FOR FUN: The "Good Old Days" thread

[Xctrygirl]

This is meant to help all of catch a glimpse of what everyone else’s origin story in their life of eventing was like.

For sure we have some folks who were rocking it between the red and whites LONG before 52 yr old me was conceived. And likewise my initial competitions in 1985 were well before some other members were born as well.

Lets talk about whatever you like when you think of “eventing” and the “Old days”

And to clarify, this is not intended to in any way criticize the current days, but rather celebrate where we started and what we loved about then.

I’ll start:

As mentioned my first event was 1985. It was at Difficult Run in Herndon, Va at Frying Pan Park. I rode my Tb mare “Flo” aka “Go With the Flow” (Renamed from “Kiss My Grits” which was a popular Tv show reference at the time). We competed in Novice (it was the lowest level then) and while Flo was a XC machine, she just didn’t “do” dressage. Like ever. Like many far more established riders than myself got on her back to prove to me it was doable and…it wasn’t.

So we lunged her 4x (30 + mins a piece) before dressage. (1x an hour for 5 hours before our ride time. Didn’t help. Still last after dressage) But then we got to do XC. And I can recall almost all of my course. For sure I recall the tract, but age has robbed me of a few of the fences. It went something like this, Log, Coop, Log, Bank, Log, ramp, snake jump, gate, straw bales, log, tire jump, log, coop, box jump, stacked rails, log oxer, I can’t recall if we trotted through the puddle or not.

I remember the absolute freedom and joy at doing a xc course. I had HATED hunters. Like didn’t love the intense pressure to be perfect and would often leave out distances (I want to say on purpose but I didn’t grasp pace, control of pace or distances at that age) But on that course, which all who have been there know as winding and very flat, I was thrilled. FINALLY I enjoyed something with my horse.

Em

[2DogsFarm]

Can I play, with a total of 2 Charity Events & a single rated Event to my credit?

Charity was Fox River Valley in Barrington, IL, circa 1994&5.
DH rode his TWH, I rode my TB @ Novice.
Walker suffered Separation Anxiety & can be seen & heard in the video a friend took, running back & forth in the warm-up directly behind the Dressage ring, calling for his BFF
IIRC, we placed 4th, don’t recall if Tom got a ribbon…
Me & Hey, Vern!

No pic of Tom & Steppin’ Out, but his test had a remark about “talking” as he continued to call for Vern
On Course:

From the rated Event - I went BNH, Tom did BNR.
I placed 2nd

[frugalannie]

I had worked at a polo farm for several years, and went up with a player who wanted to buy a couple of basic horses from a school program. As we pulled up, I saw this 16.3 TB being led outside the barn, floating on his tip toes. I was smitten and said that if he was for sale, I was buying him. I did for $500, and he was a stallion. Thank heaven he was a gentleman, even though he was just 5. I hacked and fooled around and then I met someone at work who had ridden with Jack LeGoff on the team, and who thought this horse could event.

The first VERY backyard competition I went to was pretty much a disaster in terms of performance. I had never even seen a dressage test and didn’t know you could school XC fences. But I had a blast, my horse was happy and everyone was so nice and encouraging that I got hooked.

My first real competition was Groton House back when they had a dressage show concurrently, in which I managed to get a shiny red ribbon. I was over the moon! Didn’t place in the three phase, but what great fun it was. And so over the years I rode at Shepley Hill, King Oak, Ledyard twice and many other venues that still exist on several different horses. I learned how to develop a horse in three phases, how to prepare myself and my partner and even did a long format at GMHA. I’m demoted to just flatwork now, but I can close my eyes and remember exactly what it was like flying around on XC, knowing that the horse under me wanted to jump any obstacle I pointed it at and that we were a team.

Thanks for starting this Em.

[RAyers]

I didn’t start eventing until 1995!

HOWEVER!

I started riding in 1967 with my first show in 1971.

While I did the H/J,

we had a 110 acre XC field where I spent hours out there with my jumpers. So much to the point where my trainer said later in life, “I knew you would be an eventer some day.”

It just took me almost 30 years to start.

By the way, my equitation HASN’T changed.

[evtrmom]

I started eventing in the late 70’s as a pony clubber, we were very lucky to have Major Jeremy Beale as our mounted meeting instructor!

My mom would always volunteer as a jump judge at Radnor (3 day then) and Chesterland 3 day. We were there the year the Almaden Vineyard helicopter crashed during XC day!! I remember very cold mornings sitting on a blanket absolutely freezing and hating being there. My mom was always on task with her whistle and would loudly yell heads up horse coming!! if you were too close to the penalty box we had back then. I think this helped instill my love of volunteering at events as well and i thank her for that

I evented up to training level as a teen, when my mare had a pasture accident and was put down.

Very happy to be back competing after 38 years and loving the adult ammy low level community. I met my goals this year of Q for AEC’s and I also received scores for my gold medal in eventing after only doing 5 recognized events

[LCDR]

After a year ferrying my middle school daughter to horse trials, I decided that I’d learn to ride, buy a horse for me, and give it a go. I figured I had already spent over $50K as a result of making an uninformed promise to let DD buy a horse if she could save enough money, and I would take care of any other costs. Besides, I was weary of being a spectator.

