Wait just a few minutes before you pop the cork on that bottle of New Year’s Eve champagne. It’s time to look back over 2024, and give our memories a final airing before heading into 2025.
When we think about the last 12 months, the first thing that comes to mind for many equestrians likely will be the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. Something so anticipated doesn’t disappear from our thoughts just because it’s over. We relive both the moments of glory and those that were not so glorious, while recalling the excitement and disappointments that are inevitable partners.
U.S. riders earned only a single Olympic medal, but it was a good one, silver in show jumping. And our Paralympians took their first team gold, along with a host of other glittering medallions that displayed what a difference the game-changing efforts of the last few years have made for them.
Fiona Howard, Becca Hart and Roxanne Trunnell brought home gold in the Paralympics with chef d’equipe Michel Assouline.
The dark side of the Olympics came before the Games, when a video strategically timed for maximum impact showed British dressage multi-gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin hitting a horse repeatedly with a longe whip during a private clinic.
That put her out of the Games and destroyed Britain’s chances for team gold, though that nation did wind up with the bronze.
But it was fodder for those who call horse sports cruel, and together with a TV documentary about training methods at Andreas Helgstrand’s Danish stable, it played into the hands of those who would like to see an Olympics without horse sports and gave a black eye to dressage.
Social license to operate, or public acceptance of horse sports, cast a large shadow in 2024 and will continue to be a factor every equestrian must consider when they deal with their horses. Someone is always watching – and videoing.
Good news that came from bad news is the creation of the Chromatic fund, named for the show jumper who died during the FEI World Cup Finals in Saudi Arabia after getting an injection of five substances from a U.S. Equestrian Federation-appointed veterinarian.
Chromatic competing in Saudi Arabia.
The fund, which has Chromatic’s owner, Kc Branscomb, the USEF and the American Association of Equine Practitioners behind it, will pay for collaborative research and education enabling veterinarians to be updated as they make decisions about horse care at competitions and elsewhere.
Another major story was the heated debate about the showgrounds at Wellington International, home to Florida’s Winter Equestrian Festival. The group that formerly owned the facility is back in charge, with improvements and expansion under way, raising hopes for a better venue.
The Global dressage showgrounds a half-mile away eventually will become the site of a golf development, despite the efforts of those in the community who wanted it to stay the way it was.
Meanwhile, the new Longines League of Nations debuted in the U.S. at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla., making a big impression on foreign show jumpers during their first visit to that luxurious facility.
McLain Ward met a flamingo on course at the Longines League of Nations in Ocala. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
In dressage, Zen Elite Equestrian Center served notice it would be a big player for the U.S. in the discipline, as it bought two horses to be ridden by Olympic veteran Adrienne Lyle. Although she just started with them in January, she did indeed ride one of them, Helix, in the Olympics. As the year ended, Zen Elite continued its investment and bought a Dutch Olympic horse for Adrienne’s 22-year-old student, Christian Simonson.
Adrienne Lyle with Zen Elite’s Lars van de Hoenderheide and Helix. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
The Games were tough for the U.S. team in dressage. It was the last show for Steffen Peters’ veteran Suppenkasper, and not the best way for him to bow out, while Marcus Orlob was eliminated when his ride, Jane, sustained a tiny scratch on her leg and the rider wasn’t allowed to finish his test. Marcus is resilient, and will continue to show that as a newcomer to the top international level, he is no flash in the pan.
In eventing, both U.S. 5-stars, Kentucky and Maryland, were won by Great Britain’s Oliver Townend on Cooley Rosalent and Ballaghmor Class respectively. The 2023 Kentucky winner, Mai Baum, appeared to have a shot in his last 5-star, but he tired on Maryland’s testing cross-country course and Tamie Smith knew when it was time to call it a day.
There was too much sad news from eventing. British rider Georgie Campbell died in a fall at the Bicton Horse Trials in May. Three months later, U.S. Olympian Liz Halliday suffered a traumatic brain injury when her horse fell with her on cross-country at the American Eventing Championships. She still is undergoing therapy.
Olympian Liz Halliday.
USEF announced a new competition series with $1 million in prize money for dressage, show jumping and eventing, with an eye toward the 2028 Olympics in California. The first eventing qualifier was held in 2024.
In other headlines from the past year, a judge enabled 2008 Olympic dressage team alternate Michael Barisone to return to his Florida farm, five years after he was charged with second-degree attempted murder in the shooting of a student with whom he had a long-running dispute.
Barisone, who spent time in jail and psychiatric facilities, had been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The Potomac Horse Center in Maryland, which trained generations of horsemen and women, closed after it was unable to renegotiate its 1993 lease.
The U.S. team won the Aga Khan Cup in Dublin and children of equestrian professionals took top honors in equitation. Taylor Cawley, the third generation of her family to be involved with showing, won both the ASPCA Maclay and the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East.
Taylor Cawley won two major equiiation championships in 2024. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
The Talent Search West went to Avery Glynn, also the daughter of professionals. JJ Torano, whose parents are involved with hunters and jumpers, became the youngest rider, at age 14, ever to win the Dover Saddlery/USEF Medal finals.
If you want to read more about any of these items, go to the “previous columns” icon at the top of the masthead and do a search, or just go through all the stories. A piece about the people who left us this year is linked here.
Wondering what will happen in 2025? Stay tuned, we’ll be doing a story on looking ahead in the new year. Hoping it will be a happy and fulfilling one for you and your horses.
