April 23, 2008--The tragic news that two more riders have died on cross-country courses, Franz Graf in Austria on April 6 and Karen Rodgers on April 20 in Ireland, has prompted Captain Mark Phillips, who heads the U.S. Three-Day Eventing Team, to plead with riders to “forget the clock and ride fences with the safety of their horses and themselves in mind.” Phillips expressed his concern over all the recent accidents and, while acknowledging the complexity of the issues facing the sport, begged riders at all levels of the sport to slow down where necessary, treat cross-country fences with respect, and think safety first. Click here to read his full comments on the USEA website.
Phillips also urged the USEA to publish online a letter received from Mike Etherington-Smith, sport director, British Eventing and an FEI course designer. In the letter, Etherington-Smith shares Phillips’ concerns and states, “… we have lost some of the skills necessary for riding cross-country courses. … How often do we see people going too fast into certain types of fences without giving their horses the chance to understand what they’re being asked to jump? … It seems that there is an obsession with speed, which there should not be. … Fences need respecting and this has to be understood.”
Click here to read the Etherington-Smith letter in its entirety.