United States Eventing Association

Ocala, FL – The second day of the USEA’s Young/Future Event Horse Seminar focused on analyzing desired jump and gallop qualities in upper level event prospects. After a day full of conformation analysis of the developments that take place in yearlings, 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds, attendees were eager to apply their knowledge to Tuesday’s lessons on the 4- and 5- year-old young event horses under saddle.

German rider and breeder Maren Engelhardt started off Tuesday morning with a presentation on the Young Event Horse programs in Germany, for comparison. Maren had a collection of videos from the Bundeschampionat in Germany from the last several years, and pointed out all the desirable, and undesirable, qualities in the jumping and galloping horses in this competition. The Bundeschampionat is the German National Championship aimed at 5 and 6 year olds, taking place on the first weekend of September each year, consisting of Preliminary and Intermediate-level courses and questions.

Michael Pollard, Lauren Kieffer, Clarissa Wilmerding, Nora Battig, and Michael Nolan all rode lovely young horses for the attendees to examine in person. Marilyn Payne and Robin Walker led the discussion in determining these horses’ strengths and weaknesses, and what a judge needs to take into consideration for scoring.

“There is a sort of intuition you have to use to judge the horse’s gallop as well,” Maren Engelhardt chimed in. Marilyn and Robin set up a small gymnastics line for the young horses to jump through, and stressed that it did not matter if the young horses made mistakes through the grid, as long as they came back around and corrected those mistakes. Robin Walker explained that the young horses have to be built properly both in body and in mind, and be able to teach themselves after mistakes.

The group took their lunch break next door to watch some of the High Performance Training Sessions with U.S. Eventing Chef D’Equipe David O’Connor, and newly-appointed show jumping coach Silvio Mazzoni. Silvio coached Ellen Doughty in the show jumping ring, and David coached Marilyn Little on her 2013 USEA Mare of the Year, RF Demeter, in the cross-country field.

David used the Dartfish Express app on his iPad to film Marilyn’s efforts in the water jump complex and evaluate her position. The app has the capability of taking 120 frames per second, and allows you to draw angles in each frame, and evaluate the rider’s position from take-off to landing.

An afternoon jump session was held with returning riders Clarissa Wilmerding, Michael Nolan, Lauren Kieffer, plus Hillary Irwin. These horse and rider pairs were asked to jump a test similar to what would be seen in a YEH competition: stadium jumps flowed into the cross country jumps.

The riders were asked to show a difference in their horses’ stadium canter and their cross country gallop between fences. Marilyn, Susan and Robin then held discussions after each horse’s round, and asked the audience to judge the rounds based on the YEH scoresheets. The top two horses picked after their jumping and galloping rounds were then stripped of their tack and their conformation was analyzed.

Attendees came away feeling more knowledgeable in the expectations of the young event horses, and how conformation relates to their performance. The seminar was a huge success, and attendees were smiling and eager for more seminars to be scheduled.