PrintOur columnist believes this annual FEI championship reveals a weak link in the U.S. show jumping program.
As I write this column I’m following, via the Internet, the results of the Adequan FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships show jumping competition in Kentucky.
For me, this event has always been extremely special. For one thing, it’s the only Fédération Equestre Internationale Championship event held in North America in our discipline.
But even more important, it’s the only opportunity most younger riders have to take part in a true international championship event. The team element, the multi-day format with tension building every day, the pomp and circumstance that goes with a true FEI “event”—these are all of the things that most every participant I’ve spoken to feels has broadened her horizons and provided life-long memories.
Judging just from the results, however, I fear that it can be a very big step for many of our riders to go from what they do every week all year to this event.
The past two years, in particular, have produced very high scores for the vast majority of riders. Last year’s team results, for example, showed a silver-medal team score of more than 60 faults! Remember, this is the total of the team’s best three riders—the worst score was thrown out.
This year’s team competitions were almost as bad. While there were certainly some exceptional performances, the results overall show that what was asked of the horses and riders was clearly beyond what most could accomplish successfully.
For example, according to the scores in the junior team event, four of the nine teams were eliminated and one scratched. Two strong teams jumped off for the gold medal after attaining respectable 12-fault scores, but the bronze team had 37 faults and the only other team to finish had 76 faults.
Meanwhile, the young rider team event was even more disastrous. The score sheet shows no fewer than 21 eliminations over the two rounds. Considering that of the 47 riders who started on Day 1, only 37 started on Day 2, and a number of those didn’t start in the second round, this is a huge percentage of competitors who never saw the finish line.
For those who finished, you can imagine what the scores were when a total of 149 faults were accumulated by the three teams standing on the medal podium! Don’t forget, these were scores just from their best three riders; two riders from these winning teams were eliminated in a round as well.
We have top junior and young riders in this country; each and every one has full-time training, and most are mounted on exceptional horses with experience in the higher levels. So what in the world is going on? They certainly don’t post these scores at the other shows they attend.
A European Standard
No one should expect the NAJYRC to be just a regular horse show, though. Being an FEI event, the NAJYRC has a full set of special rules and specifications that go along with it.
The FEI is the sport’s world-wide organization, and its leaders hope to use these regional championships to achieve some universality in what a given group of riders or horses are doing at a specific level. Like everything with the FEI, the specifications and rules are driven by the acknowledged center of the sport, Western Europe.
