The Evolution of Eventing

Many of the major changes to eventing have occurred over the past two decades. We’ll take a look at the reasons and results of this metamorphosis and what a veteran Canadian rider, course designer and coach say about how it has changed the sport.

Change for the good?

Grit High is the chair of High Performance for the Canadian Eventing Committee and a selector for the Canadian Eventing Team. She has trained with such notables as Ralph Hill in the US and Ian Stark and Christopher Bartle in England, where she lived and competed for several years before qualifying for the 1998 Olympic Games. The Langley, BC, native has since traded her cross-country bat for a dressage whip, acquiring a Dutch warmblood and training with Leslie Reid.

High feels that eventing changed completely with the elimination of the endurance phase. With the loss of the long format, she suspects riders may not condition their horses as well. “Many talented horses are rushed through the ranks and end up at a four-star without the confidence or understanding of the four-star questions. It has been the undoing of many talented young horses.” High also remarks that, unlike the old days where dressage was just a phase to be muddled through, “It is almost impossible to get to the podium these days without solid dressage skills.”

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Regarding course design, High credits eventer-turned course- designer Ian Stark, “the Flying Scott,” for resurrecting the more forward-going, galloping cross-country course that needs to be attacked. “It is refreshing to see, as it makes for a happier horse that can get into a rhythm and jump going forward.”

Paul Popiel of Carleton Place, ON, was named to the Canadian Eventing National Team in 1976 and in 1984. He is an EC Level 3 eventing coach, an EC senior cross-country course designer, and a retired FEI course designer. In 2010, Popiel won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from Equine Canada.

As the designer of many championship-level courses, Popiel has seen many changes. “Cross-country courses used to depend on terrain and we created natural jumps using ditches, logs, and stone walls. Nowadays, designers try to outdo each other with very complex obstacles that ask horses very technical questions. The stadium jumps have moved to the cross-country courses with so many elements that the alphabet is running out. They are decorated with bright colours, sponsor cars, swans, towers, and all manner of items. Who ultimately will pay for these creations? I believe that after the sponsors, the riders will in entry fees.

“Perhaps in time the colourful portable IKEA-type of jumps that are prolific on cross-country courses will find their way back to the stadium ring and we will see a return to a cross-country course that looks like a cross-country course, with flowing tracks that appeal to both horse and rider, and attention paid to the footing.”

As a man noted for being able to create a cross-country track out of almost nothing, Popiel would like to see a return to the true roots of the sport – before the word “country” is removed altogether. “So many of today’s courses are one technical jump after another. It is fine to ask horses one or two tough questions in a row, but then reward them with a long, flowing gallop. Bruce Davidson said that a horse and rider appreciate good footing more than a pretty jump, and he is 100 per cent correct.”

Regarding the frangible pins, Popiel quoted top-level eventer Lucinda Green, who said, “The best safety device is a well-schooled horse.” Popiel agrees, adding that, “These devices are expensive and will only be used at the highest levels. Riders are penalized 21 points for hitting and dropping one and a trained person needs to install and re-install them. The replacement time is about 20 minutes, so the hold-ups disrupt riders and horses on course and warming up. And as far as the PROLOGS™ go, it won’t take long for a horse to figure out that he can hit one and it will fall down – and there goes any respect for fences.”

Former 1984 Olympian Martha Griggs of Kettleby, ON, is the chair of Athlete Development for the Canadian Eventing Committee. She is also involved with both the national and provincial coaching programs as an evaluator, and has students competing from the lower levels up to Young Riders.

Griggs recalls that, “In the past, an event horse had to be brave and courageous over a cross-country course, but nowadays the courses are so very technical. It seems that eventing has changed from a sport into a business and every jump is an artistic creation.” She adds that she is “sad that the format was changed; however, the caliber of horses and riders has improved dramatically in the past 15 or so years, because the sport has become far more sophisticated in that time, as has the safety awareness within the sport.

“We did see problems in the first few years after the change of format, as riders struggled to sort out their fitness training. I believe that people are going back to their old programs to enable the horses to cope with longer cross-country courses and multiple jumping combinations that change the type of questions asked of the horse and rider.

“As far as the horses being rushed through the ranks, I believe that it is more of a society issue; we all want everything today, and with so many competitions available to riders it is easy for them to push themselves and their horses. Eventing at the lower levels has also improved, with the caliber of horses and training available to people. We do lose a lot of natural training by the loss of Pony Club activities and hunting that is no longer available to riders today.”

