The "other" blue numbers
The EN founder added just 24 time penalties to a dressage score of 50.6 to finish 5th in the Starter division at River Glen Horse Trials, held over the weekend in Newmarket, Tenn. John, a formerly successful 2* rider, has been on hiatus from eventing since discovering he had “no talent whatsoever.” But when his girlfriend recently asked him to take her new OTTB Freeport Bay to his first event, John figured, what the heck. I caught up with him afterward to see how things went.
Dressage, he explains, was OK — “There was no canter in the test, thank goodness” — but the young horse was a star over fences. The cross-country course was a stiff one. John said he was worried about two fences in particular: #8, a faux-ditch he described as “intimidating,” and #10, a mini brush-box that proved treacherous for several competitors. (Seriously, I was jump judging and there were like six or seven refusals.) “That probably could have been frangible,” John says.
But if John was nervous, he didn’t let it show. Freeport Bay sailed over all over the fences like a seasoned eventer. Unfortunately, the combination of John’s upper-level experience and Freeport Bay’s raw talent wasn’t enough to defeat the competition, which was largely dominated by little girls on ponies. “I got soundly beaten,” John admits. Sounds like a rematch is in order!
So, can we expect to see John in the competition ring again sometime soon? “No,” he says. “Definitely not.” The rush of a start-box countdown, the thrill of thundering hooves, the adrenaline of defying of gravity … that didn’t suck him straight back in? “Nope.” Despite the fact that his girlfriend had only glowing praise for her horse’s eventing debut, John explains that campaigning a horse for an owner is stressful. “It’s too much pressure,” he says. “I can’t handle it.” Oh well, John, if you ever change your mind, you can always… Go Eventing!
