We continue to examine the future of US Eventing here on Eventing Nation by talking to Allison Springer; on a night that she’s set aside for calls and conference calls, an evening during which she’ll probably spend upwards of about four hours on the ‘phone, a consequence of sitting on various boards and committees,
“I’m on the USEA board of Governor’s and I think that probably has the most influence on the sport of eventing as a whole across our country. We’re already looking at next summer’s calendar trying to pick a date that’s going to work for the Board Meeting – one day I hope to achieve the ever elusive idea of balance in one’s life, especially an eventer’s life! There are some great riders involved but you want riders, organizers, vets, lawyers…you want a wide range of people that are a representation of the membership. I’ll do anything to help promote the sport. As fun as it is to whine you actually probably won’t hear me whine, I’d rather try to do something about it.”
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Allison on The Big Picture
“I love being on the Board of Governors because you really get to know an entire cross section of the eventing community. We discuss everything from budget to membership. I think there’s a responsibility for us all to participate in it and that’s why I’m involved; I have so little extra time in between my own business and riding the horses, and what I do with Platinum Pistol, but being on the USEA Board of Governors and PRO and PHC and all that is important; it’s so important to help make this sport safer, more fun, for better education – everything. It’s great that so many riders are involved, they’re just a good group of people that represent such a broad base of eventing; it’s fun to talk about how we can go forward positively, and help to make some good changes.”
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As one of the founder members of PRO, it’s close to Allison’s heart as a vehicle to improve the sport for absolutely everyone, and something that she saw being bore out during her summer in England,
“I think a lot of people think that the highest levels will trickle down and help improve the lower levels but I think it’s sort of the other way around, it’s our base of support; we have to garner that excitement and connection within the eventing community and that’s what supports us. Some random wealthy person isn’t going to show up in this country and decide they want to own event horses, most people barely know what eventing is over here; it was so awesome in England to turn on the tv in the pub in the afternoon, (not that I was in the pub every afternoon!) and there were always horses on tv, so that people who don’t even ride or own horses know who Frankel and William Fox-Pitt are, it’s just part of the culture. I don’t think we’ll ever change the culture here in the US but I think we can strenghten the overall eventing community, and what PRO has really tried hard to do is to promote the sport as entertainment, and make it a better overall experience for everyone involved, be they spectators, competitors, owners or organizers. I think we’re getting there but it’s working on making the base stronger and working on upwards.”
“Going forward and improving our US team finishes in the future I don’t think it’s just about the High Performance Programme, I think it’s everything. We need more owners and horses, and more support; we are never going to be a country that’s lottery funded, it’s just not going to happen so we have to think about that differently and we have to think about footing – it’s not just about having better footing at the upper levels, it’s footing for all levels and all horses. We have a much harder time getting horses to the higher levels and keeping them sound because our country as a whole has much harder footing here than it is in England and Europe, not just at our competitions but getting our horses fit and ready to compete we deal with a lot more concussion. The wonderful novice/training/prelim level packers – they don’t need to be constantly running around on hard ground either. This is something we can improve for every level and every type of horse. There are a lot of great horses in this country, I don’t think we don’t have enough good riders or good horses but it is hard to get more horses to flourish; it’s hard to have consistent seasons and it’s harder to keep horses sound and get them to the highest levels. I’ve enjoyed a wonderful career with Arthur, touch wood, he’s wonderful but he’s also something of a freak of nature, and I recognize that!”
The PHC has worked hard on improving footing, and introducing a consistent benchmark at events, as well being responsible for Rider Reps at competitions, while PRO continues to emulate the english ERA,
“I think in Eventing as a whole in this country there has to be a better all-around community, and support from every different sort of angle, and that in effect, will help us succeed at the highest levels as well. We’re not going to be able to do it the same way here as other countries, it’s very different. I think the biggest challenge is for the upper level riders. You look at the way some of the events have been and unless these people are already heavily involved in eventing it’s not that fun for them, and this is something PRO has been trying to address – we try and do something special for the owners – at Southern Pines and Kentucky we do a dinner for them, get them all together and try and have a fun gathering and make it more of a community, and that’s what they do in England so well. We lack community in this sport in this country at almost every level. It’s not so much the disconnect between the lower and upper levels, I feel like the reason why I wanted to get involved on the committee side is I think that this is the best equestrian sport ever, it’s just so much fun and it’s so complete, and it’s very inviting and welcoming, but we still need to work on making it a better overall experience for everyone. That will bring more people into the sport, because at the end of the day we do need better sponsorship, and owners, and all that sort of stuff. I hope people recognize that PRO is not about getting more prize money for upper level riders, that’s not what it about at all, it’s about making it an overall better experience for everyone so we can bring in more sponsorship and we can have better footing and better course design across the board, and we want to make it easier for organizers to provide these things, and that’s why we’re stepping in to try and help get it done.”
