On the Line

Who are we to judge? Really? When a subjective video spins some not so pretty riding behavior one way, and thousands of viewers create an angry uproar, does it make the rider any more guilty, or just plain unlucky? The FEI has got to be pondering this and other questions after once again finding themselves in the hotseat for allowing questionable riding to occur right under their nose.

This time, it’s one of the United States’ most well known reiners that has come under major fire, due to a video by Epona tv (they’re the same guys who kicked off the rollkur blue tongue debacle last year) that has steadily gained a landslide of angry comments since it was posted on YouTube last Thursday.

The video in question is of Craig Schmersal, schooling in the warm up at the FEI World Reining Final in Malmo, Sweden on May 21:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en_90D5TOKA

He went on to win second place with Lil Miss Addy Tude, and like him or not, he is unquestionably one of the most successful reiners in the world.

It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to see that sharply jerking a seemingly obedient horse in the mouth with a shanked bit is not so nice. Most horsemen human beings believe that’s no way to treat a horse.

But if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that while On the Line appreciates disciplines like reining, I don’t for one second pretend that my knowledge of reining takes up more space than a flea on an elephant’s back.  So who am I to judge the training techniques of a reiner? Who is anyone else, really, except those who are justifiable experts within that discipline?

One would think that the FEI would share the same sentiment. They are, after all, the experts. The practice session shown above was monitored and timed by FEI stewards. . . .  .who seemed to be either napping or reading their phones when the camera panned to them.

Therein lies the crux of the situation. The riding seen in the video is accepted in reining. I know this not because I know reining, but because no steward at this international Final stepped in to give Mr. Schmersal a visible warning or to eliminate him for abusive riding. With their non-action, the FEI condoned the warmup methods shown.

The FEI was created to enforce the rules and maintain ethical standards in the disciplines it governs. But with the blue tongue mess, the whipping mess at the WEG trials last year, and if you want to count it, Sapphire’s World Cup elimination mess last April, they continue to miss the mark.

I’m not one to support angry mobs, especially because I don’t believe that it should take one to get a governing body to react. But viral videos and furious, inflammatory comments are becoming today’s version of an angry mob and the rote catalyst to kick off an official investigation. And that’s just not right. So instead of supporting the tar and feathering of Mr. Schmersal, On the Line supports a review of stewardship by the FEI (By the way, FEI reaction to this incident so far has been. . . wait for it. .  .rather rote).

Call me an optimist, but here’s hoping that the FEI stewards become more proactive in the best interests of the horse. Because if one thing is certain, it’s that there will always be a need for the FEI. But it’s up to them to create a world with no need for a thing like Epona tv.

“If one of them have got it, then ten of them have got it now, and if one of them gets out . . . we have got a very interesting problem!” Dustin Hoffman, “Outbreak”, 1995

That very interesting problem was highly dramatized in Outbreak, a gem of a movie about an African monkey carrying a highly contagious flesh-eating disease that landed in the U.S. and caused an outbreak that threatened the existence of a small town, of the country, and of the very world we live in.

Did I already say highly dramatized?

Luckily, the recent EHV-1 outbreak that started at a cutting horse show in Utah has not reached such epic proportions. Veterinarians across the country have swooped in much like Dustin Hoffman and his co-star Cuba Gooding Jr. swooped in on their helicopter, to save the day at barns and vet hospitals nationwide.

The very serious Equine Herpes Virus 1, of which small outbreaks occur each year in the United States, became national news when a horse at the cutting show contracted the disease, but did not show signs early enough to prevent his handlers from limiting his contact with other horses.  The show ended, the 300 or so horses at the venue scattered to their home states, and “Outbreak”!

But before anyone can say hazmat suit, vets have been at work following the trail of the outbreak, no doubt making phone calls, tracking entries from the show, and generally doing what vets do best – staying calm and solving problems.

An official tally of confirmed cases is here, more information is here and here.

However. EHV outbreaks have happened before, and they will happen again. That’s not a sentence meant to stoke fear, but rather, to make us ask ourselves – how can we do better?

