Let’s Discuss: The Making of an Event Horse

Yesterday, I was in the library where I was supposed to be studying for an impending astronomy test, but instead found myself wandering the section of the library containing all the horse books. I guess that’s called procrastination but unless I managed some incredible feat of memorizing 25 constellations in one hour, I figured I was pretty much sunk whether I studied or not. One of the books that caught my eye was an older one entitled “Riding For America”; it was published by the USET a time ago and contained articles by some of the “eventing elite” of the day, including Mike Huber, Torrance Watkins, Jimmy Wofford, and Bruce Davidson; It’s a good book, you should read it sometime. Bruce’s section was titled “Making the Event Horse from Scratch.” I thought he had some very insightful and interesting thoughts regarding the bringing up of event horses. Since this book was published twenty-some years ago, it got me thinking about whether his theories are still relevant to modern eventing, or more to the point, are they even applicable with all the changes eventing has seen over the years.

Even if this was article was the first thing of Bruce’s that you had read, you’d still know he is about as tough as they come. His approach is the same with each–tough yet fair–and every training method he uses has a specific and clear purpose. He stated some of the basic things of bringing up young horses, such as the importance of having them spend their early lives in a field, where they are able to run and interact with other young horses. That time in the field, he believes, teaches them more about their balance than a human ever could. Bruce wrote extensively about the importance of horses getting physically tough and fit when they are young, because that fitness and durability tends to carry on into their later lives. Racing was his primary example regarding that point, which would of course only apply to Thoroughbreds. He also mentioned the importance of foxhunting in a young horse’s education, not only to awaken in the horse its bravery and survival instincts, but also in terms of physical toughening and conditioning. In his words,

“We hunt our horses very seriously. Our four-year olds will hunt one or one-and-a-half days a week. And of course each day’s hunting is considerably more work than a preliminary three-day event. By the end of the season, my four-year olds will probably have done thirty days’ hunting, and that’s a lot. They are fitter than they would need to be to go intermediate or advanced, because we hunt from four to five hours and cover twenty-five miles on the hills.”

 By the young horse programs that I have seen in recent times, the kind of fitness Bruce mentioned above is unheard of. Ex-racehorses, of course, will come off the track very tucked up and fit, but purposely getting a young horse that fit was never something I realized had benefit or was even appropriate in terms of horsemanship. Although event horses may fit into the lower price category compared to a top show jumper or dressage horse, nowadays the top event horses still cost more than an average American’s yearly salary! It seems to me that in today’s current economic climate, most people would view foxhunting their special young horses as having more risk than benefit. At the upper levels, these horses are being trailered regularly to the pool and hyperbaric chamber, not carrying their riders across rocks, mud, creeks, and all other natural obstacles seen in a day of hunting. The recent trend, at least in terms of the professional horse world, is for young horses to be produced literally by the dozens. It isn’t uncommon to see a professional competing between 5-8 novice and training level horses at the same event. In a program of that size, riders simply don’t have enough time to spend with each individual horse to take them hunting, for example. 

 

So I’m leaving it with you Eventing Nation. Are we as a community slowly losing our horsemanship in an attempt to produce a greater number of event horses? Do traditional activities like foxhunting and racing still have their place in a young horse’s education nowadays? Is having that background even beneficial to horses today when technical skills are often tested on the cross-country course more often than just sheer bravery?

 

Ready, set, and go eventing.

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