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Like many, Allison felt that the late selection did the US team no favours,
“I truly feel like what we saw at the Olympics was the result of horses and riders peaking too many times, you can’t keep that level throughout the year like that, it’s impossible. I think the argument for keeping late selection is that they want to know in the end that they’re picking the most competitive and soundest horses, and they’re all having to do the same stuff and compete the same way, but they don’t get what they want by doing that – they don’t get sounder horses and I don’t’ think they end up with more competitive people when it truly counts.”
“Mostly everything was great, and the crew this summer in England was just a really great group of people. I don’t think our program is broken, but it will change now. Everyone’s excited for David to come in and I think it’s good that he’s someone who based here, and grew up in the system so he gets how the system works, and I think it’s fantastic that he’s been President of the USEF so he understands the Federation side of things – how decisions are made and how money is allocated; he’s just overall going to be a better manager. One of things I loved, loved, loved about Burghley is that David wasn’t there coaching us but he watched everything we did – he came Saturday afternoon and watched our horses jog, he was there that night to watch them jog and he was there at 6am on Sunday morning when we jogged them again. He talked to us about their history and health and different stuff; I think he truly wants to understand, and know the truth about, and be a part of each horse’s soundness and their training. I feel that David is very interested in learning as much as possible about us. It’s not that we’re looking for someone to come in and coach us and teach us better, that’s not necessarily what it is; Mark in a lot of ways is a very good teacher, and he knows a lot, but we need someone who is a little more worldy-thinking on every level. It’s about embracing the owners and making them feel included and wanting them to get excited about it. It’s about giving better guidance, whether it’s a developing rider or what to do with your horse. It’s about making the Federation side of things work better, better communications. I don’t think the system is broken but I do think we need some changes that will allow our folks to be at their best when those big team competitions come along, and to give them that support as riders. I don’t think we’re ever going to get to that point where we’re professional event riders, I think we’ll always be professionals as we are in this country, not professional competitors as you can be in some other countries where you can just focus on yourself and being the best you can be. I think in this country we’re always going to have to be making a living; we spend a lot of time making our businesses work and that doesn’t free up a lot of time to make ourselves our best competitively. We can’t compare to England, Germany or other countries, we’re just going to have make it work with what we have. We do have competitions, we do have good horses and we are good riders. I think that especially with our late selection it doesn’t always give the trainers and the vets the opportunity to always truthfully know what they’re dealing with. I think David’s pretty open to hearing what we have to say, and I feel like last year at the Convention the riders really fought for early selection.”
“After selection has been made, I think Mark, or the coach should pick up the phone and call all the owners and thank them, and be available to answer any questions because there was a lot of hurt and confusion. Selection is always a heartbreaking thing and I think the selectors try to do the best job possible but I think what they did most wrong was not picking up the phone and saying, ‘Thank you for your sacrifice, it is important.’ It comes down to that communication.”
Allison would also like to see the High Performance Programme be more proactive and forward-thinking, much like the World Class Development in the UK,
“The most humbling thing about horses is you never completely get it, there’s always something more to learn. I don’t have it all the way on Arthur yet, I’m getting a little smarter, a little better and the same with my horse, we’re all trying the best we can. I don’t think our US Team failed us this year, we had a bunch of good horses and riders but it’s a hard sport. It’s a very intricate balance to figure out what is going to put those people on those horses at their very peak on that day. I don’t think the US has been doing it right, I don’t think it’s an individual enough approach for the horses and riders. Going forward I do think that David is going to try to get to know the riders, the horses and their programs a lot more intimately because in the past our High Performance Lists and Winter Training Lists have been a complete joke. We don’t have a Developing Rider list anymore, we have a C List. We need to identify horses and riders who could potentially be Team horses one day and help put them on the right paths, there have never been any forward-thinking conversations for example mapping out a plan for a combination to aim for Normandy, and who can best help them get there.”
