2018 USEF Equestrian and Horse of the Year nominees. Photos via USEF.
Try harder next year, eventers!
We kid, we lovingly kid. The USEF has announced its 2018 Equestrian and Horse of the Year candidates, and indeed there are no eventers on the list of 15 total rider and horse candidates. Clearly, this is complete bunk, but we suppose it’s nice to give somebody else a chance sometimes, too. Here are this year’s nominees — click each category for details about each nominee’s achievements.
Victoria Gillenwater. Photo by Avalon Photography.
Wendy Potts. Photo by Howie Schatzberg Photography.
McLain Ward. Photo by Erin Gilmore for Shannon Brinkman Photo.
Victoria Colvin. Photo by Callie Clement.
Laura Graves. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photo.
Jody Strand. Photo by Howie Schatzberg Photography.
Click here to submit your vote. Online voting is open through Thursday, Jan. 3 at midnight. Winners will be awarded on Saturday evening, Jan. 12, at the Horse of the Year Awards presented by AON during the US Equestrian Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Thankfully, there are other opportunities for deserving eventers to win very important year-end awards. Like EquiRatings’ Horse of the Year showdown, for which voting is underway as we speak. Our North America representative, Phillip Dutton’s WEG mount Z, got outvoted by Ballaghmor Class in round one, but the action is still underway. And, of course, EN will be posting our nominees for the coveted Golden Chinchilla at the beginning of January — it doesn’t get more prestigious than that!
Holiday riding motivation levels: less tack is more fun. Photo by Diane Zrimsek
Well guys, I went for my first beach vacation since I was a kid last week, and it was weird. By weird I mean, my legs ACTUALLY TANNED for literally the first time since I was like eight. It’s a Christmas miracle, y’all. Don’t worry, by next week I’m sure they’ll be back to their ghostly pale, and all will be right in the world.
Fair Hill International is hiring! Would you enjoy working with a team of more than 500 hard working volunteers who share their love of the outdoors with a desire to participate in one of the most prestigious equestrian Three-Day-Events in the United States?Are you organized, dependable, detail-oriented, a self-starter, able to raise funds, to attract and develop corporate sponsorships, and also to recruit, retain and motivate volunteers? Fair Hill is looking for you! [FHI Executive Director Job Listing]
We’re very sad to report the passing of leading Eventing sire, Ramiro B. The twenty-four year old stallion was diagnosed with irreversible kidney failure, and was put to rest soon after. He is currently number 6 on the World Breeding Federation Eventing Sire rankings, and is certainly one of the most popular jumper sires of our time. Having enjoyed a grand prix jumping career on his own, he has produced some of the top eventing and show jumping horses in the world, including several CCI4* and CSI5* winners. [Kidney Failure Claims Life of Ramiro B]
The Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB), has announced the introduction of the digital tattoo system, scheduled for full implementation by Jan. 1, 2020. The transition to the TRPB Digital Tattoo follows the recent requirement by The Jockey Club for a horse to be microchipped prior to being registered and, more recently, the availability of a digital certificate of foal registration. This is an attempt to make sure that Thoroughbreds in the US and Canada have the most technologically advanced and thorough identification system possible. [Lip Tattoos Are Out]
OTTB critique time! |In this series, the United States Eventing Association (USEA) is partnering with Athletux to critique your off-the-track Thoroughbred eventing prospects. This time, Natalia Neneman shares her insights into Demitasse’s pedigree, racing history, and conformation. [OTTB Critique with Natalia Neneman]
This video of Mongolian horses in a winter storm should help you shrug off your first-world shivers.
No cozy blankets, run-in sheds or bucket warmers for these tough equines, who have adapted over the ages to soldier through incredibly cold winter temperatures as low as -45 Celsius. They grow thick, tight winter coats with a short, almost felt-like undercoat and long outside layer that insulates them from wind and snow. For sustenance, they use their sharp, strong hooves to dig through snow and ice for grasses below, and have also adapted to use snow for water intake on a daily basis as everything is frozen for months. During the winter and early spring, the horses lose about 30% of their body weight, which they must regain during summer and fall so as to survive another year.