A contagious disease is as serious as the speed at which it spreads. In a perfect world, information on the Utah horses, their home states, owner contact information, competition history and even entries to their upcoming shows would have been instantly available to vets and officials.

As it is now, paper entry forms were all the vets had to work with. To complicate things, a horse sale was held during the show, and as those horses changed hands and left for new homes, contacting their new owners became more complicated.

Just saying...

It’s simply taken time for vets to know exactly where each horse at the cutting show ended up afterwards, and in the meantime the outbreak has spread. Social media, news sites and bloggers (guilty) took the story and ran with it. Horses in unaffected states clear across the country were suddenly restricted.  And if Dustin Hoffman learned anything in Outbreak, it was that it’s rather difficult to control fear.

When horse owners tell their farriers, chiropractors, and vets to put off scheduled appointments until the risk passes, the industry suffers. When trainers that are hundreds of miles away from an affected area make last minute, panicky decisions to pull out of a event that’s not necessarily affected by the outbreak, that show suffers. And when events are canceled to help stem the spread of a disease, the local economy suffers.

Could universal microchipping of our horses help control or prevent a similar outbreak? This blogger thinks so. It’s hard to believe that in a world where our smartphones can scan a QR Code on a billboard and send information straight to the palm of our hand, better record keeping isn’t already in place.

Modern technology at work.

In a perfect world, scanning horses when they arrive at shows or sales, instantly knowing their histories and having relevant contact information on hand would make a critical difference when every minute matters in tracking down horses and notifying owners.

Universal microchipping has many potential benefits, as noted by fellow Sidelines blogger, Dr. Alex Emerson in his recent post on the subject. Pooled data to help veterinarians see how certain footings effect performance over spans of several years…tracking the performance successes of famous breeding stallions. Knowing without a shadow of a doubt the complete medical history of that horse you’re thinking about buying. Dr. Emerson describes these and other ways that microchipping can help vets much more eloquently than I ever could, so click over and read his post here.

Is this all a little too Big Brother for your taste? So be it. In a world of smartphones and cars with gps chips, web-based records and yes, facebook, rest assured that Big Brother already knows exactly where you are. But it does not know where your horse is.

Maybe it’s time to change that?

It’s all about who you know. It’s all about working those connections.

On the Line watched the recent broadcast of the United States’ first-ever CRI5* reining competition with interest. While nothing will ever replace show jumping for this blogger, I appreciate reining’s appeal and excitement, and jealously covet (errrr, I mean admire) the spectator numbers that that discipline attracts.

But did I expect to ride with decorated reiner Shawn Flarida, just days after he won the Kentucky Cup CRI5*? Certainly not, but when the chance came up I jumped on it like a girl who’d suffered through a drought of Quarter Horses and cowboys~ which is to say – I took that chance!

Photo courtesy of Cheval Photos

Due to one excellent connection (thank you, Perfect Products, LLC), On the Line was welcomed to Shawn’s barn, set charmingly in the wilds of Ohio, on a chilly spring day.

Shawn Flarida is the National Reining Horse Association’s all-time leading money winner, and most recently won the Kentucky Cup CRI5*, the first-ever 5* reining event held in the U.S., which happened last weekend at the Kentucky Horse Park during Rolex weekend.  He won a reining gold medal at last year’s World Equestrian Games. He is, by definition, the best of the best.

So what does the best of the best look like in the reining world? Well, for one thing, this California girl noticed the efficient, sealed from the elements barn + indoor arena right away. The barn and interconnected arena facilitate year-long training without ever requiring the horse or rider to venture outdoors.

Welcome to the land of reining. . .

Second, the place was a riches in cowboys. Cowboys leading horses to the arena, cowboys spinning reiners, cowboys ground driving babies, cowboys wearing Wranglers and walking about with big ‘ol spurs hanging off their heels. . . cowboys generally creating an uber appealing landscape for a rider whose seen enough male riders in breeches to last a lifetime.

