United States Eventing Association

Day two at the USEA Annual Meeting and Convention in Colorado Springs, CO was probably as jam-packed with programs as it could be. The highlight of the day was the Year-End Awards Luncheon where USEA members were honored with a large variety of ribbons, prizes, and grants. While the rest of the day was filled with opportunities for riders and eventing enthusiasts of every type to learn and get together to discuss eventing topics.

Horsemanship University

Horsemanship University took up a large of the morning’s schedule as a variety of panelists and speakers addressed the topics of management solutions from top grooms and barn managers, training solutions from top riders, and selecting the best event horse for you.

Some of the top grooms and barn managers in the country started out the morning of learning including: Max Corcoran (Karen O’Connor), Sue Clarke (Stonehall Farm), Jessica Montgomery (Clark Montgomery), Emma Ford (Phillip Dutton), Katie Thorton (Michael Pollard), Natalie Varcoe-Cocks (Will Faudree). The session was purely a question and answer opportunity for the audience to get to ask these grooms and barn managers anything and everything. Topics included: Handling barn rules and regulations, staff meeting, delegation, working student programs, leg care after cross-country, caring for scratches, tactics for dealing with a rider with poor time management, nutrition, and an insight into how the grooms all got their start.

All of the panelists did a fabulous job giving insight into what it really takes to do their job and emphasizing the need to really love horses and how being a groom for a top rider is a great opportunity to travel all over the world and attend the most prestigious events.

Following the grooms, the top riders had their chances in the hot seats as Mary King, Sinead Halpin, Buck Davidson, Will Coleman, and Phillip Dutton took questions from the audience. The dynamic was great with Mary and Phillip anchoring the answers with the up and coming riders contributing a lot as well. The session began with Mary King giving her background and philosophy of her business which is basically to keep it simple and uncomplicated. She also explained how most of her riding career is based on copying riders she has admired, and how she continues to do so by taking lessons alongside William Fox-Pitt.

Other questions posed to the riders included: If you have a horse who has a bucking problem and is very at shows how long do you handle that? What sort of things do you look for when you are buying young upper level prospects? Could each one identify that quality that has gotten you successful? Disregarding having talented horses or money. Looking back what would you have done differently? If you have an accident that shakes your confidence how do you get past it? What are some mental tools that each of you use to stay focused or prepared? Are there aspects of the olden days you miss in the current sport? How do you like starting your young horses over jumps? Do you exercise out of your daily routines with your horses to help your training? What mistakes do you see over and over when teaching adult amateurs?

The riders were basically in agreement with each other on many of topics, but each put their own spin on things.

The final part of the Horsemanship University was about Selecting the Best Event Horse for You. Bobby Costello and Max Corcoran went through the steps of finding, vetting, and purchasing the right horse for you. Max encouraged amateurs or first time horse buyers to find a good trainer or agent to help them and to have commission and fee information openly discussed from the get go. Factors to consider when searching for an event horse include financials, ability, goals, and limits. Use these factors to figure out what kind of horse you’re looking for including age, height, breed, experience, record, personality. Ride a potential new horse at least once and take notes on each one so you can remember their positive or negative traits. Bobby and Max were both adamant that you should never be afraid to say no and walk away at any stage in the game. Do not, however, waste anyone’s time by trying to ride a horse you aren’t actually interested in buying.

When you find your horse, make an offer and always do a pre-purchase exam. When doing a pre-purchase, ask for a passport or proof of age, draw blood to check for NSAIDS, steroids, and to get a baseline for the horse. Try to ride the horse during the exam if possible. Once payment has been negotiated, pay with wire, cashiers check, or cash. Personal checks is too much exposure for all parties. The funds need to clear before the horse leaves the property, and the horse should be insured before it is paid for. Other details include obtaining a bill of sale and finding out all the details about the horse like feed, shoeing, turnout, tack, vaccine schedule, etc to make the transition easy as possible.

