As you gaze across an expansive grass field you see a horse and rider approaching. The elegant bay gallops confidently, jumping natural obstacles out of stride as his rider guides him over the flowing course. As they continue by, you notice that they truly appear to be having fun. The horse’s ears are pricked, the rider is relaxed and confident, and even when the gleaming hunter tosses his head in enjoyment after a particularly impressive effort over a birch oxer, his rider merely smiles and continues on.
If this sounds like the description of the hunters of yesteryear, you’re right—almost. This portrayal is actually similar to those that occurred at Canterbury Farm, Hampshire, Ill., where the featured Brookwood Farm $10,000 Grand Hunter Classic took place in June (see Between Rounds, p. 39).
This debut class at Canterbury Farm was the first in what many hunter industry leaders hope will be a resurrection of the sport, a return to the roots of the true definition of a hunter. Over the past 20 to 30 years we’ve lost that connection to the ancestor of today’s show hunter, the field hunter, who galloped and jumped over natural obstacles in pursuit of the hounds, huntsman and fox.
Full-fledged outside hunter courses are exceedingly rare at today’s horse shows as most hunters perform in small rings of all-weather footing with fences that would be out of place in the hunt field.
Members of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association High Performance Hunter Committee (see sidebar) hope to bring back some of that tradition to today’s show ring. The committee has met several times throughout the year and has developed the USHJA International Hunter Challenge Series, which they hope will become a regular fixture on the show circuit at venues with the ability to support the specifications.
The High Performance Hunter concept, first conceived by George Morris, has evolved to include a number of goals: to bring show hunters to the international stage; increase spectator, media and sponsorship interest; and to return tradition and basic riding principles back to the sport.
Morris initiated the first High Performance Hunter discussion during the Winter Equestrian Festival circuit in Wellington, Fla. A group of horsemen met over dinner to brainstorm about the sport’s future.
“We really wanted to know where the hunters are going. We want to go back in time a little bit for the hunters to go forward,” said Geoff Teall, High Performance Hunter Committee chairman. “By the time we’d
finished dinner, we’d planned for the Chicago class in June and talked with George about what he was thinking.
“We really needed to go back to making the hunters a jumping contest,” continued Teall. “The old-fashioned bigger courses required more jumping ability and technical riding, not the watered down version we have now.”
After the initial gathering of about a dozen horsemen, the group grew larger as the word spread and more concerned and interested people joined in the discussions. A second meeting, a one-day retreat in Wellington, was held, the USHJA became involved and the High Performance Hunter Committee was born.
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| What Makes This Class Unique?
The High Performance Hunter Challenge Series of classes will be much different than the typical hunter class. Some of the specifications include: • The fences will be natural—aikens, coops, stone walls, split rail fences, farm gates, etc. Ground lines will be discouraged. • The jumps will be set at 1.30 meters (4’2″) and increase in height to 1.40 meters (4’6″). • The use of natural obstacles, such as ditches, streams and natural foliage, is encouraged. • The first round will be a regular hunter course; the second round will be a handy course. • Unrelated distances, broken lines, in-and-outs and long approaches are encouraged. • A handy bonus of 10 points will be awarded to encourage riders to take risks and ride for brilliance. • Formal attire is mandatory, with horses shown in traditional hunter tack—snaffles, pelhams, double bridles, and both running and standing martingales. • The classes will be judged on the true jumping style of the horse. They will require a more athletic horse, which will be rewarded accordingly. |
The group developed and fine-tuned a mission statement and formulated a long-range plan. Horsemen behind this effort believe that riders and breeders in Europe have an interest in this sport and would like the opportunity to showcase their horses in international show hunter competition.
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“Ultimately, we have the 2010 [Alltech] World Equestrian Games as our goal. We’d like to have a demonstration there. So between now and then we need to plan and to work toward that goal,” explained Teall. “We want to move forward with an international concept of the hunters.”
While this group was formulating their future goals, another committee, the USHJA Hunter Task Force, was starting to work on revamping the hunters from another direction.
After the USHJA and USEF conventions over the winter, they’d been instructed to go over the USEF Rule Book and identify the rules and specifications that affected the hunter divisions. Their ideas center on establishing levels for hunters—similar to the jumpers—thus replacing the first year green, second year green, regular working and conformation divisions as the jumpers had replaced preliminary and intermediate and open.
Because some horsemen were involved with both groups, they decided to hold a joint meeting to find out if their ideas could be merged. “We added people to the High Performance Hunter Committee from the Task Force,” said Teall. “Now we’re all on the same page.”
It’s hoped that at their upcoming retreat, Sept. 3-4 in Chicago, these committee members can work toward a long-range plan for hunters on the domestic and international fronts.
“Personally, I’d like to see us create this High Performance hunter division and leave everything else alone and see where it takes us. Going forward with this new division and idea may affect everything else. The class in Chicago was a big success. There are a lot of people interested in this concept and hosting these High Performance hunter derbies.”
