Someone just sent me an article about the Cross Country Equestrian Association, spearheaded by former Kentucky Three-Day Event winner Nick Larkin. This is a new take on eventing, eliminating dressage and focusing on a revised form of cross-country. I also found a previous article about this from last October on the Thoroughbred Daily News website. Does anybody know anything about this? Just curious. There’s no mention of a governing body, prize money, or an actual competition calendar— just “workshops.”
I have read a summary from the Cross Country Equestrian Organization of the proposal describing rules and such. I am not an active competitor nor am I an eventing official. It sounds interesting to me and I am looking forward to hearing more specifics, and also what the USEA official take on this might be.
Just my relatively uninformed opinion, but I see it as a positive, especially since so few young riders such as those coming up through Pony Club have the benefit these days of fox hunting regularly to help hone their cross country skills through repetition and saddle time at speed over changing terrain. I also see it as a financial boost for those people who have cross country facilities that sit unused for large portions of the year, and are willing to run these cross country competitions.
There are negatives, of course, such as wear and tear on facilities, spreading out the limited pool of volunteers, possible siphoning off of riders who would otherwise enter lower level USEA sanctioned competitions, and liability concerns particularly about horse and rider qualifications to participate.
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