The Emerging Athletes Program regional training session opened doors for teens and their horses as they learned riding techniques and stable management in Gladstone
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Ariana Morales of Shrewsbury had "the round of the day" as the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association's Emerging Athletes Program regional training session concluded in Gladstone last week. It wasn't quite boot camp, but the 16 teenage riders who went through the Emerging Athletes Program regional training session in Gladstone last week knew that they and their horses had undergone a major epiphany since arriving at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation headquarters five days earlier.
Presiding clinician Geoff Teall sees the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association's EAP, designed to help riders under 21 become complete horsemen, as an opening for those who aspire to be professionals, or at least take horse sport very seriously, but "don't have opportunities to see or be seen.
"If somebody that had all sorts of opportunities -- lots of horses, lots of teachers, lots of experience -- were to take a slot away from a kid that didn't have opportunities, I would be disappointed in that rider," said Teall, a respected horse show judge who has trained many hunter and equitation champions.
Young people from all over the country apply for10 regional sessions held from coast to coast during the summer, but only about 200 are chosen to participate annually through a rigorous selection process, according to Sally Ike, chairman of the EAP Committee.
There are several restrictions on who can apply; for instance, they cannot have competed in an FEI (international) jumping championship, which includes the popular North American Junior and Young Riders Championship, and they cannot have competed before March 1 over fences higher than 1.35 meters. Each participant gets a report card based on their performance in the regionals.
A select group of 16 is named to attend the national finals, set for this November at Otterbein College in Ohio, where a winner will be named. The poster boy for the EAP is Jacob Pope, who rose from obscurity by winning the national finals in 2011, then went on to take the prestigious ASPCA Maclay equitation finals the next year after gaining a top trainer and horse through his new visibility.
The EAP, which is presented by Dover Saddlery, includes a segment on stable management, taught at Gladstone by Anne Thornbury. A veterinary technician who runs a hunter, jumper and dressage stable, as well as an equine rehab facility in Ohio with her husband, Skip, she instructed the EAP participants in everything from equine anatomy to nutrition, proper fit of tack, grooming, bandaging and learning how to palpate legs so they can feel what's normal for their horse.
"I'm trying to teach them how to best take care of their horse and make sure he lasts a long time and stays healthy, happy and safe," she said
The EAP week is intense and designed to keep the participants on their toes at all times. They take care of their own horses--no grooms are allowed--and when they aren't riding or learning stable management, they are setting up jumps or picking manure out of the arena.
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Setting fences is part of the deal for the Emerging Athletes Program.
It's not for those who aren't ready to give it everything they've got.
"By signing up," said the Florida-based Teall, "they make a significant commitment to our sport. Because of that, I take a no-holds-barred approach to it. My expectations are very high and I'm very comfortable telling everybody exactly what I think. I tell them that up front. They need to be ready."
Ariana Morales of Shrewsbury was characterized publicly by Teall as "a bit of an airhead," while he was trying to make her pay attention to details during a jumping exercise.
But by the time she jumped a 3-foot, 6-inch course as the finale of the EAP on Friday morning,Teall proclaimed proudly that she had produced "the round of the day" on her white-faced horse, Leon, and she was all smiles.
Asked how she felt about being the focus of Teall's comments, she said, "At first, I wasn't really surprised, I heard he was going to be tough on us, but it gets a better reaction, a stronger reaction, and pushes us forward."
The 16-year-old Red Bank Regional High School student, who hopes to be a professional, learned, she said, that "the hard work has to be done at home, it has to be a habit so you can rely on it at the shows."
Discussing what she picked up from Teall during her rides on her thoroughbred, (and "best friend") David, Emma Brown, 17, of Matawan did not hesitate before saying, "He basically just changed my life. Geoff's a phenomonal teacher and he pushed me to do things I'm not comfortable with, which I haven't been able to do before this.
"The stable management has opened my eyes to so many things I didn't realize existed and that I needed to pay attention to. It's been a life-changing experience and it was amazing," added the Matawan Regional High School senior. While she wants to go to college to study engineering and isn't planning on being a professional trainer, Brown hopes to have her own barn someday.
"It's good to be in the sport and still do everything yourself, because that's what we're here for, for the horses and to be able to take care of them properly."
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Clinician Geoff Teall gave EAP riders a lot to think about.
As the week wrapped up, Teall said of his teaching method, "I really push, and I push them harder than they want to be pushed. And then I try and let up a little bit at the last minute. I think they ended up happy and satisfied and a little bit proud of themselves."
In Friday's test over the long and winding course, he noted, "I had more good rounds than I anticipated and honestly, I think everybody was better than I thought they were going to be able to do. I'm walking away thinking, `They did work hard and they did get something out of it.' "
ON THE RAIL -- Karen Stives, 64, who won eventing team gold and individual silver on Ben Arthur in the 1984 Olympics, died in her sleep Friday at her Massachusetts home after a long illness.
Stives and Great Britain's Virginia Holgate, who earned bronze in those Los Angeles Games, were the first women to take individual medals in what once was a male-only sport. A single dropped rail in the show jumping phase lost Stives the individual gold, but she always said the team gold was more important.
The petite rider and her big gray horse made an unforgettable combination. Stives' many honors included being the USCTA Rider of the Year in 1981, 1987 and 1988, and the 1984 Horsewoman of the Year.
