It’s the day and age of the digital learning curve, and in just the past year or so we’ve seen the influx of new technology and new programming that helps bring the sport of eventing that much closer to its enthusiasts. With the increase in live stream availability at major events, the creation of new learning platforms such as Noelle Floyd’s Masterclass series, and the rise of guided training apps such as Ride iQ, educational opportunities abound regardless of where you live.
Throwing her hat into the ring now is Britan’s Piggy March, who has kicked off 2022 by launching a new online training and education platform, Train with Piggy. The 2018 Badminton winner began publishing video blogs in 2021 to keep her followers updated on her routines at home, and now Train with Piggy is here to kick things up a notch with virtual training, rider fitness programs, horse care tips, and exclusive access to Piggy herself. Think of it as the boy band fan club of your teenaged years on steroids (and, let’s be honest, way cooler).
Train with Piggy is available as a £25 / $34 monthly subscription and you can learn more about this exciting new venture here.
Now that we’ve made it through the holidays, emerged from our cheese coma, and kicked our way through to a new year like the Kool-Aid man, it’s roughly the sort of time that I start getting really excited about the season to come. That feeling is fed, of course, by the hard-working event social media managers around the world, all of whom are making a jolly good effort to remind us all that they exist as box offices begin to reopen for the year ahead. But this pensive picture of a sleepy Kentucky Horse Park didn’t just get me daydreaming about the event to come — one that I hope I’ll get the chance to see in person for the first time! It also made me think back to the extraordinary effort the eventing community made to ensure it happened in 2021, and it’s exactly that can’t-hold-us-down communal spirit that encapsulates the vibe I want to bring into 2022. Screw resolutions; let’s just keep on changing the world the only way we know how — by rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty.
National Holiday: It’s Women Rock! Day, which celebrates gals who are just a little bit rock & roll. I’ll be listening to Hole while I muck out, but that’s not really a change from the norm, if I’m honest.
Your Monday Reading List:
At just 19, Alice Casburn is basically the embodiment of a pony novel heroine. Riding a second-generation homebred, she finished second at Blair Castle CCI4*-L in 2021, then made her five-star debut at Pau, jumping two excellent clear rounds and continuing to be a generally excellent person. Learn more about her here.
We all talk a lot about the downsides of Covid — and truly, there have been many. But in the grand spirit of making the best of a bad situation, how about the unexpected good things that have come out of this pandemic? Horse&Hound ponders the positive in this piece, and I have to say, I’m totally with them on the improved state of warm-up rings at British Eventing competitions.
In terms of celebrity deaths, I’m not sure any have been as universally rued as that of legendary comic actress Betty White. But she doesn’t just leave behind her a legacy of unproblematic wit — she also made an impact on the horse world that you probably haven’t heard about. Here’s more from EQUUS.
A lot has changed for equestrian sport in the last year. COTH is looking at the year ahead with a neat little summary of what’s in, and what’s out, for 2022.
16-year-old Zoie Brogdon is making a name for herself on the West Coast jumper circuit – and she’s inspiring plenty of other young riders along the way. Find out more about the Compton Junior Posse rider, who sat down for a chat with Sports Illustrated.
The OYES Equestrian Scholarship is committed to supporting diverse talent in the horse industry — and there’s no better time to follow them than right now, as they head closer to their January 15th deadline for the next round of awards.
Morning Viewing:
Meet 18hh(!) Hillcrest, who’s taking the world of jumps racing one enormous stride at a time.
Yesterday may have been New Year’s Day, but technically the eventing new year began a month ago as the newest batch of USEA dressage tests became effective on December 1, 2021. If you competed at the Rocking Horse December H.T. or the Full Gallop Farm Jingle Bells H.T. last month then you’ve already gotten a jump on learning your new test, but for the rest of us it’s time to get studying now that the calendar has officially turned to 2022! Find the current tests here.
This sentiment has been floating around Facebook for a while now, but honesty how could I not lead with it today? Here’s hoping all the buck and bolts are out of 2022’s system, but honestly, I’m not gonna hold my breath. Have a Happy New Year, Eventing Nation fam! Here’s hoping for an incredible year of eventing around the world and a year of fulfillment — whatever that looks like personally — to each and every one of you.
Good evening, fine folks, and a happy tail-end to 2021, another thoroughly weird trip around the sun. I suspect I’m writing to a diminished audience right now as many of you head out into the real world to usher in 2022 (2020…too?) with a bit of pomp and circumstance. But if you’re giving going out-out a miss this year, you might fancy something to watch that allows you to steadily slip deeper and deeper into a cozy red wine torpor, all while feeling a bit cultured at the same time.
