Aachen Eventing Squad

[zpsid91]

The Aachen eventing list is out:
The following combinations have been selected to represent the Land Rover U.S. Eventing Squad and are listed in alphabetical order:

• Will Coleman (Gordonsville, Va.) and Off The Record , a 2009 Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the Off the Record Syndicate.

Chin Tonic HS , a 2012 Holsteiner gelding owned by Hyperion Stud, LLC, will be Coleman’s direct reserve horse.

• Phillip Dutton (West Grove, Pa.) and Z , 2008 Zangersheide gelding owned by Thomas A. Tierney, Suzanne Lacy, Caroline Moran, Ann Jones, Evie Dutton, Patricia Vos, and David Vos.

• Ariel Grald (Southern Pines, N.C.) and Leamore Master Plan , a 2009 Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Annie Eldridge.

• Liz Halliday-Sharp (Lexington, Ky.) and Miks Master C , 2012 Swedish Warmblood gelding owned by Ocala Horse Properties, LLC and Deborah Palmer.

• Tamie Smith (Murrieta, Calif.) and Mai Baum , a 2006 German Sporthorse gelding owned by Alexandra Ahearn, Ellen Ahearn, and Eric Markell.

I’m excited by this team - glad there are some new faces on the team. Well deserved!

[grzywinskia]

Who are the new faces on the team you speak of? Looks like a WEG repeat to me. While I think wow what a wonderfully competitive group of horses and riders I have to wonder why we are sending our best when we could be using this as an opportunity for the next generation. With the position of the US qualified for the Olympics, it seems like a missed opportunity to work on the depth of our bench. JMHO

[Benchmark]

I disagree and am really excited about this team.

In my opinion, Aachen is the best test we have to mirror a true team championship. It’s not the place to send up-and-coming combinations to gain experience, it’s a place to send our top competitors to go practice being competitive against the best. I much prefer the route US Eventing is taking in sending the up-and-coming pairs to smaller European team competitions and using Aachen as a test ground for our A team.

I also think people forget that a lot of our top riders really aren’t overly experienced in major team competitions. Liz, Tamie, and Ariel have only been to Aachen once. Liz has never been on a championship team, Ariel’s been on one, and Tamie just has the Pan-Am’s, Pratoni, and her reserve position at Tokyo.

[Dr_Doolittle]

I don’t suppose it will be available streaming?

[Larksmom]

probably streamng thru the dismal Horse and country

[Dr_Doolittle]

Ah…

[Xctrygirl]

I mean… leaving Boyd off a squad, for all the right reasons, is new.

Em

[Benchmark]

Aachen is a ClipMyHorse event

[Dr_Doolittle]

Thanks!

Drat.

If I did a 30 day free membership over a year ago and then canceled it, can I do it again or not?

[Benchmark]

I believe if you use a different email address you can double dip on the free trial, but don’t quote me on that.

[Larksmom]

I am coming around to believe it is only fair to pay a fee for access. It must cost a fortune to send cameramen all over to try to get every shot. But I don’t want to pay a yearly fee. I am only interested in the 4* and 5* events. I think if you were interested in Dressage and show jumping, it might be worth it.

[Dr_Doolittle]

I would happily pay a fee for access to individual events – and have done so! Just don’t want to join and pay for a yearly membership – sounds like you agree.

I don’t know why that’s not a “universal thing”

[OverandOnward]

@Dr_Doolittle

I would happily pay a fee for access to individual events – and have done so! Just don’t want to join and pay for a yearly membership – sounds like you agree.

I don’t know why that’s not a “universal thing”

The ultimate goal of these businesses is to build a steady monthly revenue stream. That looks good on a chart shown to outside analysts. That can be relied on as always there.

Even if someone pays a lump sum for the year instead of signing up for a monthly charge, that lump sum is put in reserve on the books, and 1/12th is recognized as revenue every month. So that is part of the steady monthly revenue stream. This is a standard accounting principal, part of the GAAP of accrual accounting.

The steady revenue stream makes the company look better to outside investors. Building up a reliable monthly revenue stream is what builds a company that someday someone might want to buy. Giving the founders a great profit.

