United States Eventing Association

Throughout the duration of this first time derby, the environment seemed to be as electric and exciting as it is in a full-blown horse trial, with one very noticeable exception – the competitors at Meadow Run’s derby all seemed to exit the start box with less anxiety and apprehension because they knew they were able to run their courses without fear of being eliminated. Additionally, riders were given a chance to rerun a course, should they experience problems, although they were judged according to their initial round. But what really sets this event apart from a regular horse trial is that riders are allowed to have coaches assist them to the degree they feel necessary; this could be anything from a brief instruction in the warm up, to actually running along side the horses and riders, offering them guidance as they run and jump their courses.

According to Meadow Run owner Jim Graham, classes were offered to accommodate all levels of riding, including Amoeba, Tadpole, Beginner Novice, Novice, Training and Preliminary. He said they wanted to make sure riders even had options to do what he called, “move up” courses, which would face them with challenges normally seen at the next level up. For this derby, they offered move up Novice and move up Training, both of which were extremely popular. Graham said all courses were designed by his partner, David Adamo, and offered riders at all levels a wide variety of obstacles, with varying degrees of difficulty. “We tried to include many of the jumps they would encounter at regular horse trials ? things like logs, corners, ditches, coffins, banks, verticals, oxers, combinations and a variety of water questions. These derbies have been offered in England for a great number of years, and with enormous success. It is such an excellent teaching tool; I don’t know why it isn’t done more in this country.” Graham said he based his scoring on jumping faults, time and overall riding. “A rider may run the course with no faults, but may not be doing it in a proper and safe manner, and in a sport like this, that is extremely important. We don’t want them going out and thinking they’ve been successful just because they ran a course clean. Safety is a huge concern for all of us in this sport.”

Graham said this was the first time Meadow Run has coordinated a derby like this, but he plans to do more in the future because it was so well received. “I really didn’t think we would have such a big response our first time out, but we had some 50 horses signed up, with a total of 80 courses ridden. And, we had as many spectators as we did participants. All-in-all, it was a tremendous success for everyone involved.”

For more information about future derbies, contact Meadow Run Farm on their website at www.meadownrunfarm.com

Photos by Jean Oldham