There will be only one Maclay at the National Horse Show

by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 23, 2017

By Nancy Jaffer
April 14, 2017

They saw the light.

The CP National Horse Show, where the ASPCA Maclay at 3-6 has been the industry standard for generations, just scrapped plans to use the Maclay name for a new 3-3 equitation competition.

The ASPCA Maclay stands alone at the CP National Horse Show. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

In my column of last week, linked here, past Maclay winners polled were outraged that the name of their class was to be used for a less-demanding test. Confusion also was guaranteed by staging  a 3-3 class, whose title included the word Maclay, a week before the ASPCA Maclay itself would be held at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena .

“We have taken into consideration the many comments that were received and have since removed the ‘Maclay’ designation from the title of the class,” said Geoff Teall, chairman of the National’s equitation committee.

CP National Horse Show President Mason Phelps had explained originally when questioned about the new class, “We think it has a lot more punch using the word Maclay in there, versus not. We want to keep it all sort of in the spirit of what we do.”

But there was just too much pushback for that reasoning to survive.

The new class has been renamed the National Horse Show 3’3″ Equitation Championship in honor of the USHJA Foundation. The class, which will be held in the Alltech Arena on October 28-29, before the 2017 CP National Horse Show gets under way, will be a stand-alone  under USEF rules.

There will be only one Maclay trophy at the CP National Horse Show. (Photo copyright 2017 by Nancy Jaffer)

“It’s a long title, but I think it’s great. I really like that name because it makes it really important and it’s its own entity now, instead of something that is less than a big, important event,” said 1977 ASPCA Maclay winner Francie Steinwedell Carvin, one of many who had protested using the Maclay name for another class.

“I think they’re smart and I think a lot of people are a lot happier, including me,” she said when commenting about the change.

“The goal of the National Horse Show 3’3″ Equitation Championship is to offer a stepping stone to riders who aspire to compete in the ASPCA Maclay National Championships,” Geoff noted.

This also takes pressure off riders who aren’t ready for the difficulties of the Maclay to try an alternative and a more gradual approach that can educate them for a shot at the Maclay down the road.

As Geoff pointed out, “The fact that it is National Horse Show and is going to be in that ring gives it enough cachet that people will willingly give up” the idea of competing at 3-6 if they’re not really prepared.”

“We are certain that the addition of this class will allow more riders an opportunity to compete and prepare for the major ASPCA Maclay National Championship,” commented Geoff.

Geoff Teall, head of the CP National Horse Show’s Equitation Committee. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

He added, “The creation of the National Horse Show 3’3″ Equitation Championship solidifies the National Horse Show Association’s commitment to elevating competitive hunter and equitation competition. We chose to host the class in honor of the USHJA Foundation because the organization’s goals of supporting riders in competition, especially juniors, aligns perfectly with our goals in the creation of the NHS 3’3″ Equitation Championship.”

For the first year of the class, riders don’t need to be a member of the National Horse Show Association and will not need to qualify. Qualifying for the championship at the 2018 show will begin Sept. 1.

However, those wishing to take part in the inaugural class must be under 18 and have not competed over the 3-6 fences in the ASPCA Maclay Finals, US Equestrian Federation Medal Finals, U.S. Equestrian Federation Talent Search, the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Classic Finals, the Jump Canada Medal Finals or the North American Equitation Championship.

While riders eligible for the 3-3 championship may participate in the Maclay regionals, they may not show in both the ASPCA Maclay Finals and the National Horse Show 3’3″ Equitation Championship in the same competition year.

Are two Maclays better than one?

by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 14, 2017

By Nancy Jaffer
April 6, 2017

It can be argued that the CP National Horse Show’s ASPCA Maclay is the most iconic of the hunt seat equitation championships held over 3-foot 6-inch fences.

Certainly, it’s the oldest. A long run at Madison Square Garden before it started moving around the country still burnishes mention of the class that began in 1933, even though it left that arena for good after 2001.

Hunter Holloway was the winner in 2016 when there was only one Maclay class at the National Horse Show. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

The USEF (formerly AHSA) Medal established in 1937 also is prestigious, but now there’s a Medal this, and a Medal that at a variety of locations. Let’s face it, the word “medal” is pretty generic. But until this week, the Maclay was still the Maclay, and one of a kind.

