I announced the Blogger Contest final four on Friday; now I’m bringing you their victorious Round 2 entries in individual installments. Their Assignment: If you had the power to make three changes to the sport of eventing, what would they be? Next up: Rick Wallace. Each entry will be presented unedited for fairness’ sake. Thanks as always for reading, Eventing Nation. Please leave feedback in the comments section.
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Bio: Upper level event rider — AGAIN. After years in hibernation. Father of awesome upper level event rider Elisa Wallace and also known as Mustang Girl. Have string of super talented horses: Ultimate Victory – 3 Star horse, Ultimate Decision – Amazing new horse which is dominating in dressage and Ultimate Timing – my dressage horse now being converted to eventing.
Entry: THE POWER OF CHANGE!!!
I have been competing in this sport for over the 30 years and it allowed me to experience the classic long format of 3-Day Evening and now the sport as it has become. The many changes over the years have caused many problems. The power of change has consequences and these changes all affect the sport, riders and most importantly the horses.
When given the assignment of having the power to change three things about Eventing, I had to really sit back and think long and hard about our sport today and how it was in the past. Of course, the easier assignment would be what I would not change as this will be evident as you read on about the use of frangible pins. This, I believe, saved my horse from major injury and for that I am very grateful.
It was the first time I broke a frangible pin and it was a long trip home from Bromont CCI this past week. But the trip home was with a sound and healthy horse because of those pins. I had to make a decision after jumping fence 13 in the CCI 3 Star to pull up. My horse, Ultimate Victory, stalled over the large open oxer and hit his stifle hard enough on the back rail break the frangible pins. Looking over my shoulder and seeing the log on the ground, I knew this was cause for great concern for the welfare of my horse.
I pulled up and trotted him. Looked down on both sides to see if there was any visible injury and noting he was sound slowly picked up the canter. Many things raced through my head. Fence 14 was a maximum drop. How would this affect my horse? Was he just going off adrenaline and not showing any pain? The decision was clear as I was coming to the next jump. The voice in my head said….. pull up and I did.
Ultimate Victory had completed the first half of the CCI 3 Star with incredible heart and having a clear round to this point was not a factor that I was thinking about, it was the welfare of my beautiful animal. He is completely sound and happy back in Tallahassee with no adverse affects from the incident. I believe we are just beginning to understand the sport as it is today. The removal of A, B and C phases brought a new and completely different sport to all of us. The type horse, the design of the cross country course, the increased difficulty of the dressage test and the affects of the previous days on the horses as the enter in to stadium (different scoring penalties as well) are all so different from the classic format.
With this change came unforeseen and catastrophic consequences. The sport had to really rally and figure out how to fix what was happening. The introduction of safety measures which included the frangible pins, were positive things which occurred to ensure minimizing rotational falls and other injuries to horse and rider. The increase in accidents after the change to the sport was overwhelming. So when given the power to change something we must not look at the immediate improvement or remedy to what we see as a problem but to what lays a head of those changes. So I will take the power handed to me to do micro-changes and enhancements of existing processes to our sport.
Dressage: While I know this will raise eyebrows of some and will have others clapping, I would advocate a deeper look into the judging process and how the use of the scoring system is used presently. The enhancement would increase the education of judges on the standards of scoring and the use of the full range of 0-10 based on those standards.
I believe we have a broken judging system that is beginning to drastically affect our sport. This belief is anchored in the continual findings at Events where we have a judging panel and the scores between the two judges are drastically different. It is also confirmed, in foundation by the statistical findings of the “Scoring Variables” article using statistical data which I had read in 2011.
My belief is based on the judging issue that occurred in the sport of ice skating about nine years ago. A broken judging system which was based on how they scored a performance, gave way to a new scoring system. I do not believe, nor am I advocating for a new scoring system. What I do believe needs to happen, is a re-focus on the judging system itself. We must begin to understand and be able to re-train our judges on the “standards” they are judging. These standards must be understood and implemented the same by all judges.
Stadium: My second change would be based on the stadium phase in which the scoring system changed from 5 for a rail and 10 for a refusal to 4 and 4, respectively. I would advocate for a more significant score fault for refusals. While time is very detrimental for a refusal as well, I do not feel a refusal is in line with a 4 fault rail score.
Cross-country: The third is another enhancement of the use of black flag options. These exist today in our cross-country courses, especially at the upper levels. I do feel however, that this process is not used as much as it should be which would allow riders to take time faults instead of attempting direct routes which may be at the point in experience of their horse to be miss-understood.
Direct references to the minimal use of black flag options by course designers is apparent when one or two combinations on course results in an excessive result of eliminations or retirements or falls. The use of the black flag option does not take away from the course itself but allows riders to implement a strategy based on the way the course is riding for them at that given time. Black flag options can be implemented for second attempts over the originally provided way the jump was designed to be jumped.
Based on this premise, the riders would have to attempt the originally designed way to jump the question but have an out should a stop occur. Some combinations in today’s courses are un-jumpable based on how they are designed after the first attempt.
In the end, I love this sport, the animals who are our partners in this, and the people who compete in it, organize them, officiate them and support it in whatever shape or form. I believe we all need to come together even more and listen to each other as we navigate through the on going changes which are beyond this assignment. What I do ask is when we all advocate for change, we must understand the consequences. We really need to look at how the affects of what we change may do things we never expected that change to do.
This is a humbling sport. One that challenges us and our horses and we must be sure we protect our lovely partner in this that has no voice but will do most anything we ask them to do.