Enter this delightful ‘horse ballet’, set to the Mozart cantata “David Penitente” and performed in the most remarkable venue in Salzburg, Austria. I’m not sure what I find more captivating — the grace and precision of these highly-trained horses, or the fact that the orchestra is on display like a candy store window, but what I do know if that the whole thing is so hypnotic I might miss the big countdown. In case I do, I’ll say it now: a very happy New Year to you all. I can’t wait for the adventures we’ll go on together next season.
Each day between now and the New Year we’re counting down the top 20 most popular videos shared on EN in 2021. The #1 spot goes to “Carrie Skelton Sets British Eventing Dressage Record of 5.5 (Yes, Really),’” which garnered 28,834 views when it was originally posted on April 10, 2021.
It’s not often that an early-season one-day event becomes the stage for a history-making ride, but that’s exactly what Norton Disney Horse Trials in Lincolnshire was transformed into in April , as one of its competitors set a new British Eventing dressage record under the critical eye of judge Christine Pappa.
“I thought it was a typo at first and kept waiting for them to change it to a 25.5,” admits Carrie Skelton, who scored an eye-watering 5.5 (no, still not a typo) in the BE100 Open [Training level] section aboard the Lancer Stud’s Ramesses B. “I usually get a 24 dressage, which I’m always over the moon with!”
Though British Eventing’s database of all-time scores isn’t wholly comprehensive, a quick text to EquiRatings’ Diarm Byrne put the score into context: it’s the best score since the database was conclusively pulled together, and with the progressive increase in quality in this phase over the last number of years, it’s highly unlikely that this has been bested. Carrie overtakes previous record-holder Rosie Bates, who scored a 6.3 aboard Forrest Dot Com in a BE80(T) [Beginner Novice] section at the same event last year and Michael Owen and Direct Galaxy, who posted a 7.3 in a BE80(T) at Kelsall Hill in 2019.
“Just make sure you tell everyone I was enjoying a Campari Soda in my white socks watching Messi when the call came,” says a mildly harangued Diarm.
Here it is, folks: the most framable test sheet anyone has ever received. To put it into quite startling context, it bests Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro‘s world record 94.3% by two-tenths of a percentage point. Courtesy of Carrie Skelton.
Carrie took over the ride on Cairo, as he’s known at home, in 2020. Prior to their union, the eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Ramiro B x Wannabe G) was produced by India Thompson, then competed for two seasons by five-star rider Richard Jones, before Martha Craggs, daughter of owners Emma and Marcus, took the reins for the 2019 season.
Though Carrie’s intentions for a full debut season were thwarted by the national lockdown, they still managed four events last year, forming a swift and successful partnership to end the year with a clear round at Novice under their belts as well as two placings and a win, which they notched up in a BE100 Open section at Little Downham Horse Trials.
“Cairo has a wicked sense of humour and will definitely let you know if you’re not on your game, but he gives me 110% every time and is an absolute joy to train and ride,” says Carrie, who has adapted her training regime to suit the horse’s unique needs. “I don’t school him much at home as he’s better fresh, so he does loads of schooling on hacks instead. He finds the dressage so easy and is so correct that it means I can concentrate on being super accurate.”
It’s always tempting to look at an achievement like this under a microscope to try to find out how it was done – and in this case, it probably doesn’t take much searching. Carrie, who worked as an event groom from the age of 16 until she was 24, also worked at a dressage stud, which allowed her to hone her flair for the flatwork.
“I got some amazing experience on seriously top dressage horses with top trainers, which I think has really helped,” she explains. Now, with her grooming days behind her, she’s focusing on her own riding career. Without abundant funding behind her, she’s relied on that finely-tuned work ethic to make it happen, gaining teaching qualifications along the way to help make the financials work. A dream alliance with The Lancer Stud, based in Suffolk, has helped make her dream a reality.
“I ride solely for them now, and they have some seriously special homebreds coming through which is very exciting,” says Carrie, whose role includes backing, bringing on, and competing a selection of the stud’s youngsters. She’s in good company there, too – among the Lancer Stud’s roster of riders is another British record-breaker, Piggy March.
Though Carrie and Cairo’s day at Norton Disney didn’t end quite how they’d have liked – they incurred a frustrating technical elimination on cross-country for missing out a fence in what was otherwise a classy clear round – the pair have their sights set on bigger things to come.