Mongolian herding culture is unique in that it is largely nomadic, predicated on an intricate and time-honored system of seasonal migration. Herders traditionally move their animals between the high summer pastures of the mountains and their villages camps on steppe where they spend the winter. Herding families pick up and move two or three times a year, carrying with them their homes, livestock and horses.
This video follows the Kazakh eagle hunters of Western Mongolia on their spring migration, which takes between February and April of each year. Around 200 families make the long, brutally cold 150km trip across the Altai mountains — Mongolian people are just as tough as their horses, it seems.
See now? Bundling up for a chilly trek out to the barn doesn’t seem so bad. Channel your inner Mongolian, and enjoy some hot cocoa on the other side!
Concerned about transportation stress?
Ask your vet about Elevate®.
Elevate® Concentrate powder and Elevate® W.S. liquid.
• Research shows that even short trips in the trailer challenge your horse’s immune system, leaving him more susceptible to illness. • Providing powerful antioxidants such as natural vitamin E supports a robust immune response during stressful situations like traveling. • Elevate delivers a highly bioavailable source of natural vitamin E that is preferentially absorbed and retained in the tissues. • Support your horse when he needs it most with Elevate natural vitamin E.
The deadline for all USEF members to complete their online SafeSport training is fast approaching on Jan. 1, 2019. I completed my SafeSport training last week and am checking in with a handy list of tips for those of you who still need to check this important box on your year-end to-do list.
Why should you complete your SafeSport training as soon as possible? Because you will be ineligible to participate in USEF activities, including competitions, if you don’t.
8 Things You Need to Know About USEF’S SafeSport Training
1. There are THREE SafeSport training modules that you must complete: Sexual Misconduct Awareness Education, Mandatory Reporting, and Emotional and Physical Misconduct. You will receive a certificate of completion each time you complete a module, but you must complete all three to officially complete your SafeSport Training.
2. There is one exception to the Jan. 1, 2019 deadline. If you renewed your USEF membership or joined USEF on or after Dec. 1, 2018, then you will have a 30-day grace period to complete the SafeSport training.
Those who do not complete the training within the grace period will be ineligible to participate in USEF activities, including competitions.Points accrued at horse shows during the 30-day grace period will still count, but if you don’t complete your training within the 30 days, you will be ineligible to compete and points will not count until you have completed the training.
3. Event organizers and secretaries will have access to a combined Suspension and Ineligibility List for SafeSport to determine who has not yet competed their training and therefore cannot compete.
If you appear on the Ineligibility List but complete the training on the first day of an event, you can present a copy of the SafeSport Trained certificate to the show office to prove you are eligible to compete. If you present your certificate after the first day of the event, you can still compete but your points will not be counted.
mandatory reporting of sexual misconduct involving a minor
establishing reasonable procedures to limit one-on-one interactions between adults and minors
provide training to all adult members with regular contact with minors
prohibiting retaliation
The USEF Safe Sport Policy and U.S. Center for SafeSport Code were designed to protecting all participants in equestrian sports. USEF clarified that the organization “stands behind these policies to protect the athletes of equestrian sport, not just because a law requires it, but because every member has a responsibility to protect those who have chosen horses as their passion.”
5. In response to whether requiring SafeSport training infringes on the civil rights of members, USEF responded that the “the jurisdiction is no broader than it’s ever been in the past and no one’s civil rights are removed.
“US Equestrian is committed to creating and maintaining and educating and informing an equestrian community free of all forms of emotional, physical, and sexual misconduct. Protecting athletes and fostering an environment where existing participants and newcomers alike feel safe is of the utmost importance.”
6. USEF has released a slew of resources to help with taking the training and provide more information about SafeSport:
7. If you have any technical issues while taking the training, contact the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s Technical Support Help Desk at 720-676-6417. USEF recommends using Google Chrome or Firefox for the training. (I completed mine in Google Chrome on slow wifi and had no problems.)
8. Completing the online SafeSport training will be an annual requirement for all members, so once you complete your 2019 training you will receive a deadline of one year later to complete the 2020 training.