Speedcheck Presentation

Lloyd Raleigh made an engaging presentation to an interested audience about his SpeedCheck iPhone application. The app helps riders learn pace while galloping in training or riding a cross-country course. In Australia, Lloyd and his compatriots may use the application in competition, but USEF rules do not allow it. The app, however, is incredibly useful as a training tool.

“The reason I developed the SpeedCheck app is a lot of riders in Australia are getting GPS watches. I looked them up and they are very expensive. I thought, I have a GPS device, it just happens to be in my phone, so I started looking into what it would take to develop an app,” Lloyd said. He also pointed out that rarely do kids learn pace with cones and stop watches. “I see so many kids coming up through the ranks and they have no idea how fast they should be going. They seem to go on the idea that when in doubt, go quicker!”

The purpose is as a training tool. You set up the speed that you want to be traveling, and the phone will beep if you are going too slow, too fast, or just right. The data gathered can be shared on social media or emailed to trainers for evaluation. Lloyd went through the steps of how to set up and use the application. He also went over upcoming additions to the tool.

Young Event Horse Program: What You Need to Know

The YEH committee formed a panel to conduct the Young Event Horse Program: What You Need to Know which focused on an update of what the YEH committee has been accomplishing this year. YEH Committee Chair has created a YEH educational video which will be used as an educational tool for judges to learn to better evaluate in a consistent manner. The YEH committee is also working on revising the jumping portion of the score sheets to focus on making sure the true event type is chosen as the winner. The new Holekamp/Turner Young Event Horse Lion d’Angers Prize and Grant was then discussed as some of the details were hashed out including trying to get the funding to start the program immediately with past winners. The meeting concluded with the audience getting to view the educational video and hear the commentary from the expert group Marilyn had view the video.

Recent Innovations in Equestrian Safety, sponsored by Charles Owen

Roy Burek, whose grandfather is THE Charles Owen, went over the makeup of helmets and how they work. He said that helmets work to deflect and absorb. The geometry of the helmet presents challenges however. The strong fiberglass shell can be covered with a variety of materials. During a fall, the outer surface slides and deflects energy; the hard shell crumples and absorbs energy. The expanded polystyrene (like microscopic bubblewrap) absorbs the impact and is similar to the crumple zone on the car. Around each bubble is a web of struts that compress and absorb when impacted. Even if you burst all the bubbles, the struts are still active. The fit is important because the headband locks the helmet into place. You don’t want anything slippery. Sizing tape ensures correct and secure fit. Reticulated foam enables for some elasticity in fit. The sizing system has to be flexible, however, so that it allows the scalp to slide.

Part of Charles Owens research is accident investigation. A helmet replacement policy allows them to collect statistics about helmets. A review of damaged helmets links with computer simulation shows the impact and how the helmet shell is dispersing and deflecting away from the impact point. Roy said we learned in school that energy is neither created nor destroyed, just modified. With that, he showed several charts showing how energy is modified when a person falls from various heights and speeds.

Nutritional Nuances: Feeding the Performance Horse, sponsored by Nutrena

Much of Kristen Allen’s seminar was an impromptu Q&A session with the audience, prompted by Becky Holder, who said she has been feeding Nutrena for ten years, even before she was sponsored by them. When she got to the presentation, she gave a comprehensive lesson about the detailed necessities of equine nutrition including starches and sugars, protein, fiber. She also talked about how food is broken down in the digestive system. The goals of good nutrition is to provide what is necessary to maintain body weight and energy stores, promote tissue adaptation, growth, and repair, promote general health and wellbeing, use feeding strategies to bring a performance horse to its genetic potential. Horses require water, carbohydrates, fatty acids, protein, and vitamins. Kristen explained how to determine a horse’s body condition and showed examples of different levels. She also showed how to get a body weight estimation without a scale and gave out tapes to the audience members.

General rules of thumb include: Non-ruminant herbivore that utilizes hind-gut fermentation, forage should be the foundation of the diet, supplement diet with concentrate feed to meet increased nutrient demands, horses are nomadic grazers, frequent, small meals, feed by weight not volume, changes in diet should be made gradually, this includes forages, transition over a minimum of 2 weeks, and make sure salt loose/block is provided along with fresh water.

