Eric Bull on course at Fair Hill. Photo via ETB Equine Construction on Facebook.
Eric Bull has always had a curiosity for the way things are built. Growing up in New York riding and competing in the hunter/jumper world, Eric didn’t anticipate involving himself with horses when it came time to choose a career. Instead, he elected to take a job working for a construction company which handled high end residential and commercial work.
His time working with both horses and the construction industry proved useful later on, when he was asked to help with the design and build of the course at Fitch’s Corner. “All the while, I planned to get out of both horses and construction, at least from a working standpoint,” Eric ruefully recalled. “Now, I’m firmly planted in both!”
Sure enough, thanks to his work at Fitch’s Corner, Eric found himself returning to course building in the late 90s after a brief stint in the insurance industry.
“The professionalizing of course building and design was just starting to come into its own, and I found a lot of people were asking me to build fences,” he said. “It wasn’t just farm hands building fences anymore. It was a good time to get into it.”
Eric got his first “big break,” so to speak, when he had the opportunity to work with Tremaine Cooper and Jamie Emerson on the Fair Hill course. “Jamie was becoming interested in architecture and home building, so I was coming in at a good time. I built with him that first year, and then I was left to work with one of the best groups and designers I could ask for.”
Eric eventually began working with Derek di Grazia in 2000, when the two were named the official builder and designer for the course. Eric commented on the importance of the relationship with the course designer, highlighting communication as a key factor.
“Every designer has a different way and different preferences,” he said. “Most of it is a conversation. When you’re a builder, you’re expected to be a part of the conversation and not just a passive listener who does what they’re told.”
“Good designers will give you the big picture, and your job as the builder is to go in and fill in those pieces that make up the big picture. For that reason, you tend to work with a lot of the same designers, you have a trusting relationship and can communicate with each other to reach the end goal.”
Course design has been on the move since Eric came onto the scene, with more and more portable jumps appearing on courses as opposed to fences fashioned from fallen logs or permanent materials. “It’s definitely been an evolution,” Eric said. “The sport has really come a long way in the last five years — there’s been a lot of change on the design side.”
“Given the new safety technology that’s available, those old-fashioned ‘scary’ type fences are much more successful now than they were 10 years ago,” he continued. “And, of course, portables became all the rage 10 or 15 years ago. It took us awhile to figure out the best way to implement them. But now we can utilize the terrain to make a fence more or less inviting. A basic portable fence can be made much more serious of a question by putting it on a hill, whereas a trickier fence can be made to be more inviting by putting it on level terrain. There’s more options now.”
Building Wellington
Wellington Eventing Showcase winners Boyd Martin and Trading Aces. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Eric was excited to have the opportunity to build Capt. Mark Phillips’ course at the Wellington Eventing Showcase at the end of January. “There’s been a lot of attempts to bring something like this to the sport, such as Express Eventing, which I can’t really speak to as I haven’t worked on one before, but Mark is a genius and wanted to really showcase the sport. It was a legitimate course, at a legitimate speed.”
Taking into account that the Showcase was held at the beginning of the season, when many horses were likely not fitted up to the level they’d be at by the end of the spring, Mark wanted to showcase Advanced level questions without running the horses off their legs.
“Most of these horses hadn’t seen a jump since Fair Hill, in most cases, but you saw them come out and jump the same way they ended the season last year. They were jumping well, and the course was technical enough without them having to be at the top fitness level. He put all the questions you would typically see on that course: ditches, water, banks, everything.”
A huge draw for this particular event was its accessibility, which has gotten rave reviews from those in attendance. “You got a lot of people who’d never experienced eventing before, and they got to experience it from the comfort of a ‘luxury’ experience with great food, a bar, and a seat where they could see 80% of the course. Then you could walk across the way and watch show jumping or dressage. As far as showcasing is concerned, this is the best I’ve ever seen.”
What about the future of event formats such as that run at Wellington? “At the end of the day, eventing is an Olympic sport. The Showcase is not an Olympic level competition, and I think it will continue to be more of a ‘sideline’ sport in that it’s spectator friendly but is not the High Performance level that you see at Kentucky. If it’s something that owners want to be involved in, I can see it being a great introduction to event horse ownership.”
“If (the Showcase format) is its own secondary sport, it’s a great way to teach people about the sport. If owners start getting involved, they may learn that it’s not too far off from the ‘real’ sport, and it would be a good segue into diving into the ownership aspect of the traditional event horse.”
From a building perspective, this was one of the most enjoyable experiences of Eric’s career to date.
“That weekend was about getting the formula right and making it a proper three phase showcase. Safety was paramount, as always, and most of Mark’s decisions were made towards making it a bit softer for the horses without worrying too much about shaking up the board. I think that’s where it’s only going to be a showcase — you’re still going to have to go to Kentucky to be the best horse and rider. But it still showed the true makings of the sport, and it exposed more people to it which was a big goal.”
Does Eric plan to make a trip to Wellington an annual event should the opportunity present itself? “I’d be happy to do one of those events 40 weeks out of the year,” he joked. “It’s a great step in the evolution of the sport, and I’m happy I was able to be a part of it.”
To learn more about Eric, visit ETB Equine Construction’s Facebook page here.