One word that kept cropping up from all three was “basics” – both in terms of learning the basics and allowing the basics to find their way back into today’s cross-country course building and design. This includes good footing, more natural obstacles with flowing courses that let a horse gallop on, and a few, but not an endless line, of technical questions.

High sums up the future of eventing. “I’m not sure where our sport is going – at the moment, it remains healthy in its present form and we must remain vigilant to preserve it in some form, as Olympic venues are constantly wishing us to be gone. That is what instigated the demise of the long format, and the question continues to come up. We do appreciate that it is an expensive operation to put a cross-country course on a golf course in a park and then remove it again, but we must defend our wonderful sport and not give away any more of it! I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do think it will continue to thrive, as eventers are a passionate lot who will not let it die.”

**Elimination of Endurance Phases A, B and C*:**

The cost, time and vast areas of land required for constructing cross-country courses, steeplechase (phase B) and roads and tracks (phases A & C) routes caused the International Olympic Committee to consider dropping eventing from the Games roster. The FEI developed the short format while the long or “classic” format was last used in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Rolex Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley ran their last long format in 2005. Interestingly, there is a group in the US called the Long Format Club (www.longformatclub.com) that distributes donations to organizers who run classic A-B-C-D three-day events at the training or prelim levels.

(* Originally, Phase E was also part of the endurance test, a 1.5 mile run on the flat following Phase D, the cross-country, but it was abandoned in 1967.)

Elimination of the weight rule:

Event horses originally had to carry a minimum weight of 165 lb (75 kg), including rider and saddle, during endurance day. Lead weights carried on the saddle made up the difference if the rider and tack weighed in under that limit. For the 1996 Olympics, the weight was reduced to 154 lb (70 kg), and was eventually abolished in 1998.

Frangible Pins:

One of the major causes of injury and death are rotational falls at fences, when horses land or fall on their riders. In 2002, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in England analyzed cross-country and show jumping accidents and found that “a landing angle of more than 90 degrees was considered to provide a significant risk of crushing injury to the rider.” TRL designed a frangible (breakable) pin that would break at a controlled downward pressure or load, allowing the rail to fall.

MIMSafe NewEra System:

The NewEra System was designed and developed by engineers Mats Björnetun and Anders Flogård of MIM Construction in Sweden with the objective of creating a clip that would release a pole, log, or fence to avoid a rotational fall. The MIM clip is attached to a reusable hinge system and is designed to activate at 190kg, with an indicator that will spring up if the clip is damaged. The hinge system is reusable and unlike the frangible pin, the MIM clip works with both downward and forward pressure.

PROLOGS™:

PROLOGS™ were developed by Canadian eventers Mike Winter and Kyle Carter with partner and developer Barton Aul, who wanted to create a cross-country jump made of a frangible and forgiving material, instead of using a frangible mechanism. PROLOGS™ are made of expanded polystyrene and look like a pole or log. They dent or break if hit and can be designed to break from 750-1500 lbs in any direction on any part of the jump. They made their first appearance at the Florida Horse Park in July of 2008, and are now used at a number of venues, both in North America and the UK.

Air Vests:

In the mid-1990s, the advent of body protectors was a huge step forward in safety apparel for eventers. Then in 2003, Hit Air launched an air vest for equestrians. In 2009, Point Two in England followed suit with their Point-Two Air Jackets. When rider and horse part company, a small gas canister inflates the vest with CO2 in a fraction of a second, absorbing shock, distributing pressure and supporting a rider’s spinal column. Air vests help protect the collar of the neck, ribs, coccyx and vital organs. Point Two boasts in their advertising that 90% of the riders at Rolex Kentucky were sporting their air vests.

Helmets:

The military caps of eventing’s early days were replaced by velvet hunt caps (sans harnesses), Caliente skullcaps, and finally today’s lightweight, high-tech, ventilated helmets. Throw a helmet cam on it and you’re good to go!

Falls:

A tenacious rider used to be able to cling to their mount if they were unseated over a jump, fall off outside of the “zone,” climb back on and continue. If they fell off inside the zone, 60 penalties were awarded, but they were still allowed to continue. This rule was eventually changed to horses being eliminated after a first fall, and riders after a second fall. In 2008, prior to the Beijing Olympics, the FEI & IOC implemented a new rule stating that horse and rider would be eliminated after a single fall on cross-country or stadium.