It presents step by-step training programs and showing advice from recognized experts in hunters, jumpers, equitation, dressage, and eventing, along with money- and time-saving ideas on health care and stable management.
Putting this issue together was a bit like strolling down memory lane for me. First, there is our coverage of classic American Thoroughbreds that appears in the flip side (page F12). When I first started competing in the early 1980s, the hunter Touch the Sun was already a legend. He was at the end of his career, but I still remember being in awe of the chestnut Thoroughbred— the combination of his power and elegance and how it was all packaged to look effortless around a course. Then there is our clinic coverage of Olympic gold medalist Peter Wylde (page 56), which reminded me of the first time I saw him in person. I was at a local one-day show in New England in early 1983 when a fellow rider…
Whether I am judging a model class, evaluating a prospect for a client or sizing up the yearlings at home, I first stand back and look for an overall impression of balance and symmetry. My ideal horse “fits” in a square box. By that, I mean he is defined by matching and equal parts, both front to back and side to side. This allows for athletic ability, soundness, trainability and longevity in the job. A horse who fits in a box will have a body that is made up of one-third shoulder, one-third back and one-third hindquarters. I like to see the withers and point of croup at the same level. The horse’s stance, from point of shoulder to buttock, should equal the distance from the height of the withers…
*The first attribute in a rider and horse is courage, and that’s been taken out of our sport. 1 What I first notice about this photo are the puddles all over the ring. When I first competed in Aachen, Germany, years ago, it had rained and rained and you couldn’t tell the rest of the ring from the water jump. But the riders trucked on and everyone jumped well. That kind of grit is gone these days. The horses and the riders are too precious. Course builders and show managers have watered everything down. The first attribute in a rider and horse is courage, and that’s been taken out of our sport. So I’m pleased to see this rider and pony riding in these conditions. It’s good to experience, and…
Based at Fox Covert Farm, in Upperville, Virginia, Jim Wofford competed in three Olympics and two World Championships and won the U.S. National Championship five times. He is also a highly respected coach. For more on Jim, go to www.jimwofford.blogspot.com. I was recently a member of a panel that discussed eventing’s “Past, Present and Future.” It was such an interesting discussion that I want to share some of it with you. Naturally, I spoke of the first part—eventing’s past—because of my interest in history in general and in our sport’s historical beginnings in particular. (Speaking of the past, I have always thought that any successful endeavor has both feet on the path to the future and one eye on the past.) Horse sports go far back in time. According to…
The Pan American Games are the third-largest multisport event in the world, behind the Olympics and the Asian Games, yet they’re far from high profile. Held every four years, the Pan Ams include every Olympic sport and then some (roller figure skating, anyone?) with 41 countries participating, coming from the southern tip of South America up through the Caribbean, Bermuda and Canada. But mention the Pan Ams and many people in the United States will give you a blank look. Lack of major media coverage made the summer’s Toronto Pan Ams practically a nonhappening in the U.S., although they were staged just across the border in Ontario. The situation was particularly egregious for the equestrian disciplines. There wasn’t even any live streaming of the dressage and the eventing, although show…
With a year to go in Jessica Springsteen’s Junior career, a series of equitation triumphs were enough for her to feel comfortable saying adieu to equitation and focusing on the jumpers. She had won the 2008 ASPCA Maclay National Championship, the 2009 Pessoa/USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Final and the 2009 George H. Morris Excellence in Equitation class. She’d also taken a second-place ribbon in the 2009 Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East. It was, however, these achievements that demonstrated the influence of her equitation base for winning in the jumper ranks. Her victories in 2014 included the $200,000 American Gold Cup; the puissance class at the Washington International Horse Show, which helped earn her the competition’s leading jumper rider sash; and a class at the Dublin Horse…
