Your thoughts on the future of eventing in the world

flohelf

flohelf

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Being stuck at home on sick leave, i have some time on my hands to post on the forum
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As eventing is either completely unknown in some parts of the world or regarded as the leading equestrian discipline, I'm interested in hearing your opinions.
To all the well informed and knowledgable eventing riders/fans on HHO:
(unbiased opinions please !)
1- UK supremacy in the sport is here to last ?
2- Which nations can best challenge UK ? (in Europe and beyond)
3- Which "new' nations in the sport have shown the greatest improvements ?
4- Of NZ, Australia and USA, which one comes first as great eventing nations for you ?
5- Is it the image of eventing that prevents it from being more popular in many parts of the world ?
Thanks
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Being stuck at home on sick leave, i have some time on my hands to post on the forum
crazy.gif

As eventing is either completely unknown in some parts of the world or regarded as the leading equestrian discipline, I'm interested in hearing your opinions.
To all the well informed and knowledgable eventing riders/fans on HHO:
(unbiased opinions please !)
1- UK supremacy in the sport is here to last ?
<font color="red"> I hope so! But I don't think supremecy is quite the right word as there are a couple of nations almost on a par with us </font>
2- Which nations can best challenge UK ? (in Europe and beyond)
<font color="red"> USA, Germany, France, Australia, NZ - they already have the riders to get them there it's just going to be a case of experience/luck/the right horses etc. </font>
3- Which "new' nations in the sport have shown the greatest improvements ?
<font color="red">Hmm ... not sure what is meant by 'new' </font>
4- Of NZ, Australia and USA, which one comes first as great eventing nations for you ?
<font color="red"> All of them, NZ has had a bad few years but there is no doubt they are still agreat eventing nation, I think USA is getting better all the time </font>
5- Is it the image of eventing that prevents it from being more popular in many parts of the world ?
<font color="red"> possibly but I think the costs involved and availability of events at all levels at present hinder some of the lower nations and mean that their riders need to base themselves abroad to stand any chance. </font>
Thanks
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Not capable of such a cohernet reply! But starting from the wrong end I think climate is a big factor for many parts of the world - and I don't think it will ever take off in places where it's impracticle to have cross country. I hope that Beijing will through up some nations nobody's thought of - I noticed that the Fredericks have a Chinaman based with them at the moment who I presume is aiming for the Olympics. He has bought WP in Limbo amongst other horses. I don't think the UK is supreme, they have had a very good run, but these things go in cycles. In the early 90s the UK was wringing their hands at our eventing whilst them Down Under were mopping up everything. The US also seems to have gone a bit quiet in recent years in terms of big results.
 
Well those are all countries that have had some fantastic results in team competitions (and individually), just perhaps not in the modern era. I don't think you can say "starting to have" though about them.
 
You're right about climate being a factor when it comes to organizing comps but not such a big deal for riders who just move to wherever - namely the UK ! - they can find the best training conditions and then run under their own flag in big international gatherings:Another form of globalization !
 
NZ out of the 3

Brazil as an up and coming nation - but then with Pessoa's around for decades are they really up and coming?

most disliked nation - USA - not only due to AT but because of their rather litigation conscious method of picking teams in the past and stuff like Rodney Ward (if it was dressage I'd say Dutch due to Rollkur)

other nations - lack of opportunities to compete due to distance holds them back - even NZ and Aus which have top class courses come here - let alone Japan, Greece, Swededn, Brazil, etcetcetc


UK supreme - on a good day with a following wind and a lot of luck we can beat the world - but it all depends on horse power and we know how long the SJ team was in the doldrums from lack of that
 
