PrintOur columnist believes U.S. eventing will have to combat complacency on multiple fronts to have any chance at a team medal in two years.
As I sat on a plane coming home from Lexington, Ky., I thought about how everyone that I talked to had something to say about the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. They loved it, they thought it was too expensive, they were proud of their U.S. athletes. And yes, after the Land Rover U.S. Eventing Team failed to medal, some were disappointed with us.
The only thing I know about the 2010 WEG is that no one is more disappointed than I am. There is also no one else to blame for my disappointment other than myself. I know I’m lucky, but you make your own luck. I’m so lucky to have the best horse, the best groom, the best vet and best farrier. And I know without a doubt that Carl and Cassie Segal are the best owners and friends anyone could ever dream of.
So why didn’t our team win a medal? If I’d gone clean on cross-country and in show jumping, which I know my horse Ballynoe Castle RM is totally capable of, we might have. If I’d gotten it done, there wouldn’t be so much talk. It’s impossible to not think those thoughts when you’re sitting on a plane heading home.
But the failures on the whole go past the WEG. I’m far from the first to say it, but we need to take a good look at our U.S. eventing program, piece by piece. The U.S. should win a medal at every WEG and Olympic Games! So why haven’t we in the past three editions of those championships? Why didn’t we on our home turf in Kentucky?
Are We Spoiled?
When I look at our program, one major issue that sticks out is our failure to run the “team” like a business. I’m not convinced that our money is being spent or managed correctly. We do have the “best” money can buy, but we aren’t winning. Are things too easy for us? Are we built up too much?
I’m so impressed by what the Canadian eventing team has done. David O’Connor has done a good job coaching, but the whole thing really goes because of their Chef d’Equipe Graeme Thom and stable manager Debbie Furnas. They understand horses, people and business. They’ve done more with less, and we’ve done less with a lot more.
To be a world champion takes a lot more than we understand. George Morris gets it, my father Bruce Davidson gets it, and the members of the long-dominant British team system get it. We have some good riders who turn up strong results week after week against the U.S. competition, but we just can’t say that when we’re up against the rest of the world.
The future is going to be tough. The U.S. eventing team has slipped considerably in the last six years and has a lot of ground to make up. We need to ride better, coach better, organize better, and on the whole just work harder.
The only thing we don’t need to do is get better owners. Right now I think we absolutely have the best group the U.S. team has ever had. We as riders, organizers and Federation representatives do, however, have to treat them better. Without these great people we lose our ability to compete. Everyone suffers without owners, so let’s take care of them and get ready to redeem ourselves in London at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Survival Of The Hungriest
