Reflections After The Fall

Photo by Kat Netzler

Our newest columnist sees many improvements in eventing but also a few challenges that yet remain.

I’m sitting at my desk on a Monday afternoon, sore from a fall, the day after the toughest week in Ocala, Fla., has finished. From Feb. 13-21, I had 12 rides at the Florida Horse Park Winter II Horse Trials, three in the Rocking Horse Winter II advanced one day, and 11 more at Rocking Horse Horse Trials in Altoona over the weekend. This past week symbolizes all that is great with our sport, but it also shows how much we still need to improve.

The Florida Horse Park is one of our sport’s success stories, and with some 400 horses at this event, our sport is thriving. Peter Gray and Jon and Jenn Holling stepped up to save this event through their support, and the community has gotten behind their tremendous efforts.

Make no mistake, though, this isn’t a mom and pop organization; the courses are safer and much more thought out than they once were. And there was prize money for all of the divisions. These guys care about our sport! What an accomplishment. The people of Ocala give us hope that our sport—which is also a business for so many—can actually be viable.

A few riders, including myself, started the Professional Riders Organization to represent the concerns of professional event riders and promote interest in the sport of eventing by entertaining and inspiring our fans. PRO is helping event organizers raise prize money and gain spectators and media coverage. We all love eventing, but we need to move forward and grow. The sport is, after all, a sport for the riders. If we don’t take a more active role, how can we complain when we don’t get what we want or, more importantly, what we need?

Another important part of PRO is helping event organizers decide on which officials to hire, and one useful exercise was a poll PRO conducted identifying the best and worst officials. In eventing, we use dressage and show jumping judges to officiate our competitions, so it’s not surprising that the most popular judges actually evented! The least popular judge didn’t event to the best of our knowledge but is quick to pull someone off the course after a few bad fences.

I’m excited to have this organization working to improve our sport because my career and safety are on the line at each event.

We Got It Wrong

It’s much more important that we have safe courses and conditions to ride over than it is for someone to judge if we are good riders. “Policing ourselves” is the coach’s job or another rider’s job. This factor is where the sport didn’t show its best efforts last week.

I’ll start by noting that the technical delegate at Rocking Horse is the best official we have.

I was one of the last competitors of the day to go cross-country in the preliminary division. There had been a few problems during the day that caused the event to run late, so the sun became a major factor. The communication between the riders (me), the course builder and the TD were great, but we got it wrong.

I had a fall while riding a very nice young horse at the second-to-last fence because he couldn’t see the top of the jump. The jump was removed from the course after our fall, but if you ask me, it was too little too late.

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Between Rounds

Comments

RAyers
1 year 48 weeks ago

Not quite accurate

I respect Buck Davidson and many others as to their skills on and off a horse, however, as shown in this article, they continue to claim things that have no basis in fact. It seems these top riders have no understanding of the world outside of horses.

First point:

"This air vest allowed me to walk away from this fall, and the Point Two Air Jacket is the most exciting innovation in a long time in our sport. No one drives a car without an air bag; why not ride with one?"

First, air bags in cars do NOT operate like the P2 vest. They have totally different mechanisms (explosive thermite gas generators, not gas canisters) and designs (electronic activations versus mechanical). At the same time thousands have been injured and or killed as the result of air-bag deployment. One can not equate the two unless they are marketing the product.

The P2 and other air bag devices are fail-dangerous designs. They rely on mechanical mechanisms to deploy and as such, if that system fails, the device fails. Every other vest that has undergone certification through BETA or EN are fail-safe. They work no matter what.

Another comment:

"I must commend Kyle Carter and Mike Winter for their thorough testing of the PRO logs."

How can he make that comment? I have seen the data Mike and Cyle have. It is some of the weakest mechanical testing methodolgy I have ever seen. It is the same type of testing we have high school students do when they come to learn about engineering. So, no, to this engineer and designer, PRO Logs have NOT been even close to thoroughly tested.

While Buck's anecdote is compelling how do we really know it was the P2 vest that helped? It was only designed as a supplementary device. Do we know that the same fall with a standerd vest would be any different. This is where specific porduct testing has to be done but has not.

And please, no "I ride at the top levels so I know better." dismissal. Too many time upper level riders and officials have dismissed the REAL experts with that sentiment, leaving the low level competitors at risk. Those who make these products refuse to do real testing of the devices and materials. And that is the difference between car makers and horse folks. Car makers, medical device manufacturers, consumer device makers all have true concerted testing efforts that have standardized tests so the customer at least has some idea of the quality of product they get.

As evidenced in part of this article, we are forced to rely on hearsay from a self-claimed experts in an area in which they have minimal understanding.

I will never question Buck when it comes to horses and horse care. On safety devices and equipment, however, he needs to get a better education. And this is where safety can REALLY be helped.

These riders and officials NEED to spend time with the engineers and designers to develop the fences, safety equipment that they need. It needs to be specifically desined for the equestrian and not adapted from other areas. Specific testing methodologies must also be created much like what exists in the UK at the University of Bristol.

lestat_B
1 year 47 weeks ago

It's a matter of sport

It's a matter of sport anyway, we have to accept that there is still fall and losing the battle. It's like struggling for a change, but you can't because you love to pursue that act of habit. Like what happened to Corey Haim. It's sad he never found his way back into the business, or even a few payday loans worth for someone to find him a trade. Let's hope we don't see too many more of these kinds of headlines.