I had not yet evented or taken a single dressage lesson when I received a Christmas gift of a riding spot in a Bruce Davidson clinic. We muddled through, and hit the road at Novice, since that was where you started in that era.

[Janet]

@Xctrygirl

For sure we have some folks who were rocking it between the red and whites LONG before 52 yr old me was conceived. And likewise my initial competitions in 1985 were well before some other members were born as well.

My first recognized event (horse trial) was about the time you were born. It was a horse trial run by Golden Bridge Hounds, NY, restricted to Juniors, at the BRAND NEW lowest level - Training.

The Dressage judge, who had ridden at the Spanish Riding School, was also my regular Pony Club dressage instructor (Werner Platzer IIRC). I wasn’t particularly pleased with my dressage test, I thought I needed more impulsion, but I got the best dressage score.

Then I managed to get lost on the cross country course. Eventually I gave up, went back to the start, and was eliminated.

The cross country course was run across the hunt country, including many jumps I HAD jumped before on their hunter pace. I still got lost. (AFAIK, none of the jumps were built specifically for the HT.)

My horse, Rocket, was a real schoolmaster. He was a TB x QH, born and bred at Sunnyfield Farm, and was trained, at least in part, by Mike Page and Dennis Glaccum, at a time when the US Eventing Team was based at Sunnyfield (late 50s). He was primarily used as a jumper, but he had a really good dressage foundation. However, he was not brave at all cross country. If you came around a corner, and the jump was right there, he was likely to stop. But he was really good at the dressage and show jumping phases.

After that I had a break of about 10 years, in college and grad school, before I started riding and competing again.

I HAD done “horse trials” before, as part of the Pony Club rallies. Those included (one) roads and tracks phase before cross country.

I remember that one year, when I was a C-2, the rally was put on by Meadowbrook Hounds PC, on Long Island, and was partially on a golf course. One of the other C-2 competitors was Tad Coffin, who later went on to fame on the US Olympic Team. I didn’t know him personally, but he was already locally well known for his talent.

Also while I was in Pony Club, I went to the Pony Club Clinic at GMHA in Woodstock, Vermont. At the end of the 2-week clinic we had an (unrecognized) horse trial. “Roads and tracks” was riding up the hill from the stabling area to the start of cross country, at the top of the mountain. One of the jump in showjumping was a “road closed” plank, with LIT smudge pot road flares underneath. I think I have a really grainy picture of Rocket jumping that jump.

REALLY grainy I am afraid.

When I started riding and eventing again (approx 1983), I was in Virginia. I think my first, at the then new lowest level of Novice, was at Seneca Valley. But I competed many times at the Difficult Run HT at Frying Pan Park. Do you remember the Flyswatter jump?

Moo and I jumping the handle of the flyswatter.

[Gardenhorse]

My first events were in Area III in the early 90’s on a QH cross pony mare who was good on XC but not a fan of stadium jumping. We got eliminated in SJ several times. So glad we did XC before SJ in those days. I then graduated to a lease on my trainer’s TB gelding who was happy to jump around both phases.

Earlier this year when someone at my barn was asking about ride times for an upcoming HT, I mentioned that we used to get our ride times mailed to us on post cards.

I remember being so excited when my mom agreed I could go to the Thanksgiving Pine Top HT my senior year of high school rather than having to go to family Thanksgiving.

[Janet]

Things that were different -
Penalty zones
No safety vests
If you fell of on cross country, you could remount and continue. You got a penalty score for it, but were not eliminated.
You could fall of TWICE is show jumping without being eliminated.
You could get 2 refusals at EVERY jump on cross country without being eliminated (though you would have a very big penalty score).
No speed penalties.
Show jumping was ALWAYS last.
You had to enter on the opening day, or you would probably be put on the wait list.
Times on a postcard.
Official course walks.
No portables.
Minimal decoration.
Jumps with negative ground lines.
No skinnies.

ETA
No radios for jump judges.
Scores picked by outriders on horseback.

[Larksmom]

gosh, Janet, I remember almost ALL of those! I didn’t get to ride as a kid, so when I started taking lessons, I ended up with a horse my trainer found for me. She was mine for 29 years. I started in h/j, having never before sat in an ‘English’ saddle. I went to Kentucky on a whim in 1978. I knew there was a World Championship in 3-day eventing, but I didn’t know what that was. I knew there was jumping and going cross country, but I didn’t know what any of it was. I didn’t know enough to walk the course, I knew almost nothing about dressage. I was so overwhelmed with it all but I was hooked for life. I began to take an interest and began to show locally. I was never brave as I didn’t ride as a kid. It was all bare bones, and setting up the penalty zones was a PITA!

[FitToBeTied]

My first event I took one of my fox hunters. It was the middle of foxhunting season, so he was very fit. We schooled for 45 minutes before dressage. We actually were doing well when I rider came over a XC jump that was just behind the judges stand. He almost ground to a halt. After that, it wasn’t a very good test. And we were in last place.

