To me, the amazing thing is how upset everyone is getting about it. I’m surprised. 

There are a few different things about it that are good. Probably the biggest benefit is that it gives new people into the sport a nice easy and low stress way to go out and and experience it. If we’re talking about U.S. eventing, we’re talking about wanting to grow our sport. At the end of the day, if you go to Rolex and you’re a competitor, the spectators there aren’t baseball fans or fans of others sports, they’re event riders. They ride at beginner novice, novice and training, and they’re fans of the sport. 

I guess I don’t see the harm. It’s a safe way to do it. My own mother said years ago that she would love to event, but she could not ever remember the dressage test. If this had been available then, I think she really might have evented. The biggest reason I’d be supportive of it is because it’s a way to grow the sport—get more fans and more people involved at a grass roots level. From a selfish standpoint, it’s also a way to grow my business.

I don’t think that the divisions are going to be huge in the beginning. I think you’ll have fairly small divisions. I think you have professional organizers handling this. When we ran the shows before, we always accounted for things going wrong. I don’t think you’re going to have huge delays at beginner novice authorized assistance, and I don’t think it’ll force long holds. I could see a rider overtaking another rider while one is dealing with some stuff on course. But I think that’s an argument that people who don’t like it come up with philosophically, but I don’t think it’s a legitimate reason at all. 

I think you have two groups to benefit from it. The first is kids—7, 8, 9, maybe it’s their first event, and they’re scared and nervous, so they’re going to do it this way. They know, ‘My coach is here if something goes wrong.’ Then you also have the adult amateurs who want to experience what it’s about, and it’s an expensive sport, and maybe they’re nervous to spend the money to go out there and do something silly like forget where they’re going and get eliminated. 

I’ve coached at NAJYRC the last few years, and when I watch the jumper rider kids versus the eventer kids—those jumper kids, they ride great. They can all see a distance and ride down to a fence. When you go and watch the eventers ride, they’re not quite as sharp. Part of that is that they’re doing three different disciplines but also the coaching is to blame. A big difference is that those kids in the jumper ring grew up riding hunters and having coaches be able to tell them when things were and weren’t right. Those coaches were more involved at those shows. At home, there’s no one who cares more about their students and is more involved than event coaches, but they can’t be as involved at the events. 

I don’t see that in any other sports. My son plays Little League baseball, and the coaches are able to help the kids there. They don’t turn them out there and just say, ‘Go.’ When they go play, the coach is out there saying what to do, so that next year they’re better. Soccer and baseball, any youth sports, the coaches get to coach the kids when they’re in the game. Why we don’t get to do that in our game, I don’t understand. At least at this level.

It’s a philosophical thing with eventers. We think we’re stronger and tougher than anyone else. I think that’s true to some extent, but I think you can take that too far and be too stubborn about it.

Dumbing down is not a concern. We used to say that when we wanted training level and novice. Then that came up again when beginner novice was introduced. There’s only a certain percentage of people who are lucky enough to have the horse and to be talented enough to ride at the top level, so if we’re going to grow the sport, it’s going to be at the bottom. If this is a way for someone to come in and have a great weekend on a horse and be safe, I personally think it’s a great idea. 

I’m one of those hardcore people who feel what separates our sport from the others is that it’s all about getting your homework done at home, and once you’re out there you’re on your own. It breeds a whole type of horseman. I think the sort of thought of losing that has been the problem.

Aside from that, I just don’t see how they’re going to get it done. Do you give them a time limit? Do you now schedule a student around when her coach isn’t competing or coaching another student? Do they go around the cross-country in a golf cart? 

At some events these days, even when you’re just running beginner novice through intermediate, beginner novice isn’t show jumping until 6 p.m. Are they proposing it’s a separate cross-country course and show jump ring? This is the problem they have, though this would be on a much smaller scale, with the hunters. I can’t sit there and wait for four hours to jump a five-minute round. 

I think there’s a huge problem with having coaches who have never evented themselves. I get it, they’re all jumps, and it’s all jumping, but people don’t understand what it takes to get people ready for an event. If you train them properly, then when they get to an event, they aren’t in a panic because they’re well-prepared. 

The majority of events, their cross-country course doesn’t close until the closing date, and most of them will allow you to come school. We all know what events we’re entering, and if you’re concerned about that event, go and school it. I just don’t think dumbing it down at a competition is going to create the kind of event riders we want. By dumbing it down you’re teaching too much of having a security blanket there. 

I do know people who get nervous at shows, but they’re going to get nervous at any show they do. It doesn’t matter if they’re at an unrecognized event or recognized—they just get nervous riding front of everybody. I don’t know how your coach yelling at you from the sidelines helps with that. Your coach can always be there to watch your rounds. You get warmed up by them. 

If you can’t memorize one dressage test, you have no business eventing. It might be a little hard-nosed of me, but people say we don’t have schooling shows, and we can’t get to this place, well, then don’t event. If you can’t prepare yourself to go to an event, don’t event. I don’t think they should have to change things because you’re not willing to drive four hours to a schooling show. We’ve all had to do that many times in our lives. If you want to event, you find a way to get it done.

The USEA isn’t doing to this because they’re dying to add more work for everyone; they’re doing it because membership is down. They’re looking to help their membership appeal to a bigger demographic. I don’t know their solution is, but maybe they need to help fund some of these more schooling shows for that purpose.

I think it’s a larger trend in this country. It’s a “What can we do to make this better for me?” society. We’re a little bit of a society of convenience, but I don’t think there’s much room for that in our sport. I get that most of these people won’t go to the upper levels, but some of them might want to, and I don’t think starting them out that is the right way to go. I see it doing more harm than good.