If you have any questions related to SafeSport, please contact Teresa Roper at [email protected].
There are a few things eventers should have under their belts. Experiences that shape you, make you, test you and confirm you really want to do this sport. Here are a few — how many notches do you have in YOUR eventing belt? Add a few more from the list in 2019!
1. The number of horses and riders you should sit and watch jump the same cross country fence: 100. We call this being a Jump Judge, and you do it when you volunteer at an event. I don’t think anyone can call themselves an eventer until they have performed this rite of passage. And 100 is a minimum.
2. The number of sunburns you will get in your lifetime while doing Number 1: four.
3. Audit an entire clinic with an Olympic rider in a hurricane, heat wave, snow storm or flood. There is something about nasty weather that makes toughing out an educational event beyond crazy to truly insane. As soon as it is clear we are ALL pretty much all insane, the experience will change you.
4. Compete in pouring rain. If you’ve done it you know what I mean. If you haven’t, and you stick with this sport, you will.
5. Lose badly … by doing something dumb. If you’ve done it, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, and you stick with this sport, you will.
6. Win something. No matter whether it’s small, or large. An eventing win is like nothing else in sport. It’s a terrific high because so many horrific lows push you down. Savor these like the notable life experiences they are.
7. Experience maddening frustration. Lost shoes. Lameness. Forgetting your course. Missing a cross-country fence. Forgetting something. Not speaking up when something is wrong. Maxing out a credit card for fuel to get home and not having any money for food.
8. Find two lucky packages of stale crackers in the truck console to eat when you have no money, are starving and have a long drive home from an event.
9. Riding alone, keeping the faith, eye on the prize, feeling sore or tired or alone and unmotivated — yet tacking up anyway. Every day.
10. Using duct tape for everything.
11. Using haystring for everything else.
12. Loving your horse more than anything and doing everything for them you can think of. Including buying new tack and horse blankets when your boots have holes in them.
13. Watching every big event online from the first horse to the last.
14. Going to Rolex every year. And not being able to say, “Kentucky.”
15. Being the best horseman in the room.
16. Being the most humble rider in the lesson.
17. Being the hardest worker in the barn.
18. Paying attention, reading the rule book, respecting officials and making it a habit to be polite and friendly to everyone at every event you attend, riding or not.
19. Understand the horse as a partner, and be able to sell them on when they don’t have fun doing eventing.
20. Make a young horse.
21. Keep an old horse going well.
22. Provide leadership to a young rider.
What’s on your list? Share your experiences! What do you think makes an eventer?
Contributor Allison Howell recently took a clinic with WEG show jumping team gold medalist Devin Ryan, and invited our sister site, Horse Nation, along for the ride. Miss out on Allison’s report on day one? Click here to catch up!
From L to R: New BFFs Allison Howell on Tipitina, Devin Ryan, and Dr. Malora Roberts on #tbmakeovergraduate Cassie — who can canter a vertical just fine. Photo by Brenda Howell.
Why, why, why, WHY is cantering over the tiniest, most adorably swishy, inviting (did I mention TINY?) vertical at a canter the hardest exercise ever invented by mankind? Day two at the Devin Ryan clinic began much the same as day one: I met with my super-supportive mother and friend to watch the big jumper group before we rode later in the day.
Devin warmed the group up, had them lengthen and shorten within the gaits as he had on day one, had them drop their stirrups for a bit and then dug into them at the shoulder-in: “You must do this properly, it’s like going to the gym, it’s a strengthening movement; if you don’t do it properly, it doesn’t work.”
After that, he had them go through three trot cavaletti. Here Devin focused on contact again, imparting that “dropping them in front of a jump is abandoning our horses. Learn to have a light contact throughout the course … some horses need more of a release, some less, but keep a contact.” He then had the big jumpers canter for eight strides after the cavaletti, then transition back to trot, emphasizing “courses are all transitions!”
