United States Eventing Association

On the Bookshelf - Life Among the Winners

*30th Anniversary Commemorative Edition 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships* DVD

By EEI and USEA (Carr-Hughes 2008)

EEI, the nice people who bring us Rolex, found an old can of film in their office. (For more on the origins of the film see below!) Upon conversion to modern format, it turned out to be the 1978 event. For youngsters or those young in eventing, we got to be hosts in 1978 by winning the 1974 World Championships at Burghley Bruce Davidson was the individual winner on Irish Cap. In 1978, Davidson defended his title with Might Tango and bronze went to the US Team: Davidson, James C.Wofford on Carawich, Edmund 'Tad' Coffin on Bally Cor, and John Michael Plumb on Laurenson. The DVD is a flashback of other old-school names including Tauskey, Huber, Watkins, and Jenks. It also shows the old-school fences: Jenny Lane Crossing, Old Fort Lexington, and the Head of the Lake in its Birch Rails incarnation. The Giant's Table from 1978 is still on display at the Kentucky Horse Park.

The cover of the DVD says full-color. It is in color but in a muted range. It has that toned-down, old-TV show look. On the other hand, the clarity is sharp enough to judge how different but still fabulous the horses looked back then. Overall, the quality is not HD but good for almost 30 years in a can. Davidson narrates with cameos by Plumb on Laurenson in dressage and on cross-country. The content is similar to today's event coverage videos/DVDs: a handful of dressage, half-an-hour of cross-country and a few show jumping trips for a total of about an hour.

For those who wish to spend more time with Mr. Peabody & Sherman in the WABAC Machine:

*The USCTA Book of Eventing: The Official Handbook of the United States Combined Training Association* (Edited by Sally O'Connor (Addison-Wesley 1982)) has chapters by several of the folks cited above and a fence-by-fence description of the '78 course. I have the first, so I can't attest to the changes in the 2nd edition published in 1987.

An iconoclastic friend of mine recalls *Bruce Davidson World Champion of Eventing* (by Bruce Davidson, Sally O'Connor, Akhtar Hussein, Caroline Silver (Houghton Mifflin 1980)) as a canonization of St. Bruce the Davidson. Linda Holman, former DC of Cahaba Pony Club, was more taken with it, "I hadn't looked at it in a LONG time and it is marvelous! The last 50 pages are devoted to KY. There is text not only of what was going on in Bruce's mind, but also of the tribulations that were encountered while organizing and hosting an event of this caliber. The book is really written by Sally O'Connor; she interviewed Bruce, taped their sessions and then edited it. It is written in 3rd person, but it does put the reader into Bruce's mind.

"On a personal note, I think the USEA membership, officials, coaches and all event riders need to read Bruce's description of his x-c ride on Irish Cap at the '74 World Champs at Burghley. That's the way a x-c ride should feel!"
*Kentucky Three-Day Event: A 25 Year Retrospective* (EEI 2003) is a summary of each year with gorgeous pictures. (*Eventing USA* 2003 #4)

Also available from Carr-Hughes Purchasing (1-888-546-7406), their standard 2008 Rolex Highlight DVD. Order both and see how eventing has changed over the years. For the second year, Carr-Hughes has produced four days of Daily Competition DVDs. On the daily cross-country DVDs, one of the falls was not caught on tape, the other was edited out. Yes, take the bad along with good. Yes, fight creeping PC censorship. But this one I have to go with. I was lucky enough to be elsewhere for both falls and have no desire to poison my brain with any more horrifying images. If you do buy a DVD, mention that you read about it here. It'll keep me smelling good for press copies next year.
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Bonus Extra: Cross-Training Recommendation

*We Might As Well Win: On The Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind Eight Tour de France Victories*

By Johan Bruyneel with Bill Strickland

Foreword by Lance Armstrong (Houghton-Mifflin 2008)

In July, my house takes a break from watching men and women in tight pants riding horses to watch men in tight shorts riding bikes. *Win* is a love story - philia rather than eros - between two perfectionists who find their match, "We had raced like one being - a brain in the car and a body on the bike."
In the Prologue, Bruyneel says the book is neither autobiography nor comprehensive chronology, "This is the expression of the moments that stick with me." Someone, either Bruyneel or Strickland, has arranged those moments into a brisk and readable narrative arc. Undoubtedly there this is some rose-colored history, but the winners get to write the history books.
Most of the specific tactics don't apply to eventing. The Tour de France is pack dynamics and team strategy over three weeks rather than a solo/duo effort that blurs by in a handful of minutes. However, the overall strategies could be adapted. In biking circles, Lance is famous for going over to France in the spring to practice segments of the Tour. We can't do the course beforehand in eventing, but perhaps the grounds are hosting a rated dressage show, or even a hunter show. While you might not be in contention for ribbons, you could get a feel for the drive, the footing, and the stalls and your horse could get a snootful of the smells.
BTW, if you have ever wondered what goes on in the peloton, you're gonna love this book. Bike geeks might be interested in the other two books I bought: *Tour Fever: The Armchair Cyclist's Guide to the Tour de France* by J.P. Partland (Perigee 2006) and *The Tour de France: A Cultural History* by Christopher S. Thompson (UCP 2006, 2008). I've put them aside for July 2009, but they looked good on the way by.
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Creating the 30th Anniversary Commemorative Edition 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships DVD

By Jane Atkinson

I seem to be the only one who remembered this film. The one who I think spearheaded getting it done, Neil Ayer, would have remembered but he is no longer with us. Even Eileen Thomas, who was Executive Director of what was then the U.S. Combined Training Association (now USEA), doesn't remember it. Nor did Edith Conyers, who was Event Director for the Worlds and for the next five Kentucky Three-Day Events.

When I took over as Event Director in December 1984, I went through all the files and everything stored in the back room, just to see what was there and how the event had developed since the World Championships and how it had been run. I had served as Chief Dressage Steward up until that time, and had helped Edith where needed, and had organized horse trials, but I wasn't about to reinvent the wheel since it was rolling along rather nicely.

I found the film in its big storage container (the reel was about 12" across) and remembered it but never thought anything about it until the age of videotape came about, thinking then that I should get it put on videotape. Never did. Then we decided to do the 30-Year Retrospective (the Kentucky Horse Park formally opened the weekend after the 1978 World Championships, and they are celebrating that milestone in September), and I thought it was the perfect time, since we now have DVD in the world and we have Carr-Hughes Productions doing the NBC program for us, to get the film put on DVD.

Once it was done and I saw it and Bob Hughes and his wife Liz saw it, we all agreed that it would be something people might like to purchase. With the expertise of Carr-Hughes Productions, here we are.

I'm surmising that Neil Ayer, then President of USCTA (and the organizer of Ledyard Farm in Massachusetts, the first Three-Day Event ever held in the U.S.), after the World Championships decided that the film that had been taken of it (no recollection of who did that), should be made into an educational film for the sport (education is, of course, one of the purposes of USCTA/USEA). And, since there were heat and humidity problems at the 1978 Worlds and some obstacle design issues, it was appropriate. He was, of course, inspired to have the 1978 (and 1974) Individual World Champion, Bruce Davidson, also a well-respected and renowned trainer and instructor, critique the Cross-Country Course and the riders' approach to the obstacles. Neil obviously stumped for the dollars necessary to get the film made.

To understand why I remember so much of what went on, you must realize that I have been involved since Day 1. This is my child.