“I don’t think you ever replace any horse you have, they’re all like your children and you love each one individually. I’ve been so lucky with Arthur in that I’ve been able to compete so many seasons one after the other on him. I’d be very interested to see what other event horses get to do that. Fortunately he’s a tricky enough horse, and I was so inexperienced when I first started with him that he has taught me so much. I love that horse so much, but watching a lot of other people training this summer, I think I might want to get a slightly easier horse next time! He’s like a PhD in horse training! It’s a very special relationship that we share; he’s a pretty amazing and wonderful horse but you can’t make a lot of mistakes on him. I think in a weird way life always gives you what you need, and I think because I’ve never had many upper level horses, (I’ve trained a lot of horses to the advanced level but I don’t have a string of upper level horses of my own to compete) Arthur was put in my life to be my string of horses! He’s given me so much education and perhaps because I’ve had him so long, but I’m always blown away that people tend to remember all the negative stuff with him when really there’s been so much positive stuff. Everything that has happened to me in the past was so I could learn more; you don’t become a good rider just by everything going right. For example, I was so enormously impressed by the Japanese at the Olympics, they had beautiful horses and rode technically absolutely correctly but when things went wrong and they fell off cross country – that comes with experience and you need to learn that as a rider, especially at the highest level of the sport, it’s not easy, it is so hard.”
“I think the sport in our country really is improving over the last two or three years; I think a lot of people are focusing on how the Olympics went, and what a bad showing we had there, but truthfully our dressage is not good enough in this country, it just isn’t. I think we have to be a heck of a lot more correct, and correct in our position. We aren’t good enough in that phase. Even Sinead – and her test at Burghley brought tears to my eyes, but she probably would not have ridden that test at the Olympics. Phillip Dutton actually helped her after selection, he got her to the point where he stressed that Tate had to be more honest in front of the leg and taking the contact, and that he needed to continue to do that, and that’s what she worked on. Neither of us took lessons really; we rode with Lauren (Hough) once, Sinead had one lesson with Bettina (Hoy), and I had Bettina ride Arthur a couple of times when I went home to teach a clinic but we weren’t lessoning in that month after the Olympics and leading up to Burghley, I think we had had so much information that we just needed to ride our horses and be in a nice environment and just take what we learned and incorporate it into our program as nicely as we could. For me, my lessons were more just being around Esib (Powers), Rebecca (Howard), Bettina and Jacks (Green) and at a very basic level Phillip helped Sinead understand that Tate had to be more correctly in front of the leg and taking the contact; Phillip’s not any master whiz dressage dude but that is the most correct most basic rule of dressage. Sinead never had any real relationship with him prior to that so that was a very cool change to see, and I was just so inspired and so happy, and it was just so wonderful to watch. That’s what competitions should be, they should be a gauge of where you are in your training and what’s going on.”
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Allison admitted though, that a week before Burghley she realised that although she’d been working on Arthur’s reaction to her aids, and basic dressage she hadn’t actually run through the test once!
“I didn’t necessarily feel like I went into Burghley feeling so pumped and focused for it. I feel like I got a little burnt out of dressage after all our training camp stuff, I just needed to not practice a dressage test and back off all that intense test riding and just enjoy riding my horse and work on our partnership.”
Obviously it all worked out for the best, placing 2nd after the first phase and jumping clear cross country to finish 6th overall, and also claim 3rd place in the HSBC Classics Series behind William Fox-Pitt and Andrew Nicholson. So what lies in Allison’s future?
“Right now I spend a lot of time looking at horses and I really hope to connect with some people in my hometown and get people interested in buying and syndicating horses. I have my horse Going For Gusto, whom I love. He’s pretty extraordinary; I bought him from Danny Warrington a couple of years ago. He’s an OTTB, and he looks strikingly like Arthur – he’s tall and liver chestnut, but Arthur has a prettier head. He’s all American Thoroughbred though, he raced a ton, and I’m really excited about him, I love him. I love him! I also have a couple of little French girls who were bred and are owned by a very dear friend of mine from my hometown of Barrington, Christina Cressie, she’s President of the Team Springer Dinger! The stallion is by Grand Marnier who’s by Galoubet, and they’re both out of US TB mares and they’ll hopefully finish the year at Training. Other than that I don’t really have the next horses, and that was the one thing David told me to think about what’s coming next. I’ve enjoyed such an awesome career with Arthur, and at 13 years old I would hope I have three or four more years left on him but we all know horses can be heartbreakers and tomorrow is never promised to you in life, in any aspect, so that’s what I’ll spend the rest of this year doing – getting these young horses going and competing down the track of future awesomeness but I’m also going to commit a lot of time to trying to get people excited about joining syndicates or owning horses. As a rider that’s what I’m lacking, and what I need the most, 100%.”
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Many, many thanks of course to Allison for her time, and wishing her the very best of luck in all her ventures. Go US Eventing!