UK supremacy... umm, don't forget that if either Germany or France had selected differently, they would have won the Europeans, iirc. If Bettina had been on the team, or Heinrich's horse had been sound, we'd have had a proper run for our money. the French are always very well mounted and Nicholas Touzaint, and various others, are wonderful riders.
The Americans have an excellent trainer, a lot of backing, and some fantastic riders. The French, NZers, Germans and the U.S. can all beat the Brits on a good day. new nations showing improvement... umm... Brazil have some good riders. as does Japan, but unfortunately they tend to pour all their money into one rider, and then pull the rug from under them suddenly, i think. i was very disappointed by the riding of the Russians at the Euros... they have some cracking horses (they always do!) but some of the riding would have looked dodgy at Novice level over here. the Swiss and Swedes have some very able riders. don't know what happened to Piia Pantsu, why she wasn't there, as she's an excellent jockey and has had some brilliant horses.
Of Oz, NZ and U.S., which is best? Now that Toddy and Blythe have retired, NZ is not the force it was. i would say, if the Olympics were to run tomorrow, then U.S. would come higher than the other 2. They have huge strength in depth and some excellent riders.
I don't think it's the image, i think it comes down to money and facilities and training, that mean that Eventing will never be worldwide-popular. There's no way around the fact that you have to get a horse fitter to event than you do to SJ, and that you need a xc course to practise on occasionally, and a braver jack-of-all-trades kind of horse, certainly at the lower levels if we're trying to get people going. It costs a lot of money to event, and it is very tough on horses - if they have the slightest weakness, eventing will find it, unfortunately. a lot of horses that won't stand up to eventing, can have very useful lives in dr and sj, there's no way around that.
certain countries are really up against it because of climate. if the ground is rock-hard for a lot of the year (Spain, Greece, Portugal, Africa, etc etc etc) then even if horses stand up to it for a while, eventually it will break them. all-weather xc courses cost a LOT of money!
there is also the "it's cruel" fraternity, which is very big in certain countries. unfortunately there are always going to be lesser riders, and those who don't care, and misses and falls, which look terrible. the fact that horse racing has a far larger attrition rate is easy to keep quiet, because there the decisions are made back in the stables at the end of the day, not out on the course.
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Humm, interesting what you're saying about USA...Gee would hate to think that AT has done that much damage to eventing USA ! But she made the headlines...Lots of decent event riders in the US beside her though.
 
I share your analysis of the other countries' potential but the way you seem to be questionning UK's edge over Germany and France is most interesting...Regardless of all other considerations ( culture,breeding, climate, know-how, etc...) The one thing UK has over Germany and France is the owners: People ready to invest big money on an eventer while knowing how long it takes and how expensive it is and sometimes just for the pleasure of seeing their horse running XC ! Just cannot be found here... Not in eventing. Mainly in racing and SJ.
 
Just my 2 cents from the other side of the pond. If money and facilities are anything to go by, the Americans are going to be a challange. Wierdly enough the eventing comps are cheaper than the jumper. It costs me about $250 to $450 for an event, and that includes everything including stabling. Our events are never run over just one day, normally we get a choice of three or two. So far all the places I have traveled to have been really well put on. For an example see http://www.lamplightequestriancenter.com/ they have had three big shows there.

However it still does not have the great profile that UK eventing has, it is looked down upon as inferior to the Hunter/Jumper world, where there is even more money. The horses are also considerable cheaper than Hunter/Jumpers.

But they certainly have the numbers and the sponsorship, especially for the young riders. They also run 1/2 stars which is the size of Pre Novice but run on the old format with roads and tracks, as well one and two stars on the old format for those who want the experiance.

I'm not a big fan of Americans most of the time, but they certainly have the attitude to win.
 
just about the image holding it back..The vast majority of people involved in eventing are great &amp; work so hard for the love of the sport , however a person who has a quite high profile within the sport also said to me that " the trouble is we don't want this sport getting too monied as it will attract the wrong sort of people "

As long as people like that have important roles the sport will always be considered elitist.We have to remember there are around 58million people in this country most of whom have never heard of eventing.
 
Yep, same here:65 million with only a couple of handful of them who've heard of it ! You have to look for the few spectators watching, on French XC courses including the prestigious ones...
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