Peter Winton is an old friend of mine from my teaching days in Australia. In recent years, Peter has lived and run horse shows in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This year Peter undertook the rather daunting task of organizing the FEI Show Jumping World Cup Final, bringing the show jumping community halfway around the world to compete in Asia.

I’d heard nothing but rave reviews from the Europeans who’d gone out to compete in Kuala Lumpur at Pete’s annual indoor show. From the stabling, to the footing, to the atmosphere of the people, it all sounded first class. And, let’s face it, from the point of view of universality, it was a positive to have this indoor championship in this distant part of the world.

It was certainly the farthest I’d ever traveled in my 60 years of horse showing, save for an Olympic Games. But I was full of excitement and anticipation, despite almost two straight days of travel.

To be perfectly frank, I never anticipated sending a team out to this final with our “guns fully loaded.” The main reason was the distance. Some owners simply do not want their horses to travel that far. Second, it’s the year of the World Equestrian Games, and our first team of horses had to be in La Baule, France, the day after World Cup ended, so it would have been physically impossible for a horse to do both tours.

Margie Engle and Beezie Madden planned to do both, but McLain Ward dropped out of the World Cup to have a fresh Goldika for our first Super League tour. Sapphire was never going to this year’s final in light of saving her for the WEG. And it was the same scenario with Authentic, Beezie’s first horse.

Unfortunately, Jimmy Torano’s horse sustained a slight injury at Charlotte (N.C.) just before departure and had to drop out. So we were down to eight riders instead of 10, three from the West Coast (Joie Gatlin, Rich Fellers and Richard Spooner) and five from the East Coast (Margie Engle, Beezie Madden, Laura Kraut, Alison Firestone and Kent Farrington).

My hope was to have a respectable showing. Next year in Las Vegas, I guarantee we’ll go with everything loaded and take our best shot. The logistics and priorities will be very different next year.

Airports always give me a first impression of a country. This one in K.L. was most impressive–spotlessly clean, well organized, and rather beautiful. Peter Winton sent a nice horse show hostess to the airport to meet me at 6 a.m., which was most thoughtful. The only slight “glitch” was that the car had just returned the 45 minutes back to the hotel with a French and a German

official. This added on to an already very long trip. No matter. As my traveling grandmother always taught me: “George, it’s just part of travel.” All of her life’s lessons were well taught if not well heeded.

The roads, at least in this part of Malaysia, are excellent, although they do drive “on the wrong side of the road,” English style. It was hot and humid all the time, much like Florida, my new home state. And there is a great diversity of peoples, cultures, races, and religions.

One can only imagine what an event like this means to the horse community, both here in Malaysia and to all of Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. For the people to ride, watch and rub shoulders with the best of our sport is a once-in-a-lifetime, dream-come-true experience. I commend Peter Winton, the Malaysian federation, and the Federation Equestre Internationale for having the final here. It was a bold undertaking.

The venue was a 10-minute taxi ride from the hotel, certainly not a walking distance. Thanks to Robert Ridland, the technical delegate, our stabling was closest to the main arena. Right next to us was a covered exercise ring, much like in Las Vegas. Then we entered a building where there was a very sizeable warm-up ring adjacent to the main ring, which was not very big at all. Because of the temporary VIP seating on one long side, it was quite a narrow ring indeed.

One of the nicer perks to this show was the non-stop cafeteria right above the European stabling. We could eat and look right down into the Europeans’ stalls. No secrets there!

Most of the riders, while very serious about the competition and their horses, were on a semi-vacation at this distant and exotic place. So one of the priorities was to get to town when work was done.

Kuala Lumpur was a good 25 minutes by cab from the hotel. It’s a big, bustling, modern metropolis in the middle of the jungle, chock full of shopping malls built vertically in high-rises. Every top store and restaurant in the world seems to be represented here, as well as all the trendy hotels. It’s quite a city.

Wednesday’s warm-up course gave a hint as to what Frank Rothenberger (the German course builder for the WEG at Aachen) would set for the week. He couldn’t have built a simpler, more straightforward course. He did, however, let them jump a liverpool.