We went over to XC, took a couple of warm-up jumps and headed out. His head was on a swivel and was trying veer off to every jump he saw. I had told my coach that I wasn’t going to worry about making time and figured I’d let him go at whatever pace. Well, as I mentioned he was a foxhunter and I used him to staff. The rider in front of us was having issues and we passed him halfway through the course. Brian O’Connor was announcing and he didn’t catch up to us until we were six jumps in. It was a Novice course and we finished 1 minute under the optimum. We were clean in stadium and we went from last to seventh in the open division.

I was jump judging at Rubicon and was near the civil war encampment. So cool. They had a fire going and would send over coffee to me once in a while.

[LCDR]

@Gardenhorse

I remember being so excited when my mom agreed I could go to the Thanksgiving Pine Top HT my senior year of high school rather than having to go to family Thanksgiving.

I recall back then Pine Top had acquired a giant plastic steer from the nearby Winn-Dixie grocery store that had just closed down, and it was standing next to a jump facing toward oncoming riders about mid-way through the cross country in a shady spot in the woods. My daughters’s horse lost her there and headed for the barn by himself. On the way he decided to rinse off himself and her tack in the big pond, He was a barely 15hh QH and loved being in water and swimming. Glen Wilson picked me up in his golf cart, and we coaxed the horse to come out of the pond. Being extra cautious later on that day, I managed to navigate myself safely around the course despite the plastic steer.

[Mounted]

Saddle pads with lead at three days! (I groomed but did not ride under those circumstances)
Cloth pinneys, which had to be returned after XC (there were often pony club kids at the XC finish to collect them; untying them was always a challenge)
Leather XC boots that fastened with buckles
Paper printed XC maps, often with hand drawn fences (I miss those!)
SJ in reverse order of placing, even at regular local events
Getting printed photo proofs in the mail
Mailing entry packets, and getting proof of mailing on opening date!
Competitors’ parties after XC
Arriving on Thursday and staying through Sunday, for even the smallest of shows (though in fairness, this may be because my early experiences were in Areas 4 and 6)
A rail in SJ was 5, not 4!

[Salty]

The competitors’ parties were the best! It was traditional to ride SJ with a hangover.

The lowest level was Training. Someone put on a Training level 3 day, with 2 roads & tracks & steeplechase, but my Fearless Leader didn’t approve because he said that the fences were too little to back my horse off. So I didn’t go.

In reality, he was probably thinking, correctly, that I wouldn’t set my horse up properly for steeplechase.

I can relate to a whole lot of these!

[Xctrygirl]

@LCDR

I recall back then Pine Top had acquired a giant plastic steer from the nearby Winn-Dixie grocery store that had just closed down, and it was standing next to a jump facing toward oncoming riders about mid-way through the cross country in a shady spot in the woods.

Watch from here…

Pine Top Spring HT 1995 - Whippoorwill

You can see the plastic animals the time I ran at the “old West” complex. (Saloon style picture frame to table, turn to another table.)

Also @Janet the horse I am on was bred and purchased from Denis Glaccum.

Em

[Janet]

@Xctrygirl

Also @Janet the horse I am on was bred and purchased from Denis Glaccum

Small world.

When we bought Rocket they (Sunnyfield) told us that he had been trained by Mike Page.

Years later (on another horse) I took a clinic with Mike Page, and I asked him. He remembered riding him, but didn’t think he “trained” him.

Years later, I was apprenticing for my TD at Plantation Field. It came up in conversation with Denis that he had been at Sunnyfield in the 1950s. I asked if he remembered Rocket, and he said that , yes, he had done a lot of the training on Rocket.

I have book, called “Horse Show”, with a lot of photographs from Sunnyfield. There is one of Rocket, standing at the ingate, ridden by a man. But it is neither Mike nor Denis.

Regardless of who was responsible for the training, I certainly benefitted, as Rocket took me from D2 to B. (In those days the only ratings were D1, D2, C1, C2, B, A.)

[pokesaladannie]

Xcountry Girl, your video reminded me of striped rugby shirts being “the thing to wear” back in the day. It was so much easier to identify riders by their colours - now you are faced with most people riding in Navy/Black vests with white sleeves. Kinda like scanning the warm up area in dressage! Where’s Waldo?

[LCDR]

Brings back memories. Competed, jump judged, pony clubbed there many times back then. Pine Top was also the home of the Belle Meade Hunt summer kennels, and also did a lot of puppy walking there too. MFH James Wilson is gone now.

[Xctrygirl]

Funny story… related to colors.

So there I am at Stonehall stables…home of Karen and David O’Connor in summer of '96. I’m there trying a horse they have in to sell for some Argentine clients.

Well as you would expect they have tack trunks around. I notice David’s are a similar color scheme. I am meandering closer while talking to David and comment “oh… you have my XC colors” At which point the now Olympic Gold Medalist looks at me and smiles and just says “your colors?”

Damnit. Foot in mouth.

Yes David… they’re your colors. I’m a peon. Got it.

Em

[Janet]

@Mounted

A rail in SJ was 5, not 4!

And a refusal was 10.