United States Eventing Association

System Locked and Loaded on Day 3 of the 2024-2025 EA21 National Camp

Ocala, Fla.—Jan. 2—A change in the original schedule of the Emerging Athletes Under 21 (EA21) National Camp brought cross-country day forward to the third day instead of the original final day.

Alongside his work with the U.S. Equestrian Federation and the FEI, EA21 Director of Coaching David O’Connor advises the Caisson Detachment of the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment on horsemanship and will be traveling to Arlington, Virginia, to attend the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter. But no one was disappointed by the change.

As with every day, participants began with a classroom lecture about the four questions riders could ask to make a choice about their speed:

1. How vertical is the front face of the jump? The more vertical the jump, the slower the

Speed—not to be confused with less energy. Fences with a frangible device, like a rail going into a coffin, should be ridden as a vertical.

2. What’s behind the fence? Changes in terrain, shadows, obstacles, and open space all determine lines of pressure that might make a horse leery. A group of trees or a structure slows down a horse, while open space after a fence encourages a gallop to continue.

3. How wide is the fence? Allowing the horse to study a wider obstacle means going slower to give them enough time to see it.

4. What is the terrain? The steepness of the ground before, during, or after the fence determines how fast a rider should go.

O’Connor added that these choices should be made before reaching a zone of around six strides before a fence. Once they were made, the rider responsibilities from the previous day (direction, speed, rhythm and balance, and timing) became critical to those last steps in order to keep everything the same for the jump itself. Allowing a horse to move off a line could result in a stop. A change in speed changes the take off point and could result in a take-off point too close to the fence or too far.

“Your job is to react to the horse’s decisions,” O’Connor said. “It’s a zone, not a point. That gives the horse time to do his work and study the fence. You need to feel the waiting to know you did your job.”

Rider position was also discussed, especially the difference between the galloping position and the preparation position. In the galloping position, a rider is fully out of the saddle and bent half over the horse’s neck. In the preparation position, riders push their seat to the back of the saddle and sit up taller, though they do not actually sit down in the saddle. The positions should not be confused with each other as jumping in a galloping seat is dangerous. With consistency in training, just the change in seat position can communicate to a horse the necessary information to start hunting for the fences or open up for a galloping stretch.

Indeed, O’Connor started every riding session with asking riders to move between them while the horses were standing to familiarize their bodies with the changing positions. Then riders were asked to warm up over a series of single fences more than 10 strides apart each. “You must make sure you spend enough time jumping single fences and not just combinations,” he explained. “Sixty percent of falls happen at single fences.”

Right away riders worked to implement the system of fundamentals they began instilling two days ago. Using the German training scale and the rider responsibilities in tandem, they turned theory into instinct and participants on the ground saw the real time creation of those new habits.

The reproducibility from the previous days of the different techniques were exciting to say the least. “You're really putting all the pieces together with one simple thing,” Megan Hopkins remarked. Her riding in a later footwork exercise received the high five of the day.

“One thing I love about this program is they really separate the rider and the horse,” she added. “[O’Connor] found the one thing for me; I freeze up when things don't go perfect, and [I’m] working on keeping moving. That one thing can make the ride 100 times better.”

After warming up over the single fences, O’Connor had riders do footwork exercise over combinations with banks and terrain. The first was made up of an up-bank then a bounce to a show jump vertical followed by a one stride to a down-bank, and the second was a show jump vertical on the top of a mound then six strides to another set of rails at the bottom.

Both exercises were broken into pieces and initially jumped from the final element to the first, making sure horses clearly understood the questions. Once all the pieces had been jumped separate, riders were asked to do both combinations in a row.

“If you do something complicated step by step, it becomes a gymnastic exercise for horses of any level,” O’Connor said as athletes sailed through the exercise with flying colors. “It’s about practice[ing] the technique, not to jump[ing] the height.”

“I know this was different from the original schedule, but I was really happy with how the three days were organized,” Devon Tresan said after her own ride. “In the end, it was really nice to figure out what he was discussing with us on the flat, and then it built into the show jumping into the cross-country and made it much easier to find that sweet spot that everyone wants to feel.”

Her mount was used as an example to compare shorter versus longer horses, and Tresan is feeling the system locking into place. “The first day, he was a little bit exuberant, so I really worked through putting his feet where they really needed to be and getting him straight on a line. Then in the show jumping yesterday, it was much easier to make the distances when he was straighter and more in control, hind to front. He got less wiggly down the lines, and that really flowed into today. I had to work on finding the right place in my upper body for him to be able to travel across the ground well and make an actual difference before the fences to get him ready and prepared.”

Caitlin O’Roark is attending National Camp for the third time and still find the information valuable. “It's so good to listen to David, because it always sinks in a different way. I feel like I get a bigger grasp on it,” she said. “I remember the first time I heard him say all these things, I was totally mind blown and didn't know where to start. Each year, I feel like we're able to start understanding more and more pieces of it. When you have a good system like this, you don't have to get stuck and not know what to do, because you can always go back to the basics.”

In the final move back to basics, for the midday lunch time lesson, athletes were treated to a horsemanship demonstration with O’Connor and five-star rider Mia Farley. One of the catch-ride horses had exhibited some nervous behavior to movements happening above him when the rider attempted to remove a jacket. Taking the time to slow down, O’Connor and Farley demonstrated how to start a horse under saddle, explaining that the nerves were likely a result of something going wrong there in his past.

“Give him a place to go rather than tell him no,” O’Connor explained and showed how his release of pressure was always in asking the horse to follow him after making his ask instead of standing. By inviting the horse into his space, he was encouraging a follow from a herd animal rather than a reaction. Once the lines of communication had been established on the ground, O’Connor directed the horse while Farley jumped beside the horse as if to mount, allowing him to get used to the movement without the pressure on his back. Slowly they worked to her sitting in the saddle, rewarding stillness with a release of pressure. The demonstration ended with Farley asking the horse to come to a mounting block rather than placing him by a mounting block, leaving the decision making to the horse and rewarding the correct decision with a release of the pressure of asking.

Watching the demonstration of horsemanship, and her fellow athletes, second time attendee Emeline Gilbert has learned just as much from watching and listening as riding: “There's been a big focus on position this week, and I think it's really nice that we do all have different heights and body types so it's different to see it on every person, how everyone has to adjust and figure out their center of gravity and their balance with their horse. You teach up the training scale, and the way he says things, it really sticks with you. That's the knowledge you're going to then share with the next generation that you teach.”

Helpful Links:

• 2024-2025 EA21 National Camp Fast Facts
• EA21 Homepage
• Event Coverage

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About the USEA Emerging Athlete U21 Program (EA21)

The purpose of the USEA Emerging Athletes U21 Program (EA21) is to identify and provide consistent quality instruction to the next generation of elite event riders. The aim is to create a pipeline for potential team riders by identifying and developing young talent, improving horsemanship and riding skills, and training and improving skills and consistency.

The USEA Emerging Athletes U21 Program was launched in 2022 with a model of five summertime regional clinics taught by selected USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) coaches, leading to a winter national camp consisting of selected Young Riders from the regional clinics. Athletes who are 21 years or younger, are current members of their USEA Young Rider Area program, and are established at the Training Level or higher, are eligible to apply for the EA21 program. Click here to learn more about the USEA EA21 Program.

The USEA would like to thank ARMA, Bates Saddles, Kerrits, PulseVet, Ride iQ, Schneiders Saddlery, Sidelines Magazine, YETI and WeRideTogether for sponsoring the USEA Emerging Athletes U21 Program.