"Riding for America" eventing portion

[Hilary]

Wow indeed.

If you think about what XC day is today - a XC course. Vs 22 MILES of XC at varying blistering paces. It really is not the same sport. Not that going to a **** is a minor accomplishment now, but, c’mon. It is not the same as what they accomplished then.

FWIW, my little mare did the Training 3-day 3 weeks ago. During steeplechase clinic one of the clinicians said “well, you have to understand that 500mpm + steeplechase don’t actually belong in the same sentence for me”. We laughed, but seeing this is why he said that.

[WakeRider]

oooo i love when Jimmy talks about the ‘spirit’ in the horse’s eye… how he doesn’t care how hot/cold/sweaty he is, but that there is a fire in his eye

makes me miss the long format

[archieflies]

That water scared the crap out of me just watching.

[rivenoak]

Awesome. Thanks.

THIS is what I aspired to one day…

[IFG]

I thought about this some more last night. This is really not the same sport. The riders talk about the endurance day as a test. It was, it was a test of their preparation and training. Even if they fell off, they still wanted to complete, because that would be a personal best for them. Of course, they wanted to win, but it was much more than just a competition.

If those days, it was about completing, not competing.

Totally different sport, and it makes me sad.

[retreadeventer]

IFG, I am thinking the same sort of thing.

Is it just us, us baby boomers, that grew up with it that way, and are being dragged kicking and screaming, into the change that the sport is becoming now?

The PRO riders group is embracing change, witness Leslie Law’s comments after the Plantation Field Horse Trials…money is what it is all about…

Somehow I think the outgrowth of the T3D and the new P3D are us old timers hanging on to that elusive “crucible” Jimmy was talking about and hoping to recreate that beautiful and terrifying competition that tested you down to your core…or is it just dreamy old women trying to hang on to a childhood dream?

Do these new generation event “trainers” have the idea right, or do we just not seem to be able to change with the sport as it goes forward?

I do miss the thrill as it used to be and miss the horses and the training and the significance of the achievement, and the respect for it. Eventing hasn’t got the respect it used to have. Will it get it back with this new way forward?

I’m not sure. Is it us?

“They” are sure it is “us”. The young professionals seem like they don’t want anything but our money so they can ride on a team with whatever horse they seem to be promoting at the time, or haven’t sold to buy a new horse trailer (ala Ollie Townend’s recent interview) - they sure don’t want our ideas or concepts to be held over their heads anymore.

Wow. How did I get there? Hmmm.

[Jealoushe]

@retreadeventer;4391839

IFG, I am thinking the same sort of thing.

Is it just us, us baby boomers, that grew up with it that way, and are being dragged kicking and screaming, into the change that the sport is becoming now?

definitly not, I for one am no baby boomer and feel the same you do.

[Finn_sMom]

Great video, thanks for posting! I’m new to eventing in the last few years, so it was great to see some footage of how it used to be. I loved the woman who got dumped into the lake, and got to continue, sopping wet around the course! Much better than taking a dripping walk back to the trailer to end your day.

[Maryalden]

OMG! There’s a clip of Pete Costello assisting a fallen rider at the water. Now HE brings back memories.

Miss you, Petey.

[ThroughGuru]

The sport has evolved…

in many ways for the better.

Course design has radically improved and is safer. The distance into the water here was just perfectly wrong, and having a ditch to back horses off one shuffle stride away from an upright, airy white rail drop into water is nonsensical.

Horses today are far better trained and therefore more athletic. (dressage = athletic development of the horse) Not one horse in this video entered the sinkhole on the right lead. I mean, come on. At the hardest event in the country at the time, you’d think the horses could at least get their leads correct.

There were just as many huge misses back in the good old days as there are today.

Not quite sure the nostalgia really makes sense, at least not from a horse’s point of view.

[punk_pony]

guru my a**

[InVA]

[QUOTE=IFG;4391817]
I thought about this some more last night. This is really not the same sport. The riders talk about the endurance day as a test. It was, it was a test of their preparation and training. Even if they fell off, they still wanted to complete, because that would be a personal best for them. Of course, they wanted to win, but it was much more than just a competition.