The riders aren’t scored in these warm-up sessions. They have 60 seconds to use the ring and the course as they please. Some just worked on the flat, some jumped a fence or two, and some jumped the course. It’s a good system for championships, although I don’t like it for regular horse shows.

It was also fun to watch the enthusiasm in the national and junior classes held with the World Cup. There were quite a few good horses and capable riders. And the FEI General Assembly was going on too, so virtually everybody was here.

Our three-quarter strength team was further weakened right away when McGuiness, Rich Fellers’ wonderful horse, got off the plane with shipping fever. We had to scratch him. Now we were down to seven starters.

Then, in the first leg of the championship, Madison, Kent Farrington’s lovely mount, uncharacteristically had three of the last four fences down. She decidedly wasn’t right when she went back to the barn, and I’d hoped her to be one of our biggest chances.

The first leg of the World Cup, as at the WEG, is our own Table A course under Table C rules–faults converted into seconds, 4 seconds added to the total time for each knockdown. One must preserve the jumps over a course of this size, but go very fast.

Rothenberger’s course was excellent. He had striding options and turn options, although the turn options, for the most part, involved the landing rather than the approach. The variety of fences included a Swedish oxer to a backward liverpool, plus a skinny between two tall pillars. There isn’t enough real variety of fences in show jumping anymore.

Our own wonderful Margie Engle, who’d been third in the 1.45-meter class earlier, wound up a strong sixth on Quervo Gold. I am very, very pleased we’ll be having Margie for much of the summer in Europe. She’s a real player.

All of our other horses ended up in the middle of the pack. They didn’t jump clean enough, although on the pace. Yes, it was a disappointing night for me.

The second leg of a World Cup Final is always a one jump-off class. This year’s course, although big, wasn’t a killer, but it was quite technical and very careful. And it proved quite hard to go clear. Six horses went through to the jump-off, and they were a stellar group. With their class and experience, they once again showed me how important it is for our ambitious top riders to get to Europe regularly and compete.

Most of our riders, for various reasons, ended up with 8 faults. Bob Johnson’s wonderful show two weeks earlier in Charlotte, N.C., was a great prep, and will continue to be a great prep, but we still need more shows at that high a standard to be competitive again indoors at the World Cup.

We decided to scratch Madison from the World Cup and aim her, instead, for the grand prix on Saturday, which she won. Mr. and Mrs. Weeks, Madison’s owners, showed how much they cared for their horse. It was certainly the highlight of our week and a nice victory for our country.

The third day is a two-round competition, not against the clock, run over two different and larger courses. Both of Rothenberger’s courses were superb. That man has a great touch. I think he was hoping for a jump-off between Marcus Ehning and Beat M�ndli, who were both on zero penalties, but it was not to be. Beat had an unexpected 4 faults at a large purple vertical, and Marcus, the consummate horseman, hand-cantered a clear round in effortless fashion.

I must say that it was most apparent (yet again) watching the top 10, that they’re totally focused on their international careers. Ours ended up in the second 10, Margie Engle placing highest at 11th.

Our system has developed some serious flaws. First, we don’t have enough people able or willing to devote their lives to the sport’s top level. Second, mostly due to their lack of European exposure, most of ours don’t have the same “cool” as the Europeans. Third, in some cases, our riders’ management of their horses for this level is sadly lacking. Fourth, we need more and better horses.

Do our top riders really have good enough stock? Yes, we have a lot of talented riders in our country, but I often question the depth of their technical expertise, starting with walk, trot and canter.

A horse show–any horse show–is only a barometer of where you and your horse are in relation to your competition. Showing at this level internationally is a reality check. Those who really want it (and there are very few who do) will go back home, scratch their heads, figure out their weak links, and try to improve things.

Let me be very honest and say that our standard of horsemanship across the board–hunter, jumper and equitation–has declined drastically since the halcyon days of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. The top Europeans now ride and care for their horses the way we used to.

People often ask me, “Can we fix it?” And my answer is, “I don’t know!”