Then came the announcement that the 2017 National will host a new class, the 3-3 Maclay, with 3-foot, 3-inch fences on the Sunday before the show officially gets under way in the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.

There are plenty of reasons for having a 3-3 alternative to the 3-6 test for riders who want to show at the National, but aren’t quite up to the rigors of the historic class. We’ve all seen kids who have spent the entire season trying to qualify, only to reach the finals and realize they weren’t ready for the test when they hit the ground or suffer through embarrassing refusals without getting around the course.

However, sharing a name between the two classes is not only confusing, in the view of many, it’s disrespectful. And isn’t it diluting the brand? Maclay winners I talked with were stunned and perturbed that the new class will have the same name as the competition toward which they worked for years, and which was the major accomplishment of their teens—often setting the stage for  success in international show jumping or some other professional equestrian career.

“Do not call it the Maclay,” Leslie Burr Howard, the 1972 winner of the class, said about the 3-3 version.

“It’s not the Maclay.”

Noted George Morris (1952), the leading authority on hunter seat equitation (he wrote the book by that name) when he was base at Hunterdon in Pittstown: “I certainly wish they would name it something different, but I can understand that you don’t want to do that, because every person who goes in the 3-3 competition wants to tell everybody he rode in his level of the Maclay. If they called it something else, I’ll bet they wouldn’t have the interest that they would have if they called it the Maclay. It’s very sad.”

George Morris (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

Mary Mairs Chapot of Neshanic Station, who won the class in 1960, observed, “It just seems like it takes away from the real thing.

“It seems like they could have given it another name,” added Mary, whose sister, Wendy Mairs (1963), and husband, Frank Chapot (1947), also have their names engraved on the Maclay trophy.

“My initial reaction was a little shock,” said trainer Stacia Klein Madden (1987) of Beacon Hill in Colts Neck. “I got a few email responses, what is this? Did you endorse this? I wish we’d all had a chance to weigh in on this.” She said she was, however, asked to weigh in on the specifications for the class “and I think one of my comments as I weigh in on the specs is that I will weigh in on the name as well.”

Asked about the duplication, CP National Horse Show President Mason Phelps said of the 3-3 class, “If you read the name very carefully, the word ASPCA is not there.”

CP National Horse Show President Mason Phelps. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

When I asked if the name of the 3-3 class could be changed, he responded, “It was a board decision that was discussed for a couple of months, it was batted around a lot and that’s where we ended up. We think it has a lot more punch using the word Maclay in there, versus not. We want to keep it all sort of in the spirit of what we do.”

When I mentioned that a number of people were perturbed by the prospect of two Maclays, he noted, “It got them all talking, didn’t it?”

Meanwhile, he added, “The big class hasn’t changed one little bit.”

The trophy for the 3-3 class, held in honor of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association Foundation, will be “slightly different, but similar to what we already have,” Mason said.

He also promised “all the bells and whistles” to make the 3-3- class special.

Geoff Teall, the chairman of the Maclay equitation committee who has just finished writing the first round of the specifications for the 3-3 (they are due out next week), said “there is a whole step from our sport that has been missing and it will allow more people to get involved with much less stress for everyone, starting with the horse, and then the kid and then the parents and the trainers.”

He sees it as an easier introduction to equitation finals and will allow the next level, at 3-6, to more easily become true national championships.

Geoff Teall (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

“If everyone stays calm and gives this some thought, we can make everybody happier and spread it around and make life easier and less expensive,” he said.

It likely will also cut down on the numbers for the Maclay. For the first year, no one has to qualify for the 3-3, but in the future, Mason said, they can go in the Maclay regionals and then choose which final they want to participate in. Those who ride in the 3-3 cannot have completed in the 3-6 Maclay, the Washington championship, the USEF Talent Search, the USEF Medal or the Canadian Equestrian Team Medal.

Geoff believes the class will be popular.

“I think you’ll see a lot of people that back down a little bit,” said Geoff, meaning with the alternative of the 3-3 class, they may be more likely to skip the 3-6 if they’re not really ready.

“The fact that it is National Horse Show and is going to be in that ring gives it enough cachet that people will willingly give up” the idea of competing at 3-6 if they’re not really prepared.

“For me, the important piece of it should be the National Horse Show 3-foot-3 Something Medal. I easily could live without the word Maclay,” Geoff said, but he deferred to Mason.

