by Nancy Jaffer | May 20, 2023
The Essex Horse Trials is a celebration as much as it is a competition; a time for friends and families to get together and enjoy New Jersey’s countryside while watching a special sporting event.
A fixture that dates back 55 years, Essex gets under way at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone on June 3, with the dressage phase in the morning, followed by show jumping in the afternoon and early evening. The venue changes on June 4 to Moorland Farm in Far Hills, less than 10 minutes away, where the cross-country phase will take place all day over the hills and through the water. There are new tracks for the Beginner Novice, Novice and Training levels.
The water obstacle at Essex always draws a crowd. (Photo © 2022 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
Eventing fans will recognize many of the riders competing. They include Buck Davidson (whose parents, Carol Hannum and Bruce Davidson, also rode at Essex), Hannah Sue Burnett, Erin Sylvester Kanara, Caroline Martin and some local favorites, among them Meg Kepferle and Elle de Recat. There actually may be some more boldface names by the time entries close May 23.
Essex is a revival of a very adaptable event that has developed as required over the years.
It began out of necessity. When Essex was founded, the U.S. didn’t have much to offer in the way of three-day events That meant those who wanted them on the calendar had to do the staging. In the case of the first Essex, it involved clearing land, assembling jumps and digging ditches to develop a cross-country course.
It all happened during the spring of 1968 on the Haller family farm in Bedminster–not that anyone believed at the time they were building a project for posterity.
“We were more thinking about fulfilling a need,” Roger Haller remembered in an interview 24 years ago, referring to the fact that when the Essex event debuted at his family’s Hoopstick Farm on Lamington Road, there were few horse trials in America that could develop competitors in the European-dominated sport.
Sally Ike remembers going to the farm to help put things together, along with other members of the 1968 Olympic team, who had gathered in Gladstone before their departure for Mexico. She was at Hoopstick on the evening before the first Essex was scheduled to start, while Roger still was working on one of the fences. When she asked whether the course would be finished on time, he reassured her.
Sally Ike on Roxboro at the 1984 Essex Horse Trials. (Photo courtesy of Sally Ike)
” `Oh yeah, it will be ready,'” he told her, “and it was, and it worked fine,” she said.
Sally remembered that Jill Slater, a joint master of the Essex Foxhounds, rode in the first Essex on Knockbawn, a horse who also competed in the Maryland Hunt Cup.
“It was a very different group of people,” Sally reminisced. It was also a very different event. Essex at that time was a three-day event that ran “long format,” with miles of roads and tracks and a steeplechase in addition to the three phases that remain today. It was quite an endurance test.
Sally went on to win it herself in 1984 with Roxboro, one of her many links to Essex, which she also has served as a trustee and show jumping course designer.
Essex in its heyday could rightly be called an occasion. It had moved to the USET after it outgrew Hoopstick. but. the event was held at the Team for the last time in 1998, after much of the land needed went for a golf course. Its absence stretched for 19 years, until the revival at Moorland in 2017 generated excitement in the eventing ranks. Co-organizers Ralph Jones and Morgan Rowsell are devoted to improving it every year, adding the USET Foundation venue to the equation in 2022.
Guests in the VIP section at the USET Foundation during the Essex Horse Trials can watch showjumping as they party. (Photo © 2022 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
Shelley Page, a well-known eventing organizer, has never forgotten riding at Essex in its heyday.
“I did my very first three-day event at Essex in 1980-something and I won it,” recalled Shelley, who was aboard an Appaloosa named The Magic Dragon in the Preliminary section.
“It was huge. It was the event to go to, to do a three-day event,” she observed.
“I think it is so exciting that it is back at Gladstone and its roots. Morgan and Ralph and that team have done such an amazing job to bring that event full circle. They brought it back to life and brought it back home, so to speak.”
Essex is produced with the help of 100 volunteers, part of the community spirit that energizes the event as it evolves annually. This year, there’s a new Intermediate division, a notch above the Preliminary section that was the top segment last year. Running S Equine Veterinary Services has put up $10,000 in prize money for the Intermediate. Other major ESsex backers are Peapack-Gladstone Bank and PURE Insurance.
