Eventing

My niece is 17 years old (for a few more months at least). When she was six my mom offered her the choice between piano lessons or horseback riding lessons. My mom thought Dyanne would be scared of the horses. Nothing could have been further from the truth. She immediately chose horseback riding lessons & has never looked back.

She competes at levels I just don't understand, but my Mom just told me the other day that she has enough points at her level to be first in the state this year. We all, of course, think she's a fantastic rider.

Just recently my mom sent through a bunch of photos taken at her latest competition. Dyanne participates in Eventing. I know that she does 2-phase & 3-phases & that there is a stadium jumping & cross-country portions. Knowing that I wanted to explain it better than that, I turned to Wikipedia. ::grin::

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Eventing is an equestrian event which comprises dressage, cross-country and show-jumping. This event has its roots as a comprehensive cavalry test requiring mastery of several types of riding. It has three main formats, the one day event (ODE), two day event and the three day event (3DE). It can also be called Militaire, Horse Trials, and Combined Training.

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Now I understand why some of her competitions are called "horse trials." The above links will also take you to each phase & explain it in more detail.

E-mail comment from my mom on the jump above (stone wall):

this jump, even though she seems to be smiling is not a good one. notice the stone wall with no ground pole on top of it. if the horse hits it he could go lame and the rider could be hurt. she did it anyway as she would. even at this level of eventing she does she still makes my heart race when these kinds of jumps come up. enjoy

I actually went with my mom & niece to New Hampshire one summer for a weekend. She was doing a class at UNH. Dyanne participates in Pony Club and she earns points through her competitions & moves up to different levels. At certain levels she can teach & charge so much for lessons. I know there is more to it than this, but that is my remedial understanding. Many times when my mom or niece are telling me about different horse-related things I just have to act like I have a clue. It's a whole different language. ;-)

While watching Dyanne do the stadium jumping class I really did have to close my eyes. OH MY! I don't typically get to watch her compete for real since the majority of competitions are on Sundays. A really unfortunate thing as I would love to see more of her competitions.