Quotes 

Cherie's Helpful Hints & Advice 

Inspired by questions from students and friends, I have started to put together some information on eventing.  As I hear more questions, I will try to add to these resources.  Please let me know if there is something you would like to know about...

Jumping 101 (approximately 6 pages, with pictures)  

The Levels of Eventing Cheat-Sheet (1 page word document)

A Few Details About Eventing (5 page word document)
    What is the difference between a Horse Trial and a Three Day Event?
     Where do the big events fall into the various levels?
     What makes the various Horse Trial levels so different?
     How much dressage does an event horse have to do?

Dressage is in the Details (3 page word document)
     11 helpful hints for success in your dressage test!

Articles

Saving Takoda.  In February 2009, a new student(s) of mine, Beata Kinsey and her lovely family, took in a rescue racehorse, Takoda.  Beata has wonderful instincts with horses, but this is her first time working with a young off the track thoroughbred!  To document her experiences, she has started this blog.  It will be fun to track her progress & we might all learn something from Takoda!

Horse Slaughter: An Unnecessary Evil.  Report commissioned in 2002 by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, Inc. to assess available data surrounding the debate about horse slaughter.  And a 2007 Q&A article about "unwanted horses" and the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.  If you think you know what the debate is all about - you might be surprised at what you learn!

Lucinda Green Weighs In On The One-Fall Rule.  Here is a letter from Lucinda to Great Britain's Horse & Hound magazine, reprinted on the USEA website.  Lucinda articulates my exact thoughts and I applaud her for finally saying what (I hope) many of us have been thinking.

Journal of a Middle Aged Rider!  In the fall of 2007, I convinced my very good friend, Kim Clark, to be my grounds person for some cross country schooling endeavors.  She witnessed Katchi belly flop onto a bank (we were meant to have jumped a ditch nearby!), break a lunge line at a cross country schooling day and take off to the feedom of the woods, and generally embarass me in public repeatedly at ditches, banks and water.  Despite my humiliation, Kim, a racehorse trainer for over 20 years, decided she'd take a stab at learning to jump and become an eventer!  Now she has started a blog to document her experiences, embarassments and lessons.  It's a good laugh & you may even learn something - or be inspired to try something new yourself!

Eventing Lives in the Balance - an insightful article by Jim Wofford about the relationship between dressage, show jumping and cross country jumping.

Quotes 

"Henk [van Bergen] likes independent students who can ride correctly on their own.  He says noisy teachers in the warm up at shows are promoting themselves.  An independent rider doesn't need a noisy teacher."
Article by Deri Jeffers in PVDA newsletter (March 2009) 

"When you get right down to it, if we trade this sport for a knitting club, it will be just a matter of time before someone falls on a knitting needle."
Darren Chiacchia, Chronicle of the Horse (27 June 2008), discusses the sport of eventing following his catastrophic fall in March. 

"Advice offered in the following pages is set against the certain knowledge that there will always be some situation where the reverse applies.  'If there is one rule with horses, it is that there are no rules.'"
Lucinda Green, Cross-Country Riding (1986) 

Regarding changes in dressage expectations in eventing: "...back in the 70's if you had a non-aggression pact with your horse and you changed gear at the appropriate marker and you made it look sort of smooth you were in the top 10."
Captain Mark Phillips, Sidelines, May 2008