Linda Allen

From USPC Championships to EAP to World Cup qualifiers, our columnist sees an opportunity for riders at every level to learn more.

Recently my travels have taken me around the continent to a variety of different events. They’ve been a good reminder of the wide array of activities offered by our sport. The fun and fresh perspective that can come with adding a little variety to what we do is sometimes overlooked when we fill our schedules with horse show after horse show.

It’s never too late to start—and there’s always more to learn.

The reminders are everywhere. This sport of ours is one for the ages—all ages that is. As this issue of the Chronicle celebrates youth, I’d like to remind our junior riders just what a long future they could have as a jumping rider.

Our columnist reveals the many ways she’s benefited from her love of reading—and shares the latest book to capture her attention.

I’ve been blessed with a love of reading all my life. In my early years, when a passion for horses couldn’t be assuaged with the real thing, books had to serve instead. Whether it was Black Beauty or an issue of Western Horseman magazine, my nose was always pressed into something “horsey.”

Our columnist sees levels and goals so disparate they should almost be made into separate sports.

Show jumping spans such a wide range of levels and participants these days that it can be hard to recognize as a single discipline. The elite athletes jumping huge obstacles with precision and grace at last year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and the often scary “belly to the ground” riders jumping over 2'6" at many of our shows are separated by much more than just the heights of their fences.

Our columnist looks back at the best and worst of the year in show jumping.

It was no secret that the U.S. team was a strong favorite to be in the running for a medal at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (Ky.). As the defending Olympic team gold medalists, U.S. riders have moved from strength to strength on the international stage. The team’s disappointing results at the WEG were not a reflection of the usual form of U.S. riders against strong international competition.

Our columnist and Julie Winkel put together a popular symposium to discuss various aspects of training and developing young hunters and jumpers.

When I sat down this past spring to write a column on the challenges facing the breeders, owners and trainers of young horses in North America I was only guessing at the interest there might be in the subject. A few weeks earlier Julie Winkel and I had decided to take a chance on offering a symposium on developing young hunters and jumpers.

Attending every World Show Jumping Championship since 1978 has left this author with countless memories.

Our columnist hopes that eventually it will become commonplace again for international show jumpers to start their horses from scratch.

Having so many different disciplines within equestrian sports is part of what makes it so interesting. We’ll be seeing all eight Fédération Equestre Internationale-recognized disciplines at the end of September in Kentucky at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Our columnist recalls the cyclical journey that the selection process has taken over the past few decades.

Jumping, like all equestrian sports, is a fickle game. With an endless variety of variables at play, not even the very best horse-and-rider combination is infallible on any given day. This situation means that selecting a team for an event such as the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games comes to as much art as science.

Our columnist hopes we can regain the best aspects of eras past and merge them with the best of today’s sport.

It’s been nearly a decade that I’ve been writing Between Rounds columns here in the Chronicle, and in looking back over past columns one frequently recurring theme has appeared. Although some very good progress has been made, there remains a real disconnect between the breeders and most of those involved in competitive show jumping in North America.