International Eventing Kicks On Toward Badminton This Weekend in Wake of Rolex-Kentucky Tragedies
Jump, originally uploaded by billybofh. If you are interested in the crisis level of human and horse fatalities in the sport of eventing lately, you might like to follow a few of these links for more information.
The US News and World Report blog by Bonnie Erbe has lots of interesting comments here.
A joint letter to the public from USEF President David O'Connor and US Eventing President Kevin Baumgardner was published today and can be read here.
Meanwhile, in England tonight the horse vans are rolling onto the Badminton estate in Gloucestershire where the horses will be going through the first vet check tomorrow for the world's greatest three-day event, the Badminton Horse Trials. Two horses died there last year.
Labels: Badminton, David O'Connor, eventing, Kevin Baumgardner, Rolex
posted by Fran Jurga @ Tuesday, April 29, 2008
7 comments
7 Comments:
I am very disappointed in your last comment about how to 'keep score' in the eventing world.
I regularly go to your website for fair and informative reporting. Please go back to that.
I am sorry if you were offended by my closing remark but mainstream media coverage of the injuries and fatalities in eventing have eclipsed the achievements of horses and riders and that is how some people are keeping score. I personally continue to support sport and hope to report good news from Badminton this week. Please check back and go to the top of the blog.
Thanks for the update. I'm following this subject with much interest, and your blog has been a valuable source of information and news.
I've always considered eventing to be the ultimate test of horsemanship, but I have begun to feel something needs to change in the sport, as too many horses and riders are paying the ultimate price.
Thanks, Loria. Eventing inspired me when I was younger and I was lucky enough to see The Greats of the 1980s right here in my backyard, when the USET eventing team was HQ'd in Hamilton, Massachusetts. I have grown up with the sport and seen a lot of changes. I loved the old format and hate to even begin to think there is a correlation between the short format and the recent injuries.
Injuries in eventing are not something new. There was a terrible accident in the 1980s when a Canadian rider fell and was permanently handicapped.
We have much more media now, and the entire Internet is a media functionary in observing the sport. And commenting! I think this is a good thing, but I agonize over the tragedies.
The eventing world is at a crossroads I believe. There are very smart invested people working on the issue and I know there seems to be no common thread that we can point to as the one problem we need to fix to make it all better.
Still, I think of the hours and hours of training we put into horses, how we constantly ask them to do things contrary to their nature and in the middle of it all is the unspoken promise on our part, “Do it anyway, it’s ok, I’ll keep you safe.” And then to fail?
Every major 3-day event recently has had serious injuries if not fatalities. It’s not ok, because this isn’t battle, it’s a SPORT. How do you ask your horse to trust you when you send them out, knowing they may wind up crippled or dead? I really think I’ve come to point where it’s not worth it. Fix the sport first, and then I’ll re-consider it.
First, Fran, thanks so much for your blog.
Re the spate of eventing deaths...I think the sport changed for the worse and needs to be changed again. There is a tendency to keep pushing and pushing--when this happens at the extreme elite levels of competition, catastrophic falls will result.
Logically, the level of competition could not be continually raised--there had to be a ceiling. Well, it's been reached and then designers, managers and thus competitors tried to go beyond that raised bar.
Courses of years past were not too easy, nor too boring. They were good, open gallops and I think eventing needs to go back to them.
Good points, Lisa. The big gallop days were exciting, that's for sure. I hope we hear some really innovative new ideas because it is going to take some clever minds!
f.
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