Then, as a warm-up, he introduced the vertical. Placed very unassumingly in the middle of the arena on the short approach, I watched the riders canter over it in circle, some taking off a little long or a little short initially. Once they were jumping from the appropriate distance, Devin had them place both reins in their outside hand and put their inside hand behind their back “to make your reins more united” and work on balance: “balance is never in your hands!”
And at that point I had the audacity to think “oh, I am going to be so good at this.” I had been practicing a good amount of cavaletti and short turn work in our indoor at home…
Spoiler alert: I was not so good at this.
Dear Kama: if there is a pile of little blue matchsticks in your arena where that friendly, blue, adorable, little swishy jump used to be – IT WAS ME. My mom, my wonderfully-supportive just-trying-to-help-me-get-better mother, videoed every attempt I made at that wretched vertical, to the point that when I was scrolling through the videos and thinking “dear God, woman, just give up already!”
I just could NOT seem to get the approach to this thing right. In spite of my efforts to
count from 8 strides away,
establish and maintain a good canter,
and keep my horse in the appropriate amount of flexion for the circle,
I pushed poor Tipsy for the long spot time and time again. Devin was level-headed throughout the whole clinic, but at this point I could hear the frustration begin to creep into his voice as he sagely repeated “when in doubt, wait it out.” The only slight consolation was that my partner in this exercise seemed to be having similar difficulties. Finally, FINALLY, I sat up and waited for that extra heartbeat and got in that extra stride to the jump. “You must trust her!” he commanded. “Easy for you to say, gold medalist,” I quipped back… in my head.
After that torture session was over, Devin had us start working on a course. This course started at the top with the vertical we had jumped the day before placed on the short side, serpentine around to the Vertical-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, then around to the end of the ring and up over a teeny-tiny natural vertical, then halt after. (The halt at the end of the line seemed to help the one mare in our session that liked to get a little “wahoo!” to the jumps.)
For some reason, Tipsy decided to jump the little vertical like it was on fire. She has a tendency to jump things a little big every now and again, I’ve gotten in the habit of slipping my reins when she does this to try and avoid grabbing her in the mouth. I expected to get an earful from Devin for landing in a heap, but he was actually okay with the fact that I didn’t punish her for a big attempt.
After everyone performed the warm-up course satisfactorily, he had us incorporate the outside line backwards: we came in over the vertical, three strides to another vertical, one stride to an oxer, roll back to the vertical at the top of the ring, then around the whole ring to the other outside line – an oxer to a vertical in four strides. For this course, the focus was REALLY on maintaining the canter: there were nice long stretches up and down the arena where we had to focus on keeping the same canter rhythm, not fading in the corners and then accelerating in front of the jump. This was a good reminder for me to pay attention the whole time, as I tend to get a little casual if I’m not focused on a jump a few strides ahead.
Next: The Full Course – with liverpool! He asked who had jumped one before: Tipsy has done it with a pro, but we were dealing with some confidence issues this summer and I did not want to introduce an element that I wasn’t completely prepared to handle at the time. I had some trepidation but figured “eh, if I really mess this up, there’s a WEG gold medalist here who can fix her,” and off we went. The nice thing is he knocked it down to basically nothing the first time we did this course, and Tipsy sailed over it like a pro.
The full course was 13 jumps – 13! As someone who deals with wicked nerves while competing I was more than a little worried I would blank in the middle. Happily, I did not! I tend to get lackadaisical when riding courses and am frequently told to “look!” for where I am going next (so much so that I now hear the words “look” and “stay organized” in my coach’s Hungarian accent – thanks David!) so having the course in the indoor with so many elements was an excellent mental exercise, as well as physical practice. The added task of counting eight strides away, and then counting the strides down the lines, made it that much more cognitive, but also helped take the focus off my nerves once I got started.
Takeaways:
It is never an option to accelerate in front of the jump – when in doubt, wait it out!
Every top rail has a bullseye – pick a spot and ride to it
Pace, track, and distance are the keys to good jumping
Corners have shape and bend!
I had a blast at this clinic. Other than the “counting eight strides away” exercise, there was nothing totally new or innovative that I hadn’t seen before, but the way Devin was able to establish big themes, and then pick on the details to make everything more cohesive was what left me most impressed.
