The rule changes currently being considered by the USEA and USEF to improve eventing safety apply strictly to national level competitions (Advanced and below).  Jim mentions that the FEI is heavily invested in some of the recent changes that have possibly caused increased risk in the sport.  These include the increased difficulty of the dressage and show jumping phases, and the short format.  I am sure that some of these changes have resulted from IOC pressure.

A major objective of the FEI seems to be keeping the horse sports sold at the Olympic games.  Horse sport, and particularly eventing, takes a lot of resources.  Cross country takes a lot of land.  When you throw in roads and tracks, and steeple chase, the amount of land required really goes up.  Neither Athens in 2004 or Hong Kong in 2008 ran or will run 4-star cross-country courses due to limited space.  London in 2012 will also probably not have a 4-star course due to space limitations at Greenwich.  Given the space limitations some things have had to go; hence the short format and 3-star cross country courses at the Olympic level.  The alternative would be to eliminate eventing from the Olympic program, and the FEI was not willing to do that, although there are other equestrian disciplines that could replace the three day event.  In addition, the number of nations that compete in the Olympic equestrian events is quite small.  Fielding an Olympic equestrian team in any discipline is beyond the resources of most of the Olympic countries.  There are also cultural issues; most Olympic countries do not have a strong background or tradition in the equestrian sports.  Given these factors, the FEI may well have felt that the horse sports were in danger of being eliminated from the Olympics altogether.

A second area of pressure that the FEI may be feeling comes from the sport horse breeding community.  The great majority of the old time event horses were thoroughbreds, a lot of them off the track.  You didn't pay six figures for these horses, but because of the speed and endurance phase most other breeds could not compete with the thoroughbred.  The increased difficulty of the dressage and show jumping phases combined with the elimination of the endurance part of day two allows horse breeds that, in the past, could not be competitive with the thoroughbred to have a chance in the modern version of the sport.  Warmbloods, for example, excel at the pure sports of dressage and show jumping.  This, in turn, allows breeders to gain a share of the event horse market that was previously closed to them.

Given these factors, and others that I'm probably not aware of, the FEI is not likely to change its philosophies any time soon.  So where does that leave the US eventer who will never compete above training or preliminary level and, in fact, has no desire to do so.  It may take us in the direction of two competition tracks, one for competitors who have a desire to compete in FEI sanctioned events, and a second track for competitors who do not.  The first track already largely exists in the current Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced levels of horse trials which are intended to prepare riders and horses for modern FEI competition.  The second competition track, above training level, might look more like the Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced tests did five to ten years ago.

Regardless of how rules are changed, cross country jump designs are changed, etc. nothing substitutes for rider and horse training and experience.  The bottom line may be that trainers are bringing riders and horses along to rapidly, with rider/horse teams not spending enough time at lower levels before moving up.  I realize that parents sometimes want their children to progress faster than a trainer feels is safe, and that owners want their horses to move up quickly.  Possibly then the rule changes that relate to qualification at one level before being allowed to move up to the next level will be those that have the greatest payoff in terms of eventing safety.

Um ... do you have anything to say about Mr. Wofford's article?

I do ... Ralph Hill has been saying all of this for years!

I agree with what Wofford writes in this article.  I am a lower level, adult amateur eventer who competes in this sport merely for the fun of it.  I also add that I think there are pressures for more riders to ride other people's horses in the higher levels.  They may not know the horse as well as they would their own.  It seems like this sport is attracting more and more people that have not been involved in past years.  Great for exposure to the sport, but trainers need to make sure that their riders are qualified before moving up the ranks.  I fear that too many inexperienced riders are riding above their level for instant gratification.  Hopefully so of these rules will be changes during the USEA Safety summit.

 Thanks for the great article and good resources!  Be safe out there!

As an avid (lower level) eventer and hunter-pacer and foxhunter, I think that the absence of the roads and tracks and steeplechase has made eventing much less safe.  These are the phases where riders, first of all, learn to gallop at forgiving brush fences and where they learn to allow their horses to be horses -- free forward-moving, brave horses.  Anyone who has ever foxhunted first flight knows the feeling of being a passenger on a forward moving horse.  It is the closest you will ever come to actually being a horse.  Phases A, B, and C also are critical to warming up the horse and the rider for the cross-country.  (There also might be less aneurysms if these warm-up phases were put back in, although a veterinarian could speak to this issue better than I.) 

The inventers of this sport would no doubt be very surprised (if not horrified) to learn that these warm-up phases have been eliminated but that the c-c phase has not!  In those 25 minutes or so of phases A, B, and C, the riders learn invaluable information about how they are feeling that day and about how their horses are feeling.  They also get into the groove and together with their horses.  Fitness for both horse and rider becomes paramount to do all 4 phases.  The elimination of these phases, I am certain, is also changing the way riders are training and preparing for a three-days. They are galloping less and practicing their show-jumping skills more. They are practicing their cross-country skills less and less. 