After she stopped competing, Stives continued to be a team player, going on to serve the sport in other ways. Generous with her time, money and expertise, she became an FEI judge and chaired the three-day event selectors' committee for years.
"I think she contributed to a lot of medals through her work as a selector, because she was so diligent and organized and a great horsewoman and thoughtful," said Jim Wolf, formerly the U.S. Equestrian Federation's director of sport programs.
"When riders asked her how to make a team, she always said, `Do what's right for your horse'," he added.
"She was just a huge personality in a small package, one of those bigger-than-life people. She was dedicated, she was smart, she was funny. She really enjoyed life and the horse world and everything that goes with it. "
On Friday, a U.S. team finished third in an Aachen Germany, 3-star event and it was fitting that two members of the squad -- Phillip Dutton and Lauren Kieffer -- were there because their trip was funded by the Karen E. Stives Endowment Fund for High Performance Eventing.
She established the fund last year with a $1 million gift. The idea was to help the U.S. win more medals in international competition by enabling riders to gain valuable experience, such as trips to major events.
Plans are being made for a celebration of Stives' life at a future date. Those who wish to remember her with a gift meanwhile are welcome to contribute to the endowment at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation (USET.org)...
Brunello's lofty jumping style won him the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association's International Hunter Derby for the third time in a row last night in Lexington, Ky., where the 17-year-old Hanoverian and rider Liza Boyd topped a field of 79 starters.
"He's a little like his name Brunello, a big red wine from Italy, and he just gets better with age," she said.
"He just jumps higher and higher every single year. Like my dad says, 'The horse knows when it counts.' He's learned over the years to peak at the championships, and he certainly did tonight."
Brunello led after Friday's classic round, and earned a score of 609 to hold off a challenge in yesterday's handy round by Kelley Farmer and Mindful, who finished second with 588.05...
The world's number one pairing in dressage, Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro of Great Britain -- who last week led their nation to a silver medal in the European Championships behind the Netherlands and ahead of Germany -- will be joined at next month's Central Park Horse Show in New York by a number of big names from across the Atlantic.
Coming to compete Sept. 25 in the Grand Prix and Sept. 26 in the $75,000 freestyle are the indomitable Isabell Werth of Germany, Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven and Patrik Kittel of Sweden and European Junior Champion Juan Matute of Spain. They will be joined by the USA's newest star, Laura Graves, and her Verdades. Others competing include Catherine Haddad Staller and Charlotte Jorst of the U.S., as well as Canada's Karen Pavicic and Ashley Holzer.
For tickets, go to http://bit.ly/1AV2imv.
Dujardin finished first, as expected in the Grand Prix at the championships, held in Aachen, Germany. Her score was 83.209 percent. Totilas, the black stallion that was once the sensation of the dressage world, came in a disappointing sixth (75.971) with Matthias Alexander Rath of Germany and was sent for a veterinary work-up after appearing irregular behind. Following years of missing competition due to injury, it's possible he may now go into retirement. He reportedly has a connective tissue inflammation.
Valegro also won yesterday's Grand Prix Special at the championships with a score of 87.57 percent. Calling yet another gold medal "surreal," Dujardin said Valegro is "the greatest friend a girl can have."
Glock's Undercover -- second in the Grand Prix with Edward Gal of the Netherlands aboard -- was eliminated from the Special for blood in his mouth. The horse was quite nervous and apparently bit his tongue.
ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE
Today: Monmouth County Show, Horse Park of New Jersey, Route 524, Allentown; The Ridge at Riverview Summer Spectacular II, 3 Wolverton Road, Asbury; Garden State Appaloosa Show, Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, Logan Township; Delaware Valley Horsemen's Association Draft, Western and Very Small Equines Show, DVHA Showgrounds, 299 Ringoes-Rosemont Road, Sergeantsville; Oxbow Stables Dressage Show, Combined Test and Horse Trials, 39 Orts Road, Hamburg.
Tuesday: The Ridge at Riverview Show, 3 Wolverton Road, Asbury.
Wednesday: Princeton Show Jumping, Hunter Farms North, 246 Burnt Hill Road, Skillman (through Aug. 23).
Thursday: Smoke Rise Riding Club Show, 1 Talbot Dr., Kinnelon.
Friday: State 4-H Championships, Horse Park of New Jersey, Route 524, Allentown (through Aug. 23); Duncraven Hunter/Jumper Show, 1300 Trenton Harbourton Road, Titusville (through Aug. 23).
Saturday: Spotted Toad Show, Hunter Farms North, 246 Burnt Hill Road, Skillman (through Aug. 23); Bountiful Blessings Farm Dressage Show, 14 Maxim Road, Howell.
Aug. 23: High Point Equestrian Dressage Show, Combined Test and Horse Trials, 20 Birch Tree Road, Montague; Suddenly Farm Dressage Show, 325 Main St., Lumberton; Delaware Valley Horsemen's Association Hunter Show, DVHA Showgrounds, 299 Ringoes-Rosemont Road, Sergeantsville; Palermo True Schooling Show, 1555A Burnt Mills Road, Bedminster.
Nancy Jaffer: nancyjaffer@comcast.net.