The old cavalry photos are an amusing reminder of how far cross-country jumps have come!
“I did my first four-star back in 1999, which doesn’t make me a hard-out four-star veteran, but I’ve seen a lot of changes in the courses since that time,” he says. “The modern sport of eventing as it has evolved over the past few years has gone toward a shorter course with more accuracy fences rather than hard-out long courses with big intimidating fences.” Boyd was lucky enough that Dutch Warmblood
Remington XXV, owned by Ron and Densey Juvonen, came along after the change to short format competition. “This allowed a hundred percent Warmblood like him to compete at the top level,” Boyd says. “In the old days his eventing career would have been limited to horse trials and one-day events, but since he only had to compete for a maximum of 12 minutes on endurance day instead of having a rider on his back through roads and tracks, he was able to excel.” Boyd and “Remi” finished seventh at the 2010 Pau CCI4*
in France, and the gelding is now competing under Boyd’s assistant, Caitlin Silliman.
Positive Evolution? Naturally, cross-country courses have evolved along with
the sport. Some competitors lament the loss of the long format because they feel that the roads and tracks and steeplechase prepared the horse physically for the demands of the cross-country. Many people also regret that riders today do not face the same extreme test of horsemanship posed by the long format at the upper levels. Course designer Denis Glaccum of Unionville, Penn-
sylvania builds the courses at Plantation Field and is an accomplished rider and member of the U.S. Eventing Association’s Hall of Fame. Denis says, “I think in a lot of course design you have an evolution—things are evolving all the time. We do things differently now and much of what we do is better. As designers, a lot of that has to do with the shape of fences and where we place fences. We would never do a lot of things that we used to do—where
Phillip Dutton and Woodburn at Rolex Kentucky in ’05 easily jump the coffin.
we place verticals and ditches for instance. The overriding reason is that when horse and rider make a mistake, you don’t want the horse to be unfairly punished.” Event organizer Lara Anderson of Full Gallop Farm in
Aiken, South Carolina feels that some cross-country courses have become too technical and in some cases are the equivalent of “glorified stadium courses.” “I do think they are gearing them more to the Warm-
bloods. Ever since the original three-day format was made extinct, I think the courses are closing the gap between the Thoroughbreds and the Warmbloods that excel at this sport,” she says. Canadian eventer Samantha St. Jacques (nee Taylor) was a member of the 2008 Olympic Team riding her Canadian Sport Horse gelding Livewire. Samantha feels that course designers simply need to find a balance that meets the needs of all kinds of horses. “Courses are definitely more technical than they used
to be,” she says. “I don’t know if I would say they are too technical…though there are definitely courses that are better than others. I think as long as the course and the questions it asks are fair to the horse and give the horse a reasonable chance of understanding what is being asked of it, the technicality is okay.”
The Modern Event Horse The general consensus is that the winning event horse of
the future will be a cross of Thoroughbred and Warmblood lines. Two examples are Andrew Nicholson’s 2013 Rolex Kentucky winner Quimbo, a registered Caballo de Deporte Español, who has Ladykiller (a Thoroughbred) as his grandsire, and 2010 WEG champion La Biosthetique Sam FBW, ridden by Michael Jung, who is 75 percent
Warmbloods Today 15
Ronald Yochum
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