“I would love to go 2* later this year with him as he’s more than capable – I’ll definitely walk the xc a lot for that,” laughs Carrie, who regrouped to compete at the event after a crashing fall while riding at home two days ago. “I’m hugely grateful to Lancer Stud for letting me have the ride on him as it’s such a treat to ride a more experienced horse after doing youngsters for so long and I hope I can do him justice!”
Carrie has very kindly shared a video of her test with EN – though she admits wryly that “the funny thing is I can still pull the test to pieces when I watch it and see a million things I could have done better!” Here’s how they made it happen:
Horse people know what’s up. Photo by Nat Balsley.
Well, 2021, I don’t know if we can say it was fun, but now it’s over. Almost. Please do not bring any more 2020 energy into the new year, I think we’ve all had plenty now, and we would love to move along with our lives safely and with health and happiness. To no more insane global disasters, and to many more pony kisses and cat naps. That’s all folks! See ya in the new year!
News From Around the Globe:
Working with a young horse on improving their bend around turns? Young or green horses are fond of what I call “motorcycling” around the turns, and that’s because it takes significant strength and balance through the topline to hold an inside bend. Five-star rider Jordan Lindstedt has some excellent tips and training methods to help you teach your horse how to bend better for next year. [How to Teach Your Horse to Bend]
Considering that we participate in a sport where we still mount from the left because that’s the side we carry our swords, and that we’ve managed to keep a sport meant to test the bravest cavalry horses in the Olympics alongside skateboarding and three-on-three basketball, one might be forgiven for assuming that riding is, perhaps, a bit slow to evolve. And while, sure, horse sports don’t change quite as quickly as fashion or music, we’ve still got our own trends. You haven’t worn your puke-green breeches in a few years now, have you? And picking a drop noseband over an anatomical bridle marks one not as a thrifty re-user of well-kept tack, but as someone bordering on militantly traditional. [What’s In and What’s Out for 2022]
Everyone in eventing knows the name Phillip Dutton – but, have you heard of the little pony that could named Phillip Buttons? When Lilyanna Wood first saw the then 6-year-old German Riding Pony by Makuba, she knew the gelding was meant for her. Wood is no stranger to producing eventing mounts, but the start of her relationship with the pony she now affectionately calls Spike for his sassy personality was unique. [What’s In a Name: Phillip Buttons]
Knowing when to give up on racing dreams is a tough one for those in the thoroughbred industry. Dr. Patty Hogan, equine surgeon and founder of Hogan Equine Clinic, says there are three primary situations that should prompt a trainer to retire a horse, two of which are obvious and one of which is trickier to assess. When a horse is untalented for racing, it’s both clear to most trainers and not a fixable issue. Similarly, when a horse suffers a serious injury that makes it unlikely for him return to his previous level of racing, it’s clearly time for retirement. Where trainers can run into problems is deciding when a horse with chronic issues needs to find a second career. In many cases, she worries trainers can fall prey to what she calls ‘One Last Race Syndrome.’ [Vet Warns Against One Last Race Syndrome]
The FEI continues its “Best of 2021” video series with a recap of the FEI European Eventing Championships in Avenches, an event that had it all: cross country action, dressage poetry and show jumping thrills. See once again Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin jumping to Individual Gold and Team Great Britain winning the gold medals as well.
Each day between now and the New Year we’re counting down the top 20 most popular videos shared on EN in 2021. The #2 spot goes to this video, which garnered 12,292 views when it was originally posted on Aug. 3, 2021.
Once every four years, the un-horsey masses are reminded that there exists a sport called dressage — or, as Stephen Colbert put it during his relentless roast of it during last Olympic cycle, “competitive horse prancing.”
One man’s Very Serious Sport is another man’s comedy gold, I guess. This go-round, Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart got hold of some dressage footage and went to town with it. This clip has probably already been forwarded to you by 10 of your closest un-horsey friends who are trying their best to relate to your obscure pastime, but if it hasn’t (maybe or maybe not because you don’t actually have any un-horsey friends) here it is. Enjoy!
We’re very nearly to the finish line of 2021, and we owe each and everyone who contributed a volunteer hour over the past 12 months a huge thank-you. Collectively, a whopping grand total of 64,528 hours were logged on Eventing Volunteers. 64,528! That’s equal to 2,688 days, which is equal to over seven years.
Cheers to you all! We’d like to take this edition of Volunteer Nation to recognize the top five volunteers from each USEA area, with links to the complete scoreboard for each. Additional scoreboards can be viewed here.
As always, you can earn merit points when you donate your time through the USEA’s Volunteer Incentive Program. Registering to volunteer through EventingVolunteers.com makes it easy and seamless to both find a job and shift as well as learn what your role will entail.
