case you missed it, here are recaps of David’s seminars yesterday:

David’s Breakfast: The Road to Excellence

David’s Lunch: Technical Training

Eligible Athletes and Owners Task Force: Much more from David

1:58pm Update: I want to make a quick note that all of the changes that David is discussing are pending approval by our friends on the USEF High Performance Committee.  David made this clear at the beginning of his Wednesday seminar, which I missed due to travel.  The High Performance Committee meets at 5pm today, and my hope and expectation is that David will get to implement his new systems without hindrance.

Evening at the Broadmoor

I am a big believer that leaders speak first and foremost with their time.  David O’Connor has led or been the major part of every single high performance meeting today.  The message is clear: succeed or fail, he is going to be a part of every element of this program from start to finish.  I promised you one thing when David was appointed US eventing coach–that David would devote his life to the job and you can already see the result of that with the breadth and depth of David’s involvement even at this early hour.  Notes from two meetings are below.

USEF Eligible Athletes Open Forum:

The meeting opened with eventing high performance manager Joanie Morris providing a quick overview of the new 5 training-list system.

Under 18 Training List – This will likely follow the Advancing Athletes program being put in place by the USEA in coordination with young riders

Under 25 List – This is for riders with CCI2* qualifying results or better.  It will likely mirror the developing riders

National Talent List – This list is for riders with the ability to win in this country, people who are really competitive here

World Class List – Riders with the ability to compete anywhere in the world

Global Talent List – For riders who have the ability to win anywhere in the world

David then stood up and led the rest of the meeting.  He asked the riders questions about what they wanted from him as a coach, with a special focus on the training sessions, and he looked at the high performance schedule for next year.

David asked whether high performance training lists should be by rider or by combination.  David said he is leaning toward making lists based on riders and then enabling the riders to show up with maybe their second or third tier horse if their top horse is lame, for example.  David asked the high performance riders in attendance to consider this issue and give feedback to the members of the Eligible Athletes Committee.

Next, David proposed making two selection committees.  The first would convert the developing rider talent spotters into a selection committee for the under 25 and under 18 groups.  The normal high performance selectors could then focus on the top three lists.  The selection process and committee(s) are being shaped this weekend.  More on the selection process in the Owners Task Force notes below.

Then David went through potential dates for the spring 2013 training sessions.  It looks like the under 25 and under 18 training sessions will be in Ocala at the end of January.  David mentioned that he wants these first sessions for the younger groups to be almost a week long and more like a very comprehensive clinic.

David said that he thinks most training sessions should be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to accommodate riders’ show schedules.  The training session scheduling was very much focused on when events are, so as not to interrupt the riders’ schedule.  You can already sense a rider-focused theme to the new US program, a theme that permeated the eligible athletes meeting.

David asked the eligible athletes whether training sessions at events (such as The Fork and Red Hills) work for them.  Again he asked for feedback through the eligible athletes committee from the riders.

David repeatedly expressed his willingness to travel wherever he is needed.  He said the last two weeks before Rolex will be about the Rolex horses and he is willing to go wherever necessary to help those pairs out, including home farms.

David was asked if he would be available at local competitions to coach.  David said he absolutely will be available to coach at shows, but riders will have to come ask him because he will be placing a priority on watching at the competitions and then working on improvements at the training sessions.  He said “as a coach, I’m very, very respectful of people in warmup.”  He said he is only at warmup to add, never to detract, and he prefers to just support with a few small comments.  He will only intervene dramatically with a warmup if a rider is in real trouble.

David said that we will definitely send riders to Saumur in late May.  David mentioned plans to do a trip with horses to Luhmuhlen in June, staying in Luhmuhlen for two weeks, and then heading to Aachen.  David mentioned the value of that trip is being able to experience the German events, being able to see the top levels of all sports at Aachen, and also sending the message to Europe that “We are coming for you.”

David said that he wants selections for team trips such as Saumur and Luhmuhlen to be application driven–initiated from the riders.

