[QUOTE=Jealoushe;8157476]
What are we doing? Well I am taking an interest in safety. I am not a scientist but I have been researching and speaking with helmet and vest manufacturers. I have been studying the horses and riders who have rotational falls and their circumstances. How far on course they were, type of fence, how many events the rider has done recently, what the horses training program was like…etc. It’s all anecdotal but at least it’s something in my mind to help me understand why these keep happening and how to prevent them.
If we include serious injury then there are a lot at the CCI3* and 4* level. It seems almost all the UL riders at one time or another have a serious injury - is this just the way of the sport?[/QUOTE]
What is this sport? What purpose does it serve? What are we testing? Why? Where do the limits stop?
Just today I read an article about the Indy500 and that they had 4 serious crashes, one resulting in surgery, but no one died (except the car to look at it one way). In light of such mayhem the officials put an immediate change to the cars, slowed them down by 5-6 mph and they continued practice and qualifying. Officials can make changes in the interest of safety until they better understand the new limits.
After Dale Earnhardt died at the Daytona 500 and Adam Petty died in New Hampshire, NASCAR immediately rules the hans device be mandatory for all drivers and they committed tracks to install safer barriers to reduce the shock effect of hitting the wall at 200 mph. Officials can make changes to the sport that still keep the essence of the sport without exposing drivers to serious injury and death.
The Volco Ocean Race goes round the world, hitting some of the most extreme of conditions and pre-emptively the Organizers established ice exclusion zones to remove the risk of sailboat hitting unseen ice in the middle of the night at 20 kts. Old salts bitched that it took away from the “extreme” of the sport, but most hail it as a good for the sport for attempting to save people 1000 miles from nowhere is not only extremely hard, it is a bad image for the sport. Only one death has happened in recent times and it was due to human error, not lack of safety.
I have been involved in this sport for 7 years and in that time, more horses and riders have died then in all the sports I describe, yet I see practically nothing done to stop death from happening again.
Reduce the number of technical questions - “You’ll ruin the sport”
Reduce the size of the jumps - “You’ll make it too easy and ruin the sport”
Tighten the qualifications - “You’ll drive people away from the sport and ruin”
Change the OT - “Its not about speed, and what do you know”
Extend the length and make the jumps more forward riding, less run and stop - “There is not enough room and you don’;t know anything about UL riding so just shut up”
and so on.
People have done studies, people propose studies, others keep making the point that us humans have the right to choose to ride such a risky sport (though ignoring the will of the horse in that position), but at the root of this, the pillars of this sport continue to speak out against change for it means having to redefine what is the purpose of Eventing and they have dedicated their lives to what it is today.
What I find interesting is the creep that occurred in this sport upwards over time. Take a look at this paragraph found on this webpage;
The first civilian three-day event held in the U.S. took place in 1949 and was run in conjunction with the Bryn Mawr Horse Show. In 1953, it was decided to organize a miniature event based on the Olympic three-day formula. Rules were written, and a course was developed at the steeplechase course in Nashville in 1953. There was only one level, which would equate to the training level under current standards. The trial was a huge success and it became the first continuous one-day event.
So in the beginning, 3’1" was the height of the day in the US and it started going up ever since. Why? Not enough challenge? When does it become too much?
Let’s go back to the roots for a moment
An eventing competition that resembles the current sport was first held in 1902, at the Championnat du Cheval d’Armes in France, the first occurrence of eventing in the Olympics was in 1912 when Count Clarence von Rosen, Master of the Horse to the King of Sweden, devised the first event.
The object of the event was to test Cavalry Officers’ chargers for their fitness and suitability. Dressage originally demonstrated the horse’s ability to perform on the parade ground, where elegance and obedience were key. Cross-country began as a test of stamina, courage, and bravery over difficult terrain, important for a charger on long marches or if the horse was asked to carry a dispatch across country. Theshow jumping phase sought to prove the horse’s continuing soundness and fitness after the difficult cross-country day
Given the current statistics across our 4* courses, more than 50% of the dispatches would not make it across country. Thus goes the war I guess.
It seems that the sport has evolved into this extremist notion of survival with course designers doing what they can to not just test teams, but actively eliminate them.
Jeloushe, I am in your court on this, but it is a small court and not one people want to hear. The pillars of this modern sport do not want change for they see it effecting the most important thing to them, their pocket book. The best safety action Eventing could take is to voluntarily remove it’s self from the Olympics and the FEI. After that, adopt sane rules for testing the fundamentals of this sport with the notion that it is not about survival, but endurance.
does not have to be anecdotal. This ^^^ is the sort of forward-thinking energy that we need.