If those days, it was about completing, not competing.

Totally different sport, and it makes me sad.[/QUOTE]

I couldn’t agree more! Not that falling off is good, but I loved when the rider fell off in the water, got a leg up to get right back on and continued! that spoke volumes!

[retreadeventer]

[QUOTE=Maryalden;4392880]
OMG! There’s a clip of Pete Costello assisting a fallen rider at the water. Now HE brings back memories.

Miss you, Petey.[/QUOTE]

Oh Mary, me too…he is quite slim there, too!

[RAyers]

[QUOTE=ThroughGuru;4393018]
…(dressage = athletic development of the horse)…[/QUOTE]

What the hell?! How does dressage equate to cardiovascular development? How does this equate to the development of jumping skills and boldness? If this is a definitive statement then why are not the Lipizzaners top jumpers or eventers?

Yes, dressage = level of training of the horse to listen to the rider. I do not see how you equate the to athleticism?

Yes, course and fence design is much improved but there is no reason why a ditch to rail into the water would not work.

Nobody has anything about how there were fewer misses then as compared to today. BUT, you are also comparing tow TOTALLY different sports! I doubt many of today’s riders and horses could do what those riders and horses did.

I agree that a foundation of dressage is needed but at the level shown, dressage does little to improve the horse on course. And if a rider is thinking about “I need to get a flying change here to come into the water correctly.” then the rider is in the wrong sport.

This was a sport about the cavalry. Soldiers did not concern themselves with leads, shoulder ins, half-passes, flying changes.

[Carol_Ames]

@JER;4390487

Wow.

While a video like this one makes some of us nostalgic for the sport of yore, I think we can all agree that there’s been vast improvements in the sphere of EMS.

(That’s some really, really sketchy ‘medical attention’ on display after Karen’s fall. The narrator says something about CPR but all I see is someone giving her one or two mouth-to-mouth breaths and then stopping to put her on the stretcher. No C-spine stabilization either – and head/neck/spinal trauma is indicated and she’s about to have a bumpy ride on an unpadded metal stretcher over uneven terrain. Yikes.)

She didn’t come back just “to ride” ;):no:but, to win a team gold in the Olympics on "her other Adv. horse " ,Ben Arthur :yes:

[Carol_Ames]

What do you think?

You know, I doubt that Grey Goose, Blue Stone or Karens’ horse, or for that matter Bally Cor would be competitive in todays’ sport;:no: What do you think?

[RAyers]

[QUOTE=Carol Ames;4393822]
You know, I doubt that Grey Goose, Blue Stone or Karens’ horse, or for that matter Bally Cor would be competitive in todays’ sport;:no: What do you think?[/QUOTE]

I may not put them up against other horses in dressage but I would put them up against any of the horses on XC or stadium. So, given that today’s sport emphasizes dressage over jumping, no, they would not be competitive. But then again, the sport is not eventing in the true sense of the test of the horses (e.g. Jimmy Wofford’s explanation in the middle of the video). Eventing was a crucible for horse and rider. Nowadays it is no longer a crucible. It is a pure test of how well trained a horse is and not a measure of its innate ability.

Reed

[subk]

[QUOTE=ThroughGuru;4393018]
Not quite sure the nostalgia really makes sense, at least not from a horse’s point of view.[/QUOTE]
Is that’s because today’s horses just love getting their faces ripped off in the kick and pullfest that seems so prevalent on courses now?

[JER]

[QUOTE=ThroughGuru;4393018]

Horses today are far better trained and therefore more athletic. [/QUOTE]

You are joking, right?

:eek:

[Duramax]

I am also a fan of the sport of yesteryear, but I think we have become much better educated about course design… i.e. what does and doesn’t work. I agree that things have become uber technical, but some of those fences were so upright and some of the combinations counter productive (ditch before white rail into water). I guess we’ve just got to find the happy medium. :sigh: