BY PIPER KLEMM, PhD
Happening slowly then quickly, this year at Indoors felt like the sport crashed into the industry at the rate of a meteor that we have watched come for us for two decades. Slowly then quickly, the efficiency and short-term financial incentives of the industry enveloped one of the last bastions of speciality, the qualifying hunter and equitation shows. The only thing left is the Devon Horse Show, and given the acceleration down all the horse waitlists this year, all we can do is watch to see if it meets the same fate.
Numbers don’t lie, and we saw five horses in the Amateur Owner Hunters and four in the High Performance Conformation Hunters at the Washington International Horse Show. For the second year, numbers were way down in the Dover/USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. Besides the laughter of the USEF drug testers doing donuts in the parking lot, the National Horse Show was so remarkably quiet that regular conversation echoed through the concourse. The only non-qualifying event of Indoors, Capital Challenge, was bursting at the seams with entries.
Exhibitors keep these horse shows afloat, but serving only exhibitors fails to invest in the next generation. They pay the bills, and when we are in crisis, they are what the equestrian industry in the United States has relied on to keep driving up horse prices to the ultrawealthy. They deliver the same product all over the world so people know what perfectionism and consistency they need to train for. They know before they even show up what the courses will look like, what jumps they will jump, who they will compete against, how to get that edge over the other horses, and when you look at the results, it often seems that the same people win all the time.
There is no excitement in all the efficiency. Efficiency makes all of us miserable—the magic often happens in the “waste,” the extra, the soft spots, and the lulls that make boldness possible, acceptable, and absolutely stunning. We are so efficient at making it through long days that we cut out the personalities of the horses and riders who make spectators and new fans fall in love with our sport and lifestyle. When you watch the hunters and equitation, it is not hard to find the easiest place to economize and stuff more rounds and dollars into a ring: simply take out the single oxer.
Horse shows get few complaints from this. Most trainers taking most clients to the horse show don’t need the single oxer. It is a place for people better rehearsed to demonstrate the magic of bravery, boldness, and believing in the horse they are riding. However, most of the horse shows are catered to people who lack these skills. Simply put, removing the single oxer makes an easier course so the trainers don’t complain, and it makes the day go faster with fewer minutes per round, so the horse show can keep moving. Barn and horse show staff are overworked and going to way too many horse shows, and the temptation to finish any day earlier is simply too great to turn away from.
But what are the repercussions of the course designers being “encouraged” to design for time? For one, when the rounds are shorter and more stacked up, everyone who is showing in the next 20 minutes or so needs to be in the schooling ring, making schooling rings more crowded, difficult to navigate, and potentially dangerous.
High performance and competence is how we invest in the future of our sport, and when we make the competition about scheduling instead of seeing the best round out of every horse minimizes our sport for current time and what we are teaching the next generation how to ride and the expectations that courses are easy.
It’s past high time that our leadership in the hunters take a forward thinking and visionary role to our future. The culture of qualifying horse shows that we have all relied on our entire careers are going to die on the vine if we don’t make some changes, invest in the future, and bring some excitement back to the divisions. We need big changes; we need bold changes; we need new faces in our community, and we need inspiration… but first, to do something small that everyone can do to demonstrate they care, let’s bring back the single oxer to every division.
