Your column “A Sport In Search Of Its Soul” (Oct. 22, p. 47) presents a cogent argument in favor of the old (“long”) format for international three-day eventing.

The three-day event was originally designed as a test for an officer’s charger. This horse had to be well trained and disciplined enough to carry his master on ceremonial parades (the dressage test); be fit enough, athletic enough and courageous enough to carry dispatches over long distances, at varying speeds and different types of terrain (the speed-and-endurance phases); and remain supple and sound enough to continue in service the day after carrying out such a rigorous task (the show jumping phase).

Historically, the type of horse that has best fulfilled these requirements has been the Thoroughbred or near-Thoroughbred.

In spite of my support for Mr. Emerson’s premise, I do feel it is somewhat belittling to the many great horses of a bygone era (especially of the English and Irish flavor–Kilbarry, Merely A Monarch, High And Mighty, Airs And Graces to mention but a few)–to suggest that only a mere handful were good in the dressage arena.

The level of the test in the three-day event equates only to third level in the United States, medium level in other countries, and hardly requires a great deal of “compression” (his word) or collection (my word).

Indeed, I was fortunate enough to own two international horses (Thoroughbreds) who excelled in the dressage arena. During the ’80s and early ’90s, the requirements for the dressage fell to a level much below that of today, or yesteryear, while the penalties for a rail down in the show jumping phase were reduced from 10 to 5 and more recently to 4. These two factors were arguably instrumental in reducing emphasis on the development of the skills riders needed to negotiate the increasingly technical requirements of the cross-country courses.

I welcome the recent trend to make the dressage more demanding (yes, including flying changes!) and to increase the height of the show jumping courses.

What is not clear to me, however, is the increased emphasis on speed in the show jumping test. Surely the horses have demonstrated their ability to jump at speed during the cross-country, and to ask them to do so over stadium fences encourages them to flatten, i.e. jump across the fences instead of around them.

The stated object of the show jumping phase is to demonstrate that the horses are fit enough, sound enough and supple enough to remain in service (this, of course, speaks to the very history of eventing) after the exigencies of the speed-and-endurance tests.

Thus, the course should encourage riders to take the shortest route rather than gallop flat out, which would also help to emphasize the versatility of the event horse. This would be epitomized in a course of the type found in show jumping speed classes or in a timed jump-off.

However, the course presented at the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) in October required the horses to gallop over biggish fences (al-though not of maximum dimensions), in mostly straight lines, with the result that rails were flying like matchsticks.

The part of the course that riders handled the best was, in fact, the one place where handiness was required. I watched Karen O’Connor with admiration in the warm-up ring, schooling her horse to jump nicely off its hocks, effortlessly negotiating a big oxer and giving it plenty of air, only to go into the arena and have three rails down!

In adopting the new short format, we have not only shown complete disregard (as Mr. Emerson suggested) for the origins of the sport and fundamentally changed the type of horse that is going to be needed in the future, but we have also eliminated the endurance factor and a major part of the speed requirement.

It is unclear at this point whether this has actually made it easier on the horses or harder. Judging by the condition in which many of them finish, it would seem to be the latter.

If eventing is to continue in the short format, then competitors might do well to study the methods used by the steeplechasing fraternity to prepare their horses on the day of a race, instead of having a hectic gallop over warm-up fences minutes before going into the start box.

Denny’s reference to the “gnomes in Lucerne” may be very apt. I think we are all aware that the Federation Equestre Interna-tionale decision to change to the new format was a political one, and it gives the appearance that they sold out to the International Olympic Committee to keep the sport in the Olympics.

The upshot is, of course, that it is no longer an Olympic test! Perhaps it would have been better to have allowed eventing to be dropped from the Olympics (there are many, many sports that are not represented at the Olympic Games) and maintain its own identity as an international competition.

There is also ample precedent for having the three-day event at a different location under more favorable climactic conditions than have prevailed at two of the last three Olympic venues. If we truly have the well-being of our horses at heart, one would think this would be a “no-brainer”!

In a bygone era, we used a format similar to the new short one as a warm-up for the three-day events at Badminton and Burghley in England. It was known as a two-day event: the dressage and stadium were on day 1 and the cross-country, preceded by a modified roads and tracks, was on day 2.

I don’t remember horses finishing nearly as distressed as they do now using the new format.

If eventing is to continue as an Olympic competition, it is only natural that the major events in the world will adopt whatever format that’s in use. It does not seem realistic, therefore, to expect that the FEI will be able to maintain a World Equestrian Games, European Championship and Pan Am Games in the original form if the Olympic Games continues to use the short format.

I am delighted by the movement that is resulting in the petition to save the three-day event, but if it does not meet with the approval of the powers-that-be, then might I suggest that a possible solution would be to adopt the old two-day event format, including roads and tracks? This would allow the horses a chance to settle and be physically and mentally prepared for the cross-country while preserving, at least to some extent, the historical values of the competition, instead of it becoming just a glorified horse trial.