Show jumping

Today (Sunday) was the day for show jumping at The Event at Rebecca Farm. I arrived around 11 am and missed the accident, which happened around 9:30 am. A horse loosened a rail when making a jump. The rail somehow hit the horse on its head and it collapsed and died. Until an autopsy is done they won't know if the rail caused the horse to have a heart attack, else a heart attack caused the horse to hit the rail in the first place.

The rider fell to the ground after the horse collapsed and hit her head. She is in the hospital overnight for observation in case of a concussion. The arena was cleared of spectators after the accident until the horse and rider were taken care of.

Earthen berms are around three sides of the arena. The spectators can sit on the berms to watch. The trees are still young and didn't provide shade. I sat on the south berm so my back would be to the sun in hope of partially shading my legs. If it worked, it didn't work well enough as my legs are even more sunburned today. My ankles especially. I wore sandals and not shoes and socks. All I can say now is, "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

Depending on the level of riders the course was changed with gates added or moved or the gates' rails raised or lowered. I arrived when the "middle range" riders were riding. The top riders didn't ride till mid-afternoon. With the middle riders quite a number had "clean" runs with no rails knocked from the gates. The rest of them had only one, two, or three rails knocked down. But with the more advanced riders the course was tougher and only one or two riders in each group would have a clean run.

After the top riders competed the Event had the Intermediate and Advanced classes compete. The course was easier but the Intermediate class had riders whose horses knocked down rails. A few riders even had 10 and 11 rails knocked down with six or seven being the average. The Advanced level riders were a little better. I sat near the judge's tent in its shade during the Intermediate and Advanced runs and overheard the judge's disgust with the Intermediate level riders. I am no expert but I thought they were being a little hard on the riders.

One of the Intermediate riders' horse balked at a jump and slid into the gate. The ground crew had to reset the gate. I thought I heard the buzzer to continue and so did the rider. A ground person was raking near the gate and backed off as the rider approached. The horse made the jump but the judges buzzed the rider to stop. They were quite annoyed with the woman rider and didn't believe her when she said she her the buzzer to continue and disqualified her. The women sitting near me discussed it and they heard a buzzer also. What they suggested is that we all heard the buzzer from another arena nearby where the lower skilled riders were competing. I think the judges were too harsh on the rider and I wished we figured out the "buzzer problem" before the rider left the arena and that we spoke up about it to the judges to convince them to give the rider another chance. What a disappointment for the rider. After 5 pm on Sunday, after waiting all day to compete in this event and then get disqualified.

Once person told me that when experienced horses age they are sold to less experienced riders who learn with an experienced horse before they move on to a younger horse that they train.

If the horse balks three times (same gate or different gates) the rider is disqualified. That only happened once or twice. If the horse and rider get separated the rider is disqualified. That happened once when the horse balked suddenly and the rider was tossed from the horse into the gate. The horse ran off. Another time the rider was tossed from the horse when it balked but she was able to hold onto the reins and was allowed to continue.

Sometimes the horse hits the gates rails hard. Mostly the rails were dropped when a hoof caught it as the horse went over. Some gates which I thought would be easy gave many riders trouble, while difficult looking gates rarely lost a rail. I spoke with a woman who used to show jump when younger and she explained that some vertical gates on their own can be difficult for the horse and rider to gage how much effort it takes to make a clean jump. Difficult looking gates, such as several closely in a row, can provide the horse with a depth perspective.

Before each class competed the riders along with their trainers walked the course to view the gates. The horses are not allowed to view the course before competing. The same rule applies to the cross country event. The riders must evaluate the course and guide their horses. The riders walk the course to decide how many strides the horse needs between each gate before the jump. Then during the run they urge on or hold back the horse depending on the next gate. The run is more than "guide the horse to the next gate in sequence and let he horse jump it".

The riders didn't get much for winning. The highest total for 1st Place was $9000. Other first place winners won anywhere from $1500 to $500. One certainly doesn't make money doing this. Either the rider sacrifices because they love competing, else the horse is owned by rich people who hire someone to ride their horse at events. Most riders seemed to be from: California, Washington, Alberta and British Columbia.

The Event was one of three (I believe) U.S. events where the top riders qualified for the World Equestrian Cup. Several riders wore red jackets instead of the dark one. The red jacket for a U.S. rider signified the rider was on the U.S. Equestrian team. Either for the World Cup, or for the next Olympics.

For the team event, the Rebecca Farm team took first place. The judges joking said the other riders asked them to change the scoring for the Rebecca Farm team. It appears "Rebecca", the owner of Rebecca Farms (along with her husband) rode on this team.

I met a few people at the Event. I met a 40ish woman originally from Georgia at the Event with her mother. They both seemed to be horse women and would make comments during the competition about the horses and riders. The younger woman said she used to participate in Hunter/Jumper shows in the SE U.S. for many years. She helped educate me on things to watch for.

I commented that 95% of the riders were women. She said that is true and that most of the men who ride are gay. She said the circuit is not a place to find a guy. I had figured the feminine looking male participants looked that way due to the riding outfits all had to wear. I would think it would be hard to look masculine in English riding apparel, especially when the riding apparel's target buyers are mainly women. I am not sure how many men competed but the total I saw was between 5 and 10. A man did win one of the classifications for the more experienced riders.

I met another couple originally from England, now living in British Columbia. Their daughter participated. They had emigrated to Canada in 1975 and have led interesting lives. She was the one who suggested to me that the buzzer we, and the disqualified rider, had heard came from the next arena.

It was another hot day with the temperature reaching 96 F again. Some of the earlier riders didn't wear their jackets when they competed. Once the CIC riders (the top riders) competed the judges enforced the rule that all riders must be completed dressed with jackets.

We had scattered rain showers. Two or three times I saw a long bolt of lightning in the distance with a rain shower across the valley. Around 4 pm a few large clouds came off the peaks to our west and provided wonderful shade. Then a few sprinkles. Then a steady light warm rain. I knew it wouldn't last long so I enjoyed the cooling down and getting wet. Sure enough after the sun came out my clothes dried in less than 15 minutes. People who had umbrellas for shade used them to keep dry.

I stayed to the very end which came around 6:20 pm. I enjoyed it. I plan to attend the Event again next year.