Francie Steinwedell Carvin (1977) observed, “I think it’s watering down the Maclay. I think it’s making the Maclay less important, rather than more important. I don’t understand why they have to call it the Maclay. Call it the National Horse Show Medal.”

The ASPCA Maclay trophy. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

Katharine Burdsall Heller (1975) said the Maclay “was our special thing. It doesn’t seem right that they can take that away. I don’t see why they would need to do that.” She thinks the new class would be “popular enough” without the Maclay name.

Winning the Maclay, she commented, “made all the work worthwhile. It should stay its own entity.”

The driving discipline in the U.S. could use a boost for more participation

by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 7, 2017

By Nancy Jaffer
March 21, 2017

This month’s Live Oak International driving event, which hosted four national championships, brought back memories from the era when the sport of combined driving reached its peak in the U.S.

Chester Weber won the national four-in-hand driving championship for the 14th time at Live Oak International. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

It built to a crescendo in 1993, the year that the World Pair Driving Championships were held in Gladstone. Maybe you were there and recall the impressive array of international competitors who came to New Jersey for an event that drew amazing crowds; 40,000 spectators, including Great Britain’s Prince Philip.

Enthusiasm about combined driving built during the 1980s, when Finn Caspersen supported the sport and started the Gladstone Equestrian Association. Its annual Gladstone Driving Event was a very big deal. The 1993 championship was awarded to the U.S. after the American team won the title meet in Austria two years earlier. Plans to host the World Singles Championships in 2000 had to be cancelled due to the West Nile virus threat, and things began unraveling to some extent for the sport here after that.

There was a small revival leading up to the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. Four months before the WEG, 11 four-in-hands–an unheard of number for the U.S. at the advanced level–competed for spots on the WEG team in the Garden State Driving Event at the Horse Park of New Jersey. Having the WEG in the U.S. for the first time was a magnet not only for team regulars, but also for anyone who could put together a group of horses and give it a go.

But since then, the driving ranks in the U.S. have dwindled.

“We are in serious decline,” observed Heather Walker, who ran the GEA and serves on the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Driving Sport Committee.

“There’s a lot of concern about our numbers shrinking,” agreed Lizzy Staller, the USEF’s director of driving.

That’s especially true in New Jersey, where the number of driving participants was reduced by competitors moving south, aging out or dying. The Gladstone event in May is a shadow of its former self, though there is determination to improve it. The Garden State Driving Event has been upgraded to a 2-star and is set for the weekend of Sept. 15. It should draw four-in-hands looking to compete at WEG next year (secretary/manager Wendy Wares said hopes are it will be a selection trial for the WEG and 2018 single horse world championships), though the odds are against a number of four-in-hands even approaching the 2010 turnout.

At the upper levels, U.S. driving ranks are thin for the most part, except in the single ponies and horses. The cost of the sport is a factor, as is the time and effort it takes. Competing in driving with a single animal generally requires help from another person, and more than one equine means more help, as well as extra animals that can fill in when necessary. Equipment also is bulky to transport and pricey; having both a carriage for dressage and cones and a marathon vehicle is a lot to buy and tote around.

Few have the wherewithal to compete in the four-in-hands, since the demands of that division increase exponentially from competing one or two horses. Tucker Johnson, a former national champion who was long a mainstay of the U.S. four-in-hand squad, retired after winning an individual bronze medal in Kentucky seven years ago. His perennial teammates, Chester Weber (individual silver medalist at the 2014 WEG) and Jimmy Fairclough of Newton, are still going, but there are less team candidates to choose from in the ranks of the fours, the glamour division.

Chester took his 14^th national championship at Live Oak, held at his family’s farm in Ocala, Fla. While he’s one of the best in the world, having won individual silver at the 2014 WEG, there’s no one currently on the U.S. scene who can give him a real run for his money.

“The sport has been a little bit fragmented with some difficulties with the ADS (American Driving Society),” said Chester. He was referring to the fact that the USEF, of which he is the secretary/treasurer, and ADS parted ways over various issues earlier this year. This month, however, it was announced the two organizations had reached a preliminary agreement that could enable restoration of ADS as the federation’s driving discipline affiliate. Stay tuned for this one.

While USEF CEO Bill Moroney says he’s still learning more about driving, he commented, “We need to somehow to make driving more accessible, combined driving especially, and how to raise awareness of it. Instead of getting caught up in what exists now, look at it from the viewpoint of if you could create it however you wanted to, what would you do to attract people, encourage people, mentor people, make it more accessible, whether it’s financially or time-wise.”

