In December 2020, Dr. Erin Contino, a practicing veterinarian and an active eventer in Area IX, gave a presentation at the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Virtual Convention on advances in safety in the sport of three-day eventing.
Her presentation, which is geared specifically towards veterinarians, begins with an overview of the sport of eventing, for those who might be unfamiliar. As veterinarians, animal welfare is of paramount importance, and so they too are concerned with trying to reduce the inherent risk of the sport. Contino shares national and international statistics on horse falls and fatalities, as provided by the USEA and FEI.
After Contino has defined the problem of safety in eventing, she moves on to share data and information on a number of initiatives that have taken place over the last 30 years to make the sport of eventing safer for horses and riders, from changes put in place to mitigate hot and humid climates, the cardiopulmonary research group, air quality index considerations, increased awareness of footing and conditioning, and rider education and awareness. She also talks about how rules affect horse safety and how the EquiRatings ERQI uses data and analytics to assess safety.
Contino then provides information about a few studies that have been done surrounding horse safety. The first study looks at risk factors associated with horse falls. The study collected data over a five-year period and recorded over two million jumping efforts. The second study looked at how a horse's dichromatic vision could be accommodated to improve jumping performance. The third study looked specifically at the efficacy of frangible devices in preventing rotational falls.
What’s a Hunter Pace? The Sherwood Forest Equestrian Center's Hunter Pace is a cross-country-style course around Sherwood Forest over various natural obstacles/terrain. The course ends with a final treat for riders to take in stunning views of Mt. Hood with a loop through the old Far Hill Farms field. The beginning of the course will first start with a warm-up loop around show jumping obstacles in the outdoor ring at Sherwood Forest and then riders will continue directly onto the course. Sign up as a solo rider, pair, or team.
Claire Allen remembers when she was 11 years old, having just made the switch from the hunter/jumper ring to three-day eventing. She told her new eventing trainer that her goal was to one day compete in the United States Equestrian Federation’s Eventing Young Rider Championships.
As he was finishing tacking up his horse in preparation to navigate the cross-country course at the 2024 Twin Rivers Summer Horse Trials, James Alliston expressed concern about navigating the 101 Freeway. That’s because as soon as he crossed the finish line aboard Intermediate level winner Addyson (Ampere x Nickerbocker) at 10:38 a.m. on Saturday—his fifth cross-country round of the morning with three at Preliminary and two at Intermediate—the West Coast-based five-star rider had to drive 185 miles on the 101 Freeway from Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, California, to San Francisco International Airport to catch a 4:35 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
There is so much more to proper grooming than keeping your horse picture-perfect for the horse inspection. Good grooming practices are critical to proper horse management, no matter if you are planning for your next FEI appearance or your Starter level debut. To help you maximize your knowledge of grooming practices, we opened up the opportunity for USEA members to submit any questions they might have on our Instagram and Facebook stories. In this week's episode, Host Nicole Brown sits down with three of the highest-regarded grooms in this industry, Max Corcoran, Emma Ford, and Stephanie Simpson, and asks them all of your questions and more to help you perfect the art of grooming.