Next week, representatives from all over the world will be discussing eventing at the Federation Equestre Internationale’s annual General Assembly in San Francisco, and Denny Emerson has expressed his concern in this week’s column (p. 51). They’re planning to change the rules to solve “the problem” of eventing, to make a different version of the sport because some people believe this version is too dangerous. But “the problem” isn’t with the competition or the rules.

“The problem” is with the training and preparation of the horses and riders in today’s world, and you can’t write rules that make people train or ride correctly. The big challenge facing all riders and trainers in all horse sports is the human (particularly American) desire to “get him into the ring, make some prize money, make a buck selling him.” So they breeze through the basics, like teaching either the horse or the rider how to solve different jumping problems.

For eventing, the difficulty of finding open countryside to ride across and skilled trainers is a big concern. Our country especially is facing a shortage of correct trainers because the emphasis is on getting to the competition, not learning how to ride and train. Why are Bruce Davidson, Mike Plumb, Phillip Dutton, and David and Karen O’Connor so good across country? Why can they react instinctively to unexpected movements or strides? Because they grew up riding over all kinds of terrain and jumps. So why aren’t trainers dreaming up ways to teach their students to ride cross-country if they can’t foxhunt or they live in an area without access to open countryside? Too many riders from novice on up are delivering their horses to cross-country jumps with no sense of pace or balance because they don’t know what they don’t know