If instead they sell views by the event, the revenue stream is uneven, because of course some events are more popular. The surge of sales for a big event is followed by a drop-off when it is over.

But, by selling only 12-month subs, the spike in revenue from a big event continues in the following months as the price of those subs is recognized gradually, in the equal portions each month for 12 months.

And, if the streaming business can get even the one-timers and few-timers to pay up for the year, just to see one or a few events, naturally they earn more. If enough interested viewers do that.

Plus it is a lot more costly to build software and staff customer service for constant come-and-go sales for individual events.

Even a company that starts with the idea of customized one-time service, allowing customers to cherry pick, finds out soon enough that it is a less-favorable profit stream with a lot more work behind it than the one-year subscriptions.

So that’s why.

Oh, and, the ones who say ‘sign up for a year’s sub and then cancel if you wish’ are betting that enough people don’t remember to cancel that it works out in their favor. They don’t exactly remind anyone to cancel.

[Jealoushe]

This is an awesome team.

They also have stated they are sending the best of the best to the Pan Ams too.

So the up and comers gotta pull up their boot straps if they wanna be included.

I think those riders are getting the shots at the nations cups. But they seem to be leaning more towards the British team selection style. The best go.

[grzywinskia]

Right but the British have a slightly different situation when they could match up pretty much any of their top 30 horse/ rider combos and get a winning result. If we don’t grow the depth of our squad, when one of our big 6/7 doesn’t have the horse power (due to injury or other issues) and we are required to send a less experienced pair then we are in trouble. Why send the best to the Pan Ams when we don’t need it to qualify for the Olympics and we can use it to educate the next generation (Caroline Martin, Andrew McConnon, Alyssa Phillips, Cornelia Dorr, Jacob Fletcher, Mia Farley to name a few)

[Jealoushe]

I think because for once US is in the position to carry on winning medals and that looks real good to the USEF/USEA. They did talk about it on the USEA podcast but can’t remember what the reasoning was.

[Benchmark]

Team building is a big one. I think this is massively overlooked and some people probably don’t think it matters, but it does. Boyd, Will, Liz, Tamie, Phillip, & Ariel are very clearly at the top of the pile. They have multiple competitive 4*+ horses, they have very strong pipelines of young horses, they’ve built sustainable programs that are working, and they’ll be on teams together for many years to come. They need to practice competing together as a team and understanding how to win together, not just as individuals. It takes practice and there’s a massive advantage in having established that mutual trust in situations like the Olympics where one error can take out the entire team’s chances.

Those younger riders that you named are exactly the group who should be (and are) getting call-ups for the non-marque European Nations Cup events. They’re in the building phase of establishing their programs so they should be building their experience at the same pace, not faster. You need to step onto the first rung of the ladder before trying to jump to the third rung. Boekelo is a big one where we usually do send one or two up-and-comers. It’s a progression.

Caroline is an exception, in my opinion, and I feel pretty confident she’ll be on the Pan-Am team, but her program is further along than most of her peers and she has the results on multiple horses to back that up (albeit mostly at 3*).

[pony_grandma]

US Equestrian Announces Final USA Eventing Squad for CHIO Aachen CCIO4*-S -...

And … our state individual! Best guy E-VER!!

[FitToBeTied]

@Benchmark

I think this is massively overlooked and some people probably don’t think it matters, but it does. Boyd, Will, Liz, Tamie, Phillip, & Ariel are very clearly at the top of the pile. They have multiple competitive 4*+ horses, they have very strong pipelines of young horses, they’ve built sustainable programs that are working, and they’ll be on teams together for many years to come

The problem with this approach is it becomes a circular argument. We send people to the Olympics, WEG, etc. because they have a string of horses at that level. So when people with money want to play at that level, they naturally gravitate to the people already at that level and get them horses. Younger riders, unless they really catch a break, are then stuck with the one horse they have developed and don’t get the exposure to the money people. This is how we ended up with “phillip, Boyd and whatever horse they want to bring” mentality that we had for years.

Eventing is an individual sport, I don’t buy the team argument.

[zpsid91]

I am so excited to see this!!