Come for the cross country …. Stay for the people (originally published in the Area II Newsletter
I’m not the
only one who feels this way about eventing.
We all love running and jumping cross country. If we didn’t, we would pick another sport,
but beyond the cross country, what makes eventing special are the people. The riders, the organizers, the volunteers,
the officials are all welcoming and willing to go out of their way to help each
other. Here in Area II, we are
incredibly lucky to have or to have recently lost many people who made making
our weekends better and helping us enjoy eventing even more a major part of
their lives. Since this is a “shout out”, it seems appropriate to start with
the voices behind the events, our super announcers and controllers. We recently lost two of the best, Dick
Thompson and Jim Lignon, but they were fixtures at Maryland, Waredaca,
Plantation, Fair Hill and Radnor long before I came to Area II. I had the privilege of working with Dick
fairly often and loved his stories of eventers from back in the day to the
present time. He also taught me how to set up and work the electronic scoring
system at Fair Hill and several tricks about positioning speakers to cover a
course. Still carrying on is Brian O’Connor, who is not only a great announcer
and controller, but could have a second career as a stand-up comic. He has announced at major venues everywhere,
including the 2008 Olympic Games and has ridden both real and imaginary horses
as part of fundraising efforts for eventers. How often have we all heard these
voices announcing, not only where we are on course, but something special for
us. How many times has some special moment on course been announced by them
becoming a part of our eventing memory?
I don’t think I can count.
We are also
blessed to have in Area II, secretary extraordinaire, Mary Coldren. Mary
somehow manages to assign functional ride times even when there are 4 riders
each riding 5 horses at the same level and remains unflustered through horse
changes, rider changes, monsoon storms requiring event rescheduling…She does
all this calmly and cheerfully and always makes the riders feel that she is on
their side. She really knows most of the
riders and what works best for each of them. She is willing to help organize
your ride times so it is not too early for your grandmother to drive in and
watch or early enough that your trainer can help you before they have to ride
their own horses. In addition to being the best secretary ever, Mary is a USEF
‘r’ TD and works behind the scenes in multiple roles at Fair Hill and
Plantation after getting her start in the eventing world working for Judy
Thayer and volunteering at Radnor. Judy is another long-time person that we’ve
recently lost. Her work at Radnor and Fair Hill events as well as her teaching
and training have touched many in Area II and she will be missed. XC at Fair
Hill won’t feel the same without Judy there putting the final touches on the
courses and assisting through the event. The upper level riders will
particularly miss her introduction of the pumpkin path, an addition she brought
to Fair Hill to help the riders make the long hack from stabling to the start
without getting lost.
Fair Hill is
one of several Area II venues that run multiple events every year and several
of their organizers also play many other roles in eventing. Brian Ross, the
co-organizer (with his wife Penny) of the Virginia Horse Trials, recently
retired as a judge and TD. I was lucky enough to apprentice with Brian at an
event that had more than its share of “special occurrences” and was deeply
impressed by how he handled them. Brian always said something along the lines
of there being enough ways to get eliminated and the role of officials being to
help riders avoid them. For example, at one event, where the stadium jumping map
was posted a bit late, one professional who had ridden preliminary, then missed
a fence on the Intermediate course. Brian talked with the rider and gave them
four faults. He said, “had the map been
posted on time, I have no doubt you would have jumped that fence, but we can’t
know that you would have jumped it clean.” Brian’s thoughtful decisions on the
side of the rider were a great boon to the sport and while we don’t begrudge
him more time at home and with the grandkids, we will miss him at the venues.
There are
many more I haven’t mentioned and probably many I don’t know. But the past
couple years have been a reminder that time is not always our friend. So say thanks, share a moment (and a great
eventing story) with one of the people for whom you stay in eventing.
