The Training Three-Day at Waredaca last weekend was an opportunity to celebrate Eventing’s rich heritage and promising future. DC McBroom, division A’s winner, was kind enough to chat with Eventing Nation about her big win and the incredible effort involved in putting on such a wonderful event.
DC described her competition with Twain, a 13yo gelding Connemara TB cross, as “a little bit up and down.” Twain suffered a mild colic Wednesday morning, but, thanks to great work by the competition vets, recovered quickly. Sitting 5th after Dressage, Twain “ate up the Cross-Country and Stadium” with two double clears to capture the big win. DC’s ultimate goal is to get to Prelim and do a Classic, hopefully sometime next year.
The Event lasted just several short days, but takes a year of hard work to organize. As DC explained, the Area II Adult Riders spend all year gathering sponsorship and organizing the event, and dedicate most of the volunteer effort at the T3DE itself. Waredaca Farm, owned and operated by the Butts family, generously provides the land. Gretchen Butts, who rode in Rolex as a long format, is passionately dedicated to maintaining the long format tradition and spends countless hours preparing the course and grounds.
Furthermore, many Eventing professionals, such as Karen O’Connor, Max Corcoran, Kent Allen DVM, Danny Warrington, Peggy Pariso of the Ground Jury, Stephen Bradley, and many more, dedicated their time to educational seminars for the competitors. In speaking with several riders, these seminars were a wonderful experience and very informative. DC explained that all of the professionals were happy to give their time, and I wonder why we couldn’t have similar seminars as regular component of every Horse Trials. This would be a great way for upper-level riders to connect with the fans and recruit students and would give competitors an incredible opportunity to further their education.
As VP of Area Affairs from the USEA and a member of the USEF Eventing Technical Committee, DC offered some great insight into the future of the long format. Thankfully, as of December 1st, Training and Preliminary long formats will be used as qualifiers and year end points. This saves me the trouble of pointing out how absurd it is that these Events currently do not count as qualifiers. The long format is an amazing help to horsemanship, and has thankfully found a great home at the Training and Prelim level.
Thanks to DC for chatting with Eventing Nation, and thank you for reading.
