Thursday News & Notes from Achieve Equine

Joan Addison, Jimmy Elder, Ann Heukendorff, and John and Judy Rumble at the 2023 MARS Bromont CCI4*. (Michelle Dunn photo)

We’re starting off today with some sad news: Olympic rider and longtime supporter of the sport John Rumble has passed away at the age of 90. Casual eventing fans may recognize John’s name as an owner of Selena O’Hanlon’s WEG and Pan Ams partner Foxwood High. For his part, John was a Pony Clubber-turned-engineer who won a team bronze medal in the 1956 Olympic Games (Stockholm), finishing 16th inidivudually.

Selena O’Hanlon and Foxwood High. Photo by Leslie Threlkeld.

[Read much more about John in this obituary on Horse Sport]

U.S. Weekend Preview

Full Gallop Farm Jingle Bells H.T (Aiken, SC)[Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer]

USEA Annual Meeting and Convention (St. Louis, MO): [Information Hub] [Schedule] [Fast Facts]

News & Reading

During the FEI General Assembly in November, David O’Connor encouraged other equestrian disciplines to begin tracking horse and rider fall data. This came from the observation that a good percentage of falls reported at events do not happen on cross country. [A Call to Track Fall Data Across Disciplines]

Know your proposed rule changes! USEA members can comment on all proposed changes to the rules for eventing, which is valuable feedback as the initiatives go forward. The commenting period ends on December 11. Learn more about the changes on the table here.

Young event horses are so exciting. Whatever their future may hold, it’s fulfilling to produce them and watch them take to their jobs naturally. That’s the case for Arden Augustus, who recently won his division in the Event Horse Futurity for owner and breeder Anita Antenucci (“Gus” is piloted by Sharon White). Personally, I love Anita’s breeding philosophy: “I never set out to become the breeder who breeds the next Olympic team. That is a numbers game—you have to breed a lot of horses to find that raw talent. I like to breed something with good bloodlines and some blood because I like the Thoroughbreds, and think we should be showing the American Thoroughbred and their usefulness in our sport. I am really, really happy if what I breed are horses that I, as an adult amateur who used to be competitive, wanted to ride.” [Arden Augustus Exceeds All Expectations for Antenucci and White]

#GoEventing in: Jamaica

The FEI Eventing World Challenge was established to encourage development of the sport in smaller countries. It’s a pretty cool format, done so to take into account the fact that riders in these smaller countries may not be riding regularly or have access to training opportunities. Therefore, the events are run in a one-day format in three categories of varying technicality:

Category A : 1x Dressage Test + 1x Jumping Course (1m maximum height) followed by a Cross Country Course (95cm-1m maximum height)
Category B : 1x Dressage Test + 1x Jumping Course (90cm maximum height) followed by a Cross Country Course (90cm maximum height)
Category C: 1x Dressage Test + 1x “Derby” course with Jumping & Cross Country Fences (80cm maximum height)

You can check out more about the Eventing World Challenge here, and some scenes from the first Challenge held in Kingston, Jamaica below:

Sponsor Corner

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Video Break

I’m a BIG Connemara fan, personally, and given the breed’s popularity in eventing I think you’ll find this USEF Learning Center video as great as I did!