Additional sponsors include Turpin Realty, Sotheby’s and Open Road. Essex benefits the Life Camp in Pottersville, which provides an enriching summer day camp experience for 300 youths daily for six weeks during July and August. Campers between the ages of 6 and 13 come from the greater Newark public school system, as well as from Newark Charter School Programs. After orientation on June 4, campers will be coming to Essex for a picnic, sponsored by Aon insurance. The occasion will offer the kids and their families a chance to watch the cross-country.
For those who appreciate horsepower as much as (or maybe more than) horses, the Peter Chesson Memorial Car Show will run from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. June 4 at Moorland.
Admission is $20 per car. There will be vendors on the grounds at both the USET Foundation and Moorland, as well as four food trucks. A VIP cocktail party at the USET Foundation will be held during the show jumping. Tickets for the party are $100.
For more information, go to www.essexhorsetrials.org.
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 1, 2023
It was a marathon.
The $38,700 Mainline Challenge lasted two hours, with 47 horses competing in the two-phase competition at the Devon Horse Show Wednesday night, as the four-in-hands waiting for the next class cooled their heels for more than an hour.
The class, an update of the old Power and Speed format, involved jumping six fences as a preliminary to fences seven through 12, taken at a fast clip. The route, designed by Anderson Lima of Peru, had nearly half the starters finishing without jumping faults.
Laura Chapot, who is known for being quick, set the pace to catch on Chandon Blue, 10th to go. Clocked at 31.09 seconds, she looked unbeatable for the next 35 rounds. Then McLain Ward came into the ring with First Lady, a mount who has been developing ove the last three years for owner Robin Parsky, who also has horses with world number one. Henrik von Eckermann.
McLain’s mark of 30.69 had staying power. The only entry that came close was British rider Jessica Mendoza on Changing Tatum, third from the end. But she took her horse back at the final fence, a sturdy dark green oxer, which meant she missed the mark. Her time of 30.73 seconds put her second.
McLain is understandably excited about the elegant First Lady, an Oldenburg displaying a refined thoroughbred look.
“The mare has super quality and is a wonderful type horse, a beautiful model. She had to learn the ropes a little bit,” McLain said.
“She always was a spectacular jumper. Now she’s really figuring the sport out and the results are starting to show that.”
by Nancy Jaffer | May 24, 2023
Want to be part of an important competition’s success?
Dressage at Devon is offering many opportunities Sept. 26-Oct. 1 at the Devon showgrounds in Pennsylvania.
Opportunities involve being a scribe for judges at the breed and/or performance show, serving as a ring steward or assistant steward, becoming part of the show manager’s crew and a variety of other options.
There’s always a crowd to watch top riders during Dressage at Devon. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
In addition to the job experience, benefits include free admission (obviously) and parking, a collectible pin and mug, meals and snacks, training and supervision.
It’s always a good show. Think of being able to meet so many interesting trainers, riders and horse owners–not to mention horses!
For more information, or to register, click on this link.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 29, 2023
There will be an emergency summit meeting at Churchill Downs on Tuesday under the auspices of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) in the wake of 12 horse deaths at the home of the Kentucky Derby this spring.
Veterinary teams from Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and HISA will gather to review all veterinary information available and conduct additional analysis, seeking to determine what caused the tragedies at the Louisville, Ky., track that have gotten worldwide attention.
“HISA’s highest priority is the safety and well-being of the horses and riders competing under its jurisdiction,” according to a HISA statement. “We remain deeply concerned by the unusually high number of equine fatalities at Churchill Downs over the last several weeks.”
Meanwhile, HISA is asking for an independent analysis of the facility’s racing and training surfaces from experienced track superintendent Dennis Moore. At the same time, HISA is seeking more veterinary opinions and on-site obeservations from its director of equine safety and welfare, Dr. Jennifer Durenberger.
Churchill Downs issued a statement about the situation, saying,”Our team members mourn the loss of these animals as we continue to work together to discover cause and determine appropriate investments to minimize, to the degree possible, any avoidable risk in this sport and on our property. We do not accept this as suitable or tolerable and share the frustrations of the public, and in some cases, the questions to which we do not yet have answers.
“We have been rigorously working since the opening of the meet to understand what has led to this spike and have yet to find a conclusive discernible pattern as we await the findings of ongoing investigations into those injuries and fatalities.”
by Nancy Jaffer | May 25, 2023
I’ve said it before, and I’ll warn you again–always remember there are eyes on you when you’re working with horses.