But enough about the cowboys. For all I know, they’d be offended by the label. After a short exhange (“ya’ll think there’s a reiner this girl could sit on?” “well, sure. . .”) Shawn’s number one rider, the very kind and talented Cienzo Santos, tacked up a pony-sized Quarter Horse and handed me the reins.

Which is when the fun really started. If you ever find yourself in my shoes, take it from me: don’t turn down the chance to ride a reiner. While one can’t directly compare peas to carrots, jumpers to reiners, as far as responsiveness goes, my little horse had most warmbloods beat. Speed, check. Balance, double check. Who knows how reiners avoid extreme dizziness while spinning, but after losing my stirrup several times during a spin, I had a whole new appreciation for the balance of a western rider.

Despite the fact the On the Line appears to be about 8 feet tall, and the extreme speed at which (I thought I was) going doesn’t really carry over here, I present to you this dyed in the wool hunter/jumper rider’s attempt to rein with the best of them. Literally. It was difficult to concentrate with Shawn and all his cowboys loping to and fro, but somehow, I managed:

Well yee-haw. One small regret – there wasn’t a helmet within 10 miles of Shawn’s place. And yes, I failed to practice what I preach by not being prepared with my own. All I’ve know is that my friends at Riders4Helmets will not be lacking in work for a long, long while. Cowboys in helmets? I give it five to ten years until we start seeing that, at least.

Many thanks to the generous Shawn Flarida, who was every bit the professional and as welcoming as could be. It feels good to have a standing invitation to come back and ride a reiner anytime I’m in the state of Ohio.

So after that one of a kind experience, is On the Line any closer to understanding all the buzz about reining? Let’s review; fast galloping, faster spinning, sliding stops, cowboys.

You bet your britches I am.

The interwebs are awash with photo galleries of this past weekend’s exciting events in Kentucky. How did we ever live without instant access everything? No matter where you were in the world over the weekend, you could almost instantly sift through endless photos of your favorite rider jumping through the Head of the Lake, relive every ride via the excellent www.USEFnetwork.com, or read detailed analysis of each phase by a herd of eventing-obsessed equestrian journalists the world over.

But only On the Line can bring you David O’Connor striking a pose, Gina Miles hysterically riding a reiner, and Phillip Dutton – as no one’s ever seen Phillip Dutton before.

It’s always a pleasure to work with photographer Selena Fredericks, and be sure to check out Cheval Photos’ 2011 Rolex gallery for some of the best images to come out of Kentucky during eventing’s biggest week of the year. Cheval captured jump shots that rival all others, but On the Line thinks it’s those “other” moments that bring out the soul of an event like Rolex just as much. Enjoy:

Chef de Equipe? Perhaps David should leave the horse world behind and take up modeling. He can strike a pose with the best of them!

Volunteer Pony Clubbers display the autographs they collected on their Rolex hats..... either that or they're collectively praying for their favorite rider to go clear.

Kate Brown and Mojito had the unwelcome distinction of being the only pair to part ways in a water complex. It was one of the more dramatic moments during XC day. Both horse and rider were uninjured.

Although she probably was marked down for knee flapping, Gina Miles has our vote for reining in a helmet. Eventers defined crossover by competing in the Kentucky Reining Cup on Saturday night.

On the Line wants to be Mary King when we grow up.

Now that's dedication. Phillip Dutton removes his shoes and socks before walking the strides through the Head of the Lake.

From one small apartment in South Florida, On the Line was able to witness the live events of three Olympic sports this weekend. It really was the next best thing to actually being there.  .  . really.

Being the devout show jumping fan that I am, I splurged on the fee to access FEItv, and it was money very well spent.  The 2011 FEI World Cup Final of show jumping was held in Leipzig, Germany, six hours and a military to 24-hour time zone conversion ahead of the East Coast. After managing to navigate through the FEItv site (it took a couple of tries) and calculate the time difference correctly (that took more than a couple of tries), there was the Leipzig arena, there was McLain, there was a claustrophobic indoor packed to the brim with somber German spectators!