He said what is required is having the interested parties “sit at a table and put in the hard work and figure out where this sport needs to go.”

“Hopefully, we can put the sport together with a cohesive line from the grassroots forward,” Chester commented. “We try to do our fair share at Live Oak and present the sport to a lot of people,” he continued, noting he also gives clinics and tries to help those who are interested in getting involved with driving.

Lizzy Staller called Live Oak–which hosted four national championships this year–the best driving show in the country, but noted other organizers shouldn’t be intimidated by it, thinking they have to meet the same expectations.

An elaborate circus party at Live Oak featured Chester Weber as a ringmaster and his sister, Juliet Reid, as another big top personality. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

“What we really need are local shows, where you can spend the weekend and not take eight days off. We need to grow the sport at the local level,” Lizzy said.

“We’re trying to figure out how to come up with funds to help organizers,” she added. “People aren’t giving back to the sport. There’s no other way to support it. You have to give to the (U.S. Equestrian Team) Foundation, or volunteer. You can’t just stand there and say, ‘I made a team. How much money am I getting?’”

Lizzy added, “Our developing driver program is extremely popular. I think that’s because it caters to people at the lower levels who want to move up but just need some help. Hopefully, we’ll be able to expand that program. People need places to compete where they don’t have to travel across the country or down the entire East Coast.”

Heather also noted it’s time to put the fun back into driving. Not everyone who hitches up a horse wants to compete at a high level; recreational aspects have to get their due, because that can help attract new people to the sport.

At the same time, “When you build up that group of people who do it because it’s such fun, then that tends to feed up to the elite level. That’s where we’re not getting the job done. We’re not focusing enough on lower-level drivers and people coming into the sport.”

She also likes the idea of promoting “the joy of horse sports,” which was the motto of the USEF’s annual meeting in January.

But Heather pointed out time is a problem, which wasn’t the case in the 1990s.

“People had a 40-hour work week so they could come home and drive their horses. Now, everybody I know is working 60-, 70-hour weeks.” She added that young people are often playing games on their computers instead of getting involved in horse sports, so an effort needs to be made to change that.

Chester, who puts on the Live Oak show with his sister, Juliet Reid, doesn’t think he’s always a shoo-in for the national title on his home turf.

“I never take any U.S. championship for granted,” he commented.

“In the days when Tucker and I used to fight it out to the 100^th of a point, I never took that for granted, and I don’t take these for granted either,” he said pointing out that Misdee Wrigley Miller, who was second at Live Oak, and Allison Stroud, third in the four-entry division and the winner of the cones phase, both have world championship experience and are “doing better every time.”

The national driving champions at Live Oak–Tracy Morgan, single pony; Chester Weber, four-in-hands; Steve Wilson, pair horses and Katie Whaley, pair ponies. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)

Chester uses the competitions in the U.S. a little like a “test lab” as he develops his horses, but noted that in order to make the top five or better in the world rankings, a driver has to compete in Europe, which involves more expense.

He sees the WEG in Tryon stimulating interest in combined driving, though there is a shorter run-up to it than the Kentucky WEG, because the venue was announced only last year. That doesn’t give people a lot of time to assemble a four-in-hand team if they are so inclined.

Jimmy Fairclough thinks part of the problem in stimulating interest in driving is that, “It’s become such a winter sport,” where everyone has to go to Florida to compete during that season. That’s difficult for people from other parts of the country who work for a living.

“Almost all the Northeast shows are gone or are at low levels,” he commented.

“The rhythm isn’t there.”

Once there were often 65 advanced entries at the big shows, he recalled.

“Now they get 25 or 30 across the board.” The problems are “financial support, number one, and number two, the economy has hurt it,” said Jimmy.

There were just three advanced pair horses at Ocala, where Steve Wilson won with his Lippizans, the perfect candidates for 2017 World Pairs Championship in Lipica, Slovenia, where the state Lippizan stud farm is located.

The pair ponies, where Katie Whaley took the national title, had only three entries as well, though the single pony section, topped by national champion Tracy Morgan, attracted nine starters. That is reflective of the fact it takes much less money and help to drive a single. The single horses had six entries, but their national championship will be contested this fall in Kentucky, so there was no U.S. title for them at Live Oak.