Additionally, his ability to split his focus and attention between the six riders in my group was also impressive. We’ve all been to a clinic where one rider gets the majority of the attention and everyone is left feeling shorted. We had a really talented but spicy mare in our group who started the weekend thinking that the line of cavalettis was a timed event, and ended the weekend with some of the softest turns and most athletic efforts over the jumps, and he didn’t really spend any more time on her than he did the rest of us. If you have a chance to ride or audit with Devin Ryan, I highly recommend it!
Allison Howell lives in Virginia with her two dogs, a tolerant fiance and Danish warmblood mare. She is a passionate advocate for OTTBs, and her 2016 Makeover horse is currently leased to a good friend. Mares are the best; don’t @ me.
Work hard, play hard. Photo via Boyd Martin FB page.
Some of the best team building happens in the offseason, when the whole crew has spent all day slogging through the wet, cold, miserable weather and the best thing you can do it give the horses a day off and head to the nearest Mexican joint for tamales and margaritas and maybe something hot to drink.
National Holiday: Look for an Evergreen Day
U.S. Weekend Preview:
Recognizeds are on vacation for the remainder of 2018!
Your Wednesday News & Notes
Camilla Mortensen usually imparts a story about her spicy mare Cairo, but today’s blog is a love letter for her first Thoroughbred. Huey was a heart for Camilla to point herself into after two ended relationships and a cross-country move. He did all the things but jump over 3 feet, so when it came time to decide between her heart and her ambition, she chose to let him go to someone who loved him as much as she had…who then passed him to another who loved him until the end.[Everything I Needed to Know]
Riders are often intrepid souls and two entrepreneurial spirits bumped in together at a farm in Georgia. Ainsley Jacobs started Ride Heels Down apparel four years ago, then happened to move to a barn where Mary Campbell of Mare Modern Goods was already boarding. Despite being competitors in the market, the two became close friends, with Ainsley even converting Mary to the dark-side of eventing. [Community is Stronger Than Competition]
Is your horse on the naughty list? What funny “naughty” things has your horse done this year? Share the stories (and photos if you have them) for a chance to be featured on EN’s sister site Jumper Nation next week! Post them to Facebook here or email [email protected].
Attwood Wisdom of the Week: When the Weather Outside Is STILL Frightful….Move to Hawaii and Still Build a Covered Arena
Looking for a fun desensitizing exercise for your horse this holiday season? If you don’t value your own personal safety, why not adorn them in festive Christmas lights. If you do decide to go for it (not recommended) please don’t forget to send EN the video. Happy Holidays.
Why SpectraVET?
Reliable. Effective. Affordable.
SpectraVET is committed to providing only the highest-quality products and services to our customers, and to educating the world in the science and art of laser therapy.
We design and manufacture the broadest range of clinically-proven veterinary therapeutic laser products, which are represented and supported worldwide by our network of specialist distributors and authorized service centers.
EN young rider blogger and high school Junior Grace Gorham is just beginning the process of looking at colleges and she’s feeling … more than a little overwhelmed. Can you offer any words of wisdom? Let’s discuss!
Photo courtesy of Grace Gorham.
From Grace:
Junior year is known by many as the most stressful year in high school. This is the year when classes get hard, you are prepping for senior year and college, and you start to realize that there really isn’t that much time until “the future.” So far, it’s not that bad with my classes, but what is really overwhelming to me is all of the “thinking about the future.” In this post I’ll share with you my thoughts about the college process and my experiences to far, and I hope that others are able to relate.
I am just in the beginning of my college search; I have visited four fairly local schools so far. With each school that I’ve visited, however, it seems that I just feel more confused! I’m not sure that it’s supposed to work like that … I have so many ideas of what I think I’m looking for in a college in my head, but after each visit, those ideas shift until I’m not even sure what I want anymore.