Actually, the eyes are the least of it. Videos, the livestream of competitions and photos can do plenty of damage when they’re posted, and that’s not just if you’re doing something questionable.
Those who don’t know anything about horses have their own interpretations of what goes on around the animals.
Perhaps they see horses “as prisoners in tiny stalls,” U.S. Hunter Jumper Association President Mary Knowlton suggested this week at a Town Hall Zoom meeting, the second in a series of four.
She added practices that feel normal to those involved with horses “might not seem that way to people without knowledge of the sport.”
Mary advised that we have to “get our story out there early and explain what we do.”
This is all about Social License to Operate, the hot catch phrase summing up the type of “permission” needed to pursue horse sports in the era of social media, and in the view of people in the larger community who are always watching.
She warned that if those involved in horse sport don’t make sure that the picture of how they operate can withstand widespread consumption, there is always the possibility the federal government will step in as it did with racing. The Federal Trade Commission has oversight of HISA, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. The program includes racing and training safety standards, as well as injury and fatality analysis, as well as evaluation and accreditation.
As one person on the Zoom call pointed out, the phrase, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” is not synonymous with good news.
“I think we can police ourselves,” Mary emphasized.
It’s up to everyone to report when they see something that isn’t going right; a horse being longed to exhaustion, a pony being whipped, a syringe where it doesn’t belong.
“There’s much more policing of each other. People are watching now and some are speaking up,” said Mary.
Steward Sheila Murphy, who was among the 98 people on the Zoom meeting, cited an instance where “just my presence,” stopped abusive longeing after she had been told what was going on.
At the same time, steward Cricket Stone noted that while informing stewards or the U.S. Equestrian Federation about misbehavior is important, “videos and photo evidence go a lot further than hearsay” when it comes to calling out perpetrators.
The USEF board next month will consider several rules pertaining to horse welfare, including requiring horses being longed or ridden in a schooling or warm-up area to have a show number attached, or have the number on the rider or handler. Attachments to longe whips, such as flags or bags, would be forbidden, along with cracking the whip while a horse is being longed.
Also to be discussed is penalizing by elimination if a horse has raw or bleeding sores on its sides, as that would be considered cruelty and abuse. The current rule only covers competing with raw or bleeding sores around the coronets, pasterns or legs.
While it’s unfortunately common for a horse to be longed far too long to get it ready for an amateur rider or a child, the same thing can happen to horses competing in other divisions. Is a happy bounce of a horse’s head after a fence something that should be penalized if that joyful expression goes no further? Or do horses really have to be dead quiet to pin in a big class?
Perhaps, it was suggested during the Town Hall, “We need to change what we’re judging for.” And Mary suggested that if a rider can only compete if their horse is longed for too long, perhaps the trainer instead should focus on training the rider to perform more competently.
Other abuses mentioned included showing horses too many times at one competition. The example given was a 23-year-old horse doing 20 classes in a week. Perhaps that is something that should be regulated, it was mentioned, since it’s less arbitrary than trying to judge whether a horse has been on the longe line too long.
On another topic, Mary explained the difference between Channel I and Channel II shows, which many USEF and USHJA members still don’t understand. Channel I is a combo of the former Premier and National Shows; Channel II shows are what used to be called, B, C and Local Member shows, and subsequently, Regional. Outreach, at the lowest level, doesn’t have to be run at a USEF licensed show.
“Outreach is growing huge and the federation’s Regional is a little bit stagnant. Part of the reason for that, I think, is because Outreach is an overlay on an unrecognized show and we don’t have a lot of rules they have to follow,” said Mary.
“It’s more of a `Hello, come in, meet USHJA, see that we’re not scary, get introduced to what we do. Compete, have fun.’ ” An Outreach Festival, at the next level, is held at licensed shows. That gives participants a chance to see what goes on in other rings.
She said Outreach shows may consider becoming licensed, but noted “We’ll see about that. That’s uncertain to me at this moment.”
On the topic of saving the Regional horse show, Mary said, “California got some new Channel II shows.” but at the same time, “Zone II (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania) has lost some for sure. Some other zones don’t really have Regional shows. I think Outreach has helped a lot to introduce people to being within USHJA’s umbrella. Hopefully, that will translate into people actually wanting to run Regional shows.”
by Nancy Jaffer | May 26, 2023