He said the big weekend in August is the 2014 WEG test event in France.  David said that we will definitely go to spectate, perhaps to ride.  He is a big believer in going and seeing venues before we have to compete there at international events.

September is about Burghley and the AECs.  October is about Boekelo, and we will send a group over there for the Nation’s Cup team competition.  Pau is at the end of October and David said “This will be a big trip for us for WEG bound riders.”  He wants riders to get used to riding [WEG course desinger] Pierre Michelet courses.  He said Pierre Michelet’s courses are different and you have to get used to them as a rider.

As mentioned above, David said he will propose that the training lists are pair driven, but that training sessions will be open to riders to bring various horses.  He mentioned he plans to go to riders’ individual farms for coaching.    He also said that Ms. Mars’ has been very generous to opening her farms for athletes to come and train with David at home.

David said that he is of the opinion that he wants to train here (in the States) before major team competitions, rather than going to England (for example) for 6-8 weeks.  He said this is going to take time to develop good facilities here in the US.  He wants to let riders continue to compete over here with more horses rather than going overseas to train and losing their competitive edge.   He also mentioned the importance of keeping final training session facility options open as long as possible because the weather can have a big impact on the suitability of venues.

David gave out his personal email address, welcoming communication, and said that is the best way to reach him.  He said that he is bad at answering the phone because he does not believe in interrupting his lessons.

David said that his goal in addressing fans this weekend at Convention will be to get the US eventing fans engaged in the program.  For example, he said that he wants fans to go on vacation with us to Saumur.

Lastly, David asked if the riders wanted the training sessions to have microphones.  He said he likes having the public there to audit, but he wants the discussion to be private with the riders.

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Eventing Owners Task Force Open Forum:

The EOTF’s brilliant leader, Dr. Mark Hart started with an overview of the forum, explaining that the first goal of the Task Force when it was started was to grow the ownership base.  The second goal was to enhance the US ownership experience.  The major effort towards increasing the ownership base was the syndication program, which has led to the Experience Eventing program and many successful (around 25) syndications over the past few years.  Dr. Hart then introduced the task force for the next 4 years.

David then stood up and spoke about new ideas he has about how ownership can help our high performance program and vice versa moving forward.  David started by saying that the EOTF is one of the most important parts of the high performance community moving forward.  Owners are a critical part of the family that will make the US a successful eventing force.  David described that he wants to improve the owner experience at international events.  He wants to have a dinner before international competitions on the Tuesday that is just for riders, owners, grooms, and himself.  He also said he plans to give a course walk on Fridays for owners to help them understand what the game plan is on Saturday.

David described the four pillars of the US program moving forward — respect (between riders, between riders and owners, between us and competitive nations), integrity (winning the right way, beating the competition straight up), transparency (keeping the selection process open), and consistency (making a habit out of winning).

David wants to make the selection program transparent and based on clearly stated objective and subjective parameters that are all tied to a point system.  He wants to put parameters (such as dressage scores, XC results, etc) into categories and award points to each category based on objective performance.  Subjective categories include character (positive or negative effect on team event), the will to win (on that day being able to pull it out), rider fitness, technical ability, and appropriate combination for particular competition.  Points will be given to each subjective category and a final total will be given for each pair.

He said that the final number won’t be the definitive answer for selection because, for example, trends matter in the sense that a rider with a lower but rising score might be selected over a rider with a higher falling score.  David identified that the purpose of all of this is to hand these numbers back to the riders (and then to the owners) and tell them exactly how they are being assessed.

David explained that when it comes to syndicates and owners, it is not his job or the USEF’s job to get in the middle of the owner/rider relationship.  David said that one thing he will promise is that the US team is going to be professional.  He wants riders to have the ability to find peace to focus on competitions and will try to make rules for barns to be quiet at big events.

That’s all from the USEA convention for Thursday, or at least that’s all that I’m going to write about.  Thanks a bunch for being part of today on EN and stay tuned for much more on Friday.  Go eventing.