This photo doesn’t do the Tuesday night situation justice
Of all the eventing lessons that have served me well in other aspects of life, perhaps none has been more important than the lesson that details matter. My coaches over the years have taught me that the little things that often aren’t directly related to what I’m doing on my horse make a big difference to what happens to my horse. I’m a little dense, so this message has been screamed at me many times over the years. Take, for example, choosing where to ride. Bromont has two sand practice arenas near the barns and one large practice arena by the cross-country course. On Tuesday evening approximately 20 horses were being ridden in the two practice arenas by the barns. 18 horses were in the lower arena and 2 were in the upper arena. The poor horses in the lower arena were practically bouncing off of each other and I can’t imagine that the riders weren’t at least a little distracted trying to avoid collisions. On Wednesday morning approximately 40 pairs were riding in the two arenas by the barns (thankfully more evenly distributed) and 5 were riding in the (much larger) arena by the cross-country course. If 10 of the barn arena riders had taken an extra 4 minutes to hack over to the larger arena everyone would have had a better experience. Humans are the herd animals, not the horses. Go eventing.