The Care and Coaching of our Future Olympians

In this session led by new team coach, David O’Connor, he shared with the audience his plan for the future and the presentations he has been giving to the riders since Wednesday morning. David began by thanking Captain Mark Phillips for his dedication for the last 18 years. He then went on to show a power point presentation that outlined his ideas entitled “The Pursuit of Excellence”

Goals of the Program
- To be number one eventing country in the world
- To have the number one rider the world 3 out of every 5 years (effort will be huge but other countries do it)
- To have 3 riders in the top 10 every year
- To win 4* events around the world (including our own)
- To win Nations Cups
- To medal at major championships

What does it take?
- More money? No I don’t think so, we have enough money. The budge that got approved that allows us to do a lot, with the generosity of private grants. We can send 17-18 horses to Europe. Riders are still going to have to have a skin in the game though.
- More competitions? No I think we have fantastic competitions.
- Better horses? I don’t think that has been the weakness. It is a constant road to pick good horses and to breed good American horses. We need to have a longer term investment in breeding and owning younger horses.
- Better fans? Absolutely not.
- Better technique? Absolutely. Raise the quality of the riding.

Personal Commitment
- What is the price for success?
- Are you willing to pay it?
- Are you willing to put the USA first?

Head Coach’s Role
- To set plan of program
- To assess where we are on that road
- To help athletes achieve technical excellence
- To help athletes plan the achievement of set goals
- To set a positive environment for owners and fans

Self assessment (How good are you?)
- Technical riding
- Selection of horses
- Owner management
- Stable management
- Sport psychology
- Business model/time management

Personal SWOT analysis
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats (what stops you from standing on the podium)

The four year plan (the lists)
- US Global Talent
o The ability to win anywhere in the world
- US World Class
o The ability to compete anywhere in the world
- US National Potential
o Competitive in US international classes
- US U-25
o Talent and attitude to be an elite rider/trainer
- US U-18
o Talent and attitude to be a world rider. (Training sessions will be educational, mentored by experienced riders)

2014 Goals – WEG
- To medal at the WEG/qualify for the Olympic Games
- This is part of a building process
- Assess type of horses to compete at this competition (may be different to the Olympics)
- Win four star events

2015 Goals – Pan Am Games
- Win the Pan Am Games with 2 star horses with a mixture of emerging athletes and vetrans.

2016 goals – Rio Olympic Games
- Team medal at the Olympics
- Individual medal at Olympics

Education
- Need to be very strong on education.
- Use of personal coaches. Don’t just do it on your own.
- Training sessions: first ones need to be for assessment.
- Not going to select assistant coaches at this point – assess the riders working with their coaches.
- Grant money for personal coaches for riders.

Experience
- The use of targeted competitions for individual progress.
- The use of continental based CCIs and CICs

2013 European Trips
- Saumur: (prep for WEG b/c same course designer)
- Luhmuhlem CIC
- Aachen CIC Nations Cup – best show jumping, best dressage. German’s home ground
- Boekelo CCI3* Nations Cup –
- Pau CCI4* - prep for WEG b/c same course designer
- Burghley/Badminton/Blenheim may have a few riders with grants. Targeted for individual riders. I don’t think you should go unless you think you can win it.
- Haras du Pin– WEG test event.

2014 European Trips
- Saumur
- Luhmuhlem
- Aachen
- WEG
- Boekelo

2015 European and South American Trips
- Decision altered after XC designer has been selected for Olympics
- Tatersalls
- Luhmuhlen
- Aachen
- Burghley
- Rio de Janiero test event
- Boekelo

2016
- Marbach Wiesbaden
- Luhmuhlen/Aachen
- Rio
- Burghley
- Blenheim
- Boekelo

David said this is the first time we have laid out the whole 4 year plan. He wants the whole country thinking about where we will be in 4 years. Also, David added “If you go on vacation I would love for you to pick one of these places. For Boekelo bring a rain coat but it is still pretty fun. We will help you with finding hotels, getting tickets, and being in the stands together so we have a USA section.”

Are you ready?