When I do my first three-day event at the training level, I want to do it with roads and tracks and steeplechase and not without.  This "complete" aspect is what drew me to this sport in the first place.  I think it is very sad that more people at the top of our sport do not recognize how important these phases are to our sport and to the desire and ability of all of us to participate in it.  If the FEI cannot support our sport, let us disengage from the FEI or hold our part of the Olympics in an appropriate location.  It simply is not the same sport without all of the second day and it is seriously, seriously damaging our sport on so many levels.  This is not to say that accidents will not still happen but I strongly believe the number will be lessened and, most importantly, the integrity and purity of the sport will be restored.  Vanessa Elliott

In his article Eventing Lives in the Balance,  Jimmy Wofford makes an important point about collection destroying a horse’s initiative.  I like that he does not say dressage is destroying our horses’ initiative.  His statement gives that “down to earth” feeling of the simplest definition of dressage- “training”.

Being a fundamentals and history buff, lately I’ve been up to my eyeballs in books regarding the history of modern riding.  Most recently I’ve been studying the origin and evolution of the forward seat, so I’ve been spending time in the company of Capt. Santini.  Capt. Santini was a follower of Federico Caprilli. Capt. Santini refers to the forward seat as the Italian method and to collection as “artificial balance”. The Italian method embraced natural balance, developing athleticism in the young horse with work over varied terrain, and the concept of developing a partner as opposed to a slave.  I suppose you could say that the Italian seat produced “minimalists’ as Capt. Santini believed that it is the rider’s job to interfere as little as possible with his horse using,  “All that is necessary but no more than is necessary”.  In his book,  The Forward Impulse , Capt. Santini writes (pg23) “It has been so far impossible for Italians to participate in anything but the jumping contests of the Olympic games because all else- notably the dressage competition- was based on principles radically at variance with those of our “natural” equitation……” He writes that the Italians requested that at least the conditions of the 3 day be altered and that those requests had been denied. A demonstration of the Italian method was given for the Secretary General of the International Equestrian Federation at Pinerolo in 1933. As a result, the International Equestrian Federation made  certain changes to the 3 day competition.  The following modifications are from Capt. Santini, The Forward Impulse , pg. 25 :

“1. The suppression of the collected gaits, and the resulting acceptance of the forward balance, which logically results in

2. The substitution of the expressions “pas ralenti”, “trot ralenti” and “gallop ralenti”, which imply only a diminution of speed (and no high action or change in the horse’s natural balance), to “pas rassemble”, “trot rassemble” and “gallop rassemble” (rassemble’ meaning collected), which involve high action and balance on the quarters.

3. The suppression of all direct passing to the trot and gallop from the halt, in favour of progressive transition from the halt to the walk, from the latter to the trot and from the trot to the gallop”

The sole purpose of the Italian method was for outdoor cross country riding.  Those of us who ride over fences in any modern equestrian activity have Federico Caprilli ‘s  forward impulse method to thank  for the roots of our current jumping seat regardless of variations made to the total Italian Method package on our behalf.

The US Military  seat, from the Civil War through the Cavalry School at Ft Riley, did not embrace  collection in  training methods for cross country riding.  Guy Henry and Harry Chamberlin are  responsible for infusing the Military Seat with Caprilli’s methods and for bringing it to a level that was the envy of other nations . The 3 Day Event competition began as a military competition with these very men in the saddles.

The Italian Federation of Equestrian Sports stood firmly against collection in 3 Day  from the birth of eventing until the guidelines were changed in 1933. The Cavalry School at Ft. Riley didn’t train with collection for eventing from 1912-1943, at which time the Cavalry was dismounted.  In  Jimmy Wofford’s 2008 article,  Eventing Lives in the Balance  he writes, “However, we have recently started to require collection from our horses, and I am sure this is where we have gone wrong.”  

There are times when problems seem so huge that basic answers seem too simple. Jimmy Wofford has nailed an answer in his article.  I think we should pay attention.

 Jim wofford's article made a lot of sense to me. When horses were lost at Rolex this spring I was struggling to figure out why. When I read Wofford's article, it made sense. I think he's right about the dressage influence and the shorter courses. I'm not currently eventing, in all honesty I don't ride that well yet. But I want too. adn the scary part for me is that it could be 10 years down the line before I'm financially able  to do it if the sport still exsists. I think the FEI needs to listen to what people like Wofford are saying instead concentrating on make it a little less costly. I know they're trying to keep it in the Olympics adn I thinks that's great but we've got keep riders and horses safe too. losing horses is just as costly as building course particularly when you figure in the bad image it gives the sport. I've been attracted to eventing because it's so hard and so dangerous. For me, it's the ultimate ideal of a challenge for me and my horse. It requires you to be able to do anything and adapt in a split second. Eventing should not be abotu dressage that what we have grand prix's for. Eventing is abotu cross-country but we need all the other phases to keep the horse and rider ready to go. I hope Eventing goes back to the regular format, while I don't follow eventing all the time I've noticed that horses are getting hurt alot more since the changes.

I'm not a big eventer, and I do more dressagee with my horse, but I think that horses are being asked for too much at upper level events.  Perhaps its not the jumps, the speed or the dressage, but the RIDERS!!!!!!! They are the ones that pushing the horses. They should know their horses well enough to know if the are too tired, the jumps are too big, or to damanding. If the course is too hard, they should not be competeing at that level. Not all horses are 4* eventers! I think that all riders competing at big events are trying to win, and they may push their horses too hard.