One of the hardest parts for me is the fact, while the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program is rapidly growing (there are currently 30 USEA affiliated colleges and universities), most schools still don’t have eventing teams. There are plenty of schools with IHSA teams, but very few with eventing. It’s understandable because for eventing you need your own horse, and for IHSA, you don’t — but it’s still frustrating. I’m not sure if I would be happy doing IHSA or not. Right now I feel like I would enjoy it. Obviously it’s very different from eventing, but I think I would enjoy the team atmosphere, and it would be something to help my position and become a more versatile rider.
Another decision I will have to make is whether I want to bring my own horse, compete on an IHSA team, look specifically for a school with an eventing team, or not compete at all and just be on a team recreationally. The one thing I am sure about is that I definitely don’t want to go to a college with absolutely no equine programs, whether that means it has a major or minor in equine studies, an equestrian team, or a barn on campus. That way even if I don’t bring my own horse or ride on a team, I can still have the barn atmosphere to be around or just ride for fun. I think I would feel a little lost without riding, since it’s been such a huge part of my life for over 10 years now.
The four schools that I have visited so far each have their own positives and negatives. For example, with some schools I liked their equine programs, but I didn’t feel like I fit in with the student population. With others, I liked the campus, but not the majors or courses offered. The list goes on and on. I just keep thinking about how it would be so much easier if I could just combine different aspects of each school and create my perfect school!
My ideal school would be something with a small to medium population (about 2,000 to 7,000 students), an equine program, a busy town or small city, and good educational programs. I am hoping to do something in the equine media field (read more about that here), so I think it would be best to go to a school that has a major in something related to communications and media or journalism. I still have to do more research about which major would be best; I’m not sure whether it would be better to have a more general major (such as English) or a very specific major (like an actual equine media major).
As you are probably already thinking, there’s no way I’m going to get all of this in one college. I feel like I’m on an episode of House Hunters where the people say, “I want a modern, 3,000 square foot open floor plan, with seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, all new appliances, a huge yard, within five minutes of my work and five minutes from everything else I do, oh, and all under $200,000.”
So, I’m going to have to do some research, talk with some people, and figure out what my priorities are. Hopefully I will be able to figure out which schools I want to look at that are further away, and we can make some trips to different places. If you have gone through or are going through the decision of colleges, please leave a comment below about what your strategies were or what helped you through this stressful time.
The slow-moving debate over electronic logging devices for all commercial motor vehicles has been raging for what’s felt like forever. Just over a year ago in November of 2017, the news caught many in the horse industry by surprise that all commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) would be required to carry an electronic logging device (ELD) to help drivers comply with laws mandating rest periods and driving limits. For anyone hauling live animals, that can be a big problem.
The definition of a commercial motor vehicle had not changed, but many horse owners were surprised to learn that their rigs had been considered CMVs all along — and would therefore be sharply affected by the requirement to electronically log their time behind the wheel. While the concept behind the ELD comes from a desire to improve safety, there are plenty of gray areas that the new mandates did not appropriately address: imagine being forced to pull over at a rest area and stop driving for 10 hours while your horses stand on the trailer. That’s exactly the scenario that the new laws would have created.
With very little public awareness of these changes, various organizations in the horse industry, chiefly the American Horse Council, pushed back, working with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to try to reach a compromise for compliance. These changes would affect not only equestrians, but all livestock haulers, and the national Farm Bureau and cattlemen’s groups also joined the fight.
Here’s a quick timeline of the ELD debate:
November 2017: the ELD requirement first becomes a nationally-known issue for livestock haulers
January 2018: the mandate is waived until March 2018 to grant haulers more time to comply (and for a better solution to be reached)
April 2018: temporary exemptions were created until September 2018 by the omnibus bill in Congress
Brief spending bills passed by Congress throughout the fall to avoid government shutdowns included language that pushed compliance back first to December 7, then to December 21 of 2018. Now, however, the FMSCA website includes a pagethat specifically states:
Transporters of livestock and insects are not required to have an ELD. The statutory exemption will remain in place until further notice. Drivers do not need to carry any documentation regarding this exemption.
It’s unclear if “further notice” will eventually come down the road, or if this is a permanent solution. We encourage all haulers to keep an eye on the FMSCA website for further alerts, but for now, it does appear that all livestock haulers can stop holding their breath.