The final rounds of the World Cup were held at 7:40am EST this morning, which would usually put me at the barn, doing morning chores. No worries, with an extra early start to get chores done and a little help from a good wifi connection, trainer Michael Hochstetler and I set up shop in the barn aisle and enjoyed one hell of a final.

Iconic, talented grand prix horse in his own right, checks out the competition while he dries after a bath.

Beezie Madden wore her most excellent patriotic helmet and did the U.S.A. proud by finishing as the top placed lady rider in a tie for 6^th. If it wasn’t for a heartbreaking rail at the very last jump of the final round, McLain would have finished much higher up in the standings than 10^th. The stunning Antares was jumping better than ever, and we all know how hungry McLain was/is for a World Cup win.  Margie Engle and Indigo were also jumping in top form, and also fell victim to just one rail in the final round. They finished 12^th. Eric Lamaze and Hickstead were a brilliant 2^nd place. I was especially excited to see Kiwi rider Katie McVean, whom I interviewed pre-WEG last year, finish in 6^th place.

Full, final results are here, and detailed on-scene reports are in from the FEI and other international sources here and here. Yesterday afternoon, my month-long FEItv subscription allowed me to also watch the Reem Acra World Cup Final of Dressage, the results of which are here.

Moving on, because as far as coverage goes, the really big news today was that NBC gave an hour of live air time to the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event. Sidelines writer and LaurenGallops blogger Lauren Giannini was lucky enough to be onsite at Rolex, and has been churning out the reports over on her blog all weekend. But homebound I was looking forward to NBC’s broadcast, especially after being very impressed by the USEFnetwork’s free online streaming coverage of the first two phases. I’ve never sat down and actually watched so much cross country, but with Bobby Costello’s great commentary and a revolving door of top riders sitting in with him all day to co-present, Saturday’s coverage was complete and informative for a non-eventer like me.

It was all very enjoyable, which meant that the moment when USEF’s livestream ended this afternoon was a more than a little painful; they broadcast the first hour of the stadium jumping phase, and then directed all to switch over to NBC to watch the rest. To their credit, NBC did a wonderful job of summing up the entire competition, for someone who hadn’t been following the events of the weekend. I hope that a very large audience around the country, that is not mad-dog horse crazy and had not been watching every single round over the Internet enjoyed it. But I learned a whole new definition of “captive viewer) as the commentators took us through the dressage and XC phases in a lengthy recap, while completely missing the stadium rounds of about five riders. For the avid reporter, not to mention the diehard horse-sport fan in me, this was extremely frustrating! If I hadn’t had Samantha Clark’s constant tweets to fall back on for updates, I would have been lost.

So, the fractured coverage from two different sources felt a little incomplete. Next year, I hope that USEFnetwork gets the right to keep their livestream going. Or for that matter, I hope that NBC decides to broadcast every single round of the stadium jumping. Anything is possible, right?

For complete Rolex Kentucky results, visit their site. Congratulations to Mary King, who placed 1^st and 2^nd with her horses King’s Temptress and Fernhill Urico. She is the first rider ever to achieve that historic result at Rolex. Mary didn’t quite know how to respond when the NBC commentator told her that “William and Kate have nothing on you this weekend!” At least they got that right!

And yes, I did take a photograph of my television. The occasion called for it! If On the Line is very lucky, Cheval Photos will send us more stellar images of the weekend, so check back soon. I feel a thrills and spills post coming on. . .

. . .but for now, enjoy this historic photo. The FIRST time ever that Rolex KY was broadcast live on national television. Go horse sports!

Here’a a few quick photos from the eveinings reining events at the Kentucky Horse Park last night. Karen O’Connor must not have been too tired after riding a 4* cross country track yesterday…. because she gave the Alltech Arena a hell of a show when she picked up the reins and rode a reining pattern.

And not to be outdone, David reined as well -bridleless-

Check out Cheval Photos’ online store for more shots and a growing library from the weekend. Stadium jumping begins today at 1pmEST – MUCH more to come!

Her breeches and tall boots are an excellent touch. Photo Cheval Photos

That David, he's such an over-acheiver! Photo Cheval Photos