Express Eventing is just the beginning....

[Eventer4life28]

I have a bad feeling this is the direction eventing is going.

And, if so, I will most certainly NOT be a part of it.

Obviously, at this point it's only about money.

So sad that horses are put through this.

[Eventer4life28]

Here is the video clip of Mary King competing in the "Express Eventing" competition for those of you who do not know what Express Eventing is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocBE7...eature=related

WARNING: Horse fall during XC.

[Appsolute]

I have been out of eventing since riding prelim in 1999. You know back when we had the long formatt and galloping cross country courses.

I had planned to stear my 2 year old towards an eventing career. But now? Maybe we will just take up hunting with the occcasional H/J and dressage shows

[LexInVA]

Is this like the cheap back alley Chinese take-out of Eventing? Or is it another critter all together?

[flypony74]

What is this, eventing on a f'ing soccer field?

That video was hard to watch for a myriad of reasons.

[LexInVA]

Ah I see. It's the infamous indoor Eventhing thingie I have been hearing of. It kinda looks...well I'm not sure how to say it without offending someone but it's like...a big indoor showjumping course. Like XC got date raped by SJ and the result was a higher functioning yet clearly mentally impaired offspring that Eventing is stuck with raising all by it's lonesome self. After watching those few minutes of footage, I can see why that fall happened. It's really not that far off from what is happening in regular Eventing.

[Jazzy Lady]

They do indoor eventing at the Royal in Ontario. It's a great contrast to the h/j that goes on, but it's quite different than express eventing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4CX8UputE

Here's a video of Penny Rowland and her horse going around on the second night.

[Coppers mom]

I hate to say this because I really admire Mary King, but it looked like that second fence wasn't going to happen several strides out. She was making a pretty big move with her body, and it looked really unorganized. Why didn't she just pull out?

I don't think it even looks fun. I mean, why not just do show jumping? I thought the fun of cross country was actually going cross country.

[galwaybay]

absolutely heartbreaking...sadly it can happen anywhere... it happened to Chris Kappler in Athens...

[lassoch]

It's interesting, because I see a lot of parallels between the current dilemmas of Thoroughbred racing and eventing. Both have recently come under fire for deaths, with accusations being thrown that they are dangerous and cruel. What's a giant, common thread between the two? Both have been gunning for speed. American racing has been incredibly fixated on horses that can show intense, brilliant speed at a young age, but there is no emphasis put on stamina or structural strength. Our races are much shorter distances than ones run in other countries. As a result, we have horses that are blazing up the track at age two but need to be duct taped together to keep their hooves from falling apart by age three.

Similarly in eventing, it's become all about speed and spectator convenience instead of safety and endurance. First, we toss out the long format in favor of the short format, we toss out traditional style jumps in favor of crazy looking "cool" questions, and now we want to try to compress courses even further? In both sports, people are trying to cut corners for the sake of speed, and horses are paying the price of it.

[JRG]

I don't usually post here, but I do read the posts. For what its worth here is my comment.

After all the hard knocks eventors have taken this year....Really!! someone thought this was a good idea?

[riderboy]

I've joked about "indoor eventing" when it was 30 degrees and sleeting- but that video sure changed my mind. It won't be funny anymore.

[cuonxc]

Originally Posted by Eventer4life28

Here is the video clip of Mary King competing in the "Express Eventing" competition for those of you who do not know what Express Eventing is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocBE7...eature=related

WARNING: Horse fall during XC.

OMFG -I did not think eventing could be further bastardized

apparently I was wrong

[blackwatch86]

did anybody watch the "eventing express promotional video"? The actual ring looked nothing like that...

also, that was the weirdest eventing thing I've ever seen (I couldnt watch the Mary King one, so I picked a diff. express eventing video).

[GreekDressageQueen]

I don't really see anything wrong with this. The indoor shows in the UK and Europe are big, tight, and fast. Have any of you been there? The only difference I see are the more x-country-themed jumps, combinations, and more room for gallop. MK half-halted Cavalier before the combo and he took the first jump spot-on IMO in good form. It was a very long two strides and he probably would have been fine but it looks he anticipated the jump and MK checked him on the second stride causing his head to go up, his back tensed, and he couldn't use his body to go over the jump. Or, his leg broke on that second stride which caused his awkward take off. I don't see any gross rider error here and the horse seemed in very good form. Nothing about the jumps seemed overly dangerous and her speed was very controlled.

