Eventing at the Horse Park in the era of Covid-19

Things are really revving up at the Horse Park of New Jersey, where this weekend’s horse trials attracted a waiting list of 100, with everyone eager to get back in action after long weeks without competition.

The park conducted a low-key opening from its Covid lockdown with barrel racing earlier this season, but the horse trials are a major league re-entry into the season. The event attracted a field of 31 Advanced entries and plenty of big names in two sections, with Phillip Dutton winning both. He took the A division on his top mount, Z, and the B section with Luke 140.

Z, the Zangersheide gelding who was the number one event horse on the 2018 World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses Rankings, had a 26.10 penalty dressage test, was clean in show jumping and got six time penalties cross-country, where no one made the optimum of  5:57 over Morgan Rowsell’s route.

Luke, a Holsteiner, also won his dressage with a score of 32 penalties, was clean in show jumping and wound up with 10.4 time penalties for cross-country. Phillip’s friend, Boyd Martin, is Luke’s usual rider, but as is too often the case, Boyd was injured so Phillip filled in admirably. Luke’s dressage has been polished by Boyd’s wife, Silva, who specializes in that discipline.

With 92-degree heat predicted for Saturday (though it didn’t materialize) Morgan was careful to insure the course he designed didn’t push the horses and kept everything “at the lower end of the spectrum” in terms of specifications. With the world’s marquee competitions not going forward due to the pandemic, riders have different priorities than they would in normal times.

“They’re not getting ready for anything,” Morgan pointed out.

“All of us are quite cautious,” said Jennie Brannigan, who had a horse in both Advanced divisions.

Before cross-country got under way, she observed, “I don’t think you’re going to see many people go out and try to fly around. I think we’re all just happy to be out.”

With events starting to reappear on the calendar, the sport has new wrinkles in the age of Covid. As Phillip put it, he’s “trying to get back to life, but trying to do it safely. Being an outdoor sport, it’s pretty fortunate; it seems the virus doesn’t like being outside.”

Although major events on which to focus, from Kentucky and Fair Hill through the Olympics, have been cancelled, Phillip is still looking ahead.

“I’ve always got big goals,” said the 2016 Olympic individual bronze medalist.

“You always try to get better. There’s some uncertainty about what events to get to, what your preparation’s going to be, but in some ways, it’s helpful with training to take a break from competing.”

U.S. Eventing Performance Director Erik Duvander agreed with Phillip’s assessment.

“The good thing is, the riders have had time to do things they normally don’t have time to do. They have time to be really thorough and experiment more with what they’re doing and their training methods.

“I’ve seen a lot of real good progress. For me, it’s been very useful and very beneficial for our team to have another year.”

None of the eventing horses who were targeted for the postponed 2020 Olympics have been sidelined because of their age, and younger horses are getting another year to train, which means the U.S. could enjoy more depth when it comes time to select a team for the Olympics in 2021.

While mass cancellations have been disappointing, Erik looks at the options that void provided.

“To me, it was an opportunity to dig deep, do some work and change a few things,” he said.

The basics of the horse trials are the same as they would have been at any time before the pandemic, yet from the minute everyone arrived at the Horse Park in Allentown, precautions because of the pandemic were evident. There were no spectators (the U.S. Equestrian Federation has prohibited them for now), but those on the grounds had their temperature taken and were required to submit signed waivers. In order to insure people didn’t gather in one spot looking at course maps, those were all on line. Needless to say, there was no tailgating.

Riders don’t have to wear masks if they are on horseback, but everyone who gathered around the ring or in groups was wearing masks. On the cross-country course, masks were not always pulled up, but there was plenty of space there for social distancing.

“It’s definitely possible to do this and stay safe, and that’s the main thing that matters,” said Jennie.

“I think it’s probably a little harder at the events where we have to stable. (The Advanced sections all ran in one day.) “I’m grateful to be able to still go and really appreciative to everyone for making it happen. They’ve been wonderful.” Sally Ike, a volunteer who has logged decades in the eventing world (she’s also USEF’s managing director of licensed officials), was pleased with the way things were going, noting, “Everybody is pulling together.”

She pointed out, though, that in the Covid era, “Eventing competitions are particularly challenging because of the number of volunteers horse trials use,” citing fence judges as an example, because they normally gather for briefings before competition gets under way.

U.S. Eventing came out with several videos about judging cross-country fences, so at the Horse Park, there was no briefing on the premises, Sally explained. Fence judges were asked to look at the videos and then Technical Delegate Rick Caldwell went around to the more difficult obstacles to insure the judges understood how they were to be scored.

Buck Davidson was second in both Advanced sections, earning the fastest time of the day (6:11) with Carlevo (36.30 penalties) in the A division and finishing on 43.70 with Erroll Gobey in the B section.

He found the ground “a bit firm” and the course “a bit “twisty-turny at the end.” But he was happy with the outing, commenting, “It’s great to be back out seeing everybody and doing what we love to do.”