Eventing

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I smiled, walking past the airport hat kiosk, en route to a judging adventure at an exhibition in Eastern Canada. I’d be wearing several hats and judging a kaleidoscope of classes at the show — equitation, road hack, reining, Western riding, working hunter, pleasure driving, driven dressage, conformation, showmanship, miniature horses… and more!

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A recent study has identified factors associated with an increased risk of falls during the cross-country phase of eventing and has suggested modifications that could reduce the risk of injury, making it safer for horse and rider. Higher-level events, longer courses, more starters in the cross-country phase, and less experienced horses and athletes all showed an increased risk. Identifying these risk factors allows riders and event organisers to assess the level of risk for individual horse, rider, and event combinations.

Walking the Cross Country Course

One of my favorite parts of an eventing competition is that first course walk. I can't wait to see what the course designer has in store for us competitors! But walking the course is serious business - your course walking skills can mean the difference between success and failure out there on the course.

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Sadly, ponies get a lot of bad press. Even so, their reputation as being lazy, stubborn, and difficult to train, plus their seemingly inherent displays of poor behaviour, have less to do with their innate nature and more to do with a lack of training.

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Purpose and performance of a foundational exercise - Certain exercises in a horse’s athletic development serve as a foundational skill set and a remedial tool later on. Leg-yield is exactly this kind of exercise. It offers valuable physiological benefits that improve a novice horse’s balance while also resolving specific impediments to an advanced horse’s quality of movement. It is the kind of tool that tunes up a number of shortcomings in how a horse is carrying himself.

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With Sarah Bradley - “Straightness refers to how the horse positions his body, and his ability to use both sides of his body evenly, providing even propulsion from both hind legs and carrying even weight on both front legs. It's about the rider’s ability to place the horse’s body on the line the rider wishes to travel. A horse is straight when the bird’s eye view shows the horse’s spine as being directly on the line of travel. Thus, a horse on a circle is ‘straight’ when it compresses the inside of its body and lengthens the outside, so that its spine follows the circle.”

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You are who your friends are. That adage can apply to horses, too. How we treat them will often be reflected right back at us - for good or bad. Sometimes the difference between a harsh cue and an appropriate one can be subtle. Pressure can be effective, but intensity and timing can make all the difference.

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If you’ve ever been to a gym after a long absence or started up a new exercise routine as part of your New Year’s resolution, you have a good appreciation for the importance of gaining and maintaining fitness. The same concept applies to your horse when you put him back into training after giving him the winter off, after a layoff from an injury, or when starting a young horse under saddle. Unfortunately, many horse owners and trainers are concerned only with working their horses over obstacles or schooling maneuvers specific to their sport, rather than ensuring their horses are fit enough to perform such tasks.

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With Brian Morton - Collection can be defined as the shortening of the horse’s outline and stride with increased impulsion and engagement from the hind end. If you are not able to shorten your horse’s stride, you will never be able to get a horse to fit a stride into a line that is set short. And, if you lose the impulsion when you shorten the stride, you will never be able to produce a powerful round jump-off a short distance.

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The practice of braiding a horse’s mane and tail has a functional history dating back many centuries. One of the earliest reasons for braiding the mane was to keep it from becoming tangled in riding or farming equipment, or in the weapons of mounted hunters and soldiers. In ancient folklore, it was thought that fairies would sneak into the stables at night to tie “elf knots” in the mane, using them as stirrups to mount and ride the horses.

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