I hate what is happening to eventing and I really hate all of the deaths, but I don't want to point the same old tired finger at everyone anytime a horse dies. Yes, this was tragic as are all the other bad things that have happened, but in this case, it appears it was just an accident. Bad luck. It is so terribly sad and such a waste.

[purplnurpl]

The clip from Ontario was a little more doable.

The questions on the express eventing video were down right retarded.
I'm suprised all competitors did not WD.

As for all of this indoor mumbo jumbo.
Seriously, why not just call it a winter season and spend some time with the JUMPERS!?

Eventing is for the Spring and Fall.
XC indoors is just plain foolish.
The combo that MK had issue with has worked fine for many years on an open XC course. Not indoors pointed at a wall for crying out loud. (insert curse word here)

I miss the days when horses were expected to do a few warm up HTs and then a big CCI each season.

[Jealoushe]

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLO PEOPLE

What are they thinking?!?!??!!

SHOWJUMPERS have a hard enough time getting a good gallop and maintaining balance and impulsion when they switch from the outdoor cicuit to the indoor.

WHY O WHY are we trying to get eventers who are supposed to have nice smooth rythymic gallops between fences to mad gallop around a small area.

It makes me want to rip my hair out.

And honestly, I like indoor eventing, I did a bit when I lived in Scotland, but it was more like a jumper course with some natural looking fences.

I hate this, I hate it so much.


I have to agree there was a riding error in that video. HOWEVER, if that were out on a real course I don't know if it would have happened. Riding errors do happen, but why are they always equalling death NOW???

The worst part is, these werent even real cross-country jumps, they are portable ones and breakable....so obviously there is more to it than jump construction as well.

[meventer]

Unfortunately there was definately rider error involved in that fall. If you watch the video, it was a corner to corner combination on 2 strides. It appears she missed the line and she actually jumped the second corner to the right of the red flag, over the widest part of the corner. It may not be a great idea of a sport but there was definately a problem with the ride here.

[Tdeventer]

I love eventing and I hope this does not come to be the only way we can run cross country. The only reason I am an eventer is because of XC the excitement but if they start to change the sport to this then we all should just become jumpers. This is not eventing this is a mockery of eventing. If they want to have this kinda sport on the side like a combined test than they can do that. They just should not expect the horses to be tested so hard between sold fences and stadium jumps. and a bank indoors come on. Mary kings horse looked so confused throughout the entire thing. He was such a good boy trying to figure out what was coming next. and roll backs to these solid fences. It was just like sharp turn after sharp turn.

This is not eventing

[retreadeventer]

I think some rich folks wanted to do something big to showcase the biggest names in the sport, outside of Burghley, Badminton, and the Olympics, and didn't want people to have to slog over the fields and mud to see them ride in all their upper level glory. They were willing to put up a bunch of dough to make sure the biggest names showed up. They got a big stadium that would sell a lot of tickets making back their big money so they wouldn't be out a whole lot. They crossed all the T's and dotted all the i's in order to make this a spectator friendly sort of eventers showcase.

Unfortunately this terrible thing had to happen. And actually I believe it sort of was ordained, because while the earnest hopeful backers all wanted just to showcase ULR's, the premise was flawed, and taking out the LAND and COUNTRY part of cross-country resulted in - well, what it resulted in. Money is the root of all of this and caused the poor judgments, in my opinion. I was dismayed about it long before it actually took place - several years ago when DOC was touting the Royal Winter Fair deal - I wasn't real thrilled with it then.

If cross country is removed then we are not really eventing in any shape or form. It's show jumping with solid fences. I highly doubt you could talk Beezie Madden or her ilk into jumping such a course with solid fences for ANY money, but that's just my opinion from what I have seen of our Olympic level show jumping riders. They don't seem so desperate for cash.

My personal message to our ULRS in this sport: get a job, marry a rich guy, or find a sponsor. Don't do THIS for money.