Kent Horse Trials

03/19/2026

03/16/2026

Note reference to Michael Page in the comments

So they made a video with some title like “Riding For The USET,” and they interviewed a bunch of riders.

Jim Wofford, looking serious and stern---“Cross country is a crucible that burns out the impurities of your training system” WOW---Go Jim.

Then comes Torrance Watkins---“Galloping on cross country is like flying on a puffy white cloud---” OK---Whatever---

Now Ralph Hill. He’s sitting on a hay bale fiddling with a riding crop, sort of jiving around---.

“I’m coming down to this big ditch and wall at Mach 2, and I know we’re gonna meet it dead wrong, so I cry out, “LORD! Show me a miracle! And HE did. And the miracle HE showed me was that I could SURVIVE the WRECK!”

01/25/2026

Congratulations to Daniel Geitner ‘93, former captain of the Kent School Equestrian Team, on being named the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s National Horseman of the Year!🏇🏆

🔗 https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/martin-and-geitner-named-usef-equestrians-of-the-year/

01/07/2026

Way back in time, almost 2,500 years ago, Plato said “Qui tacet consentire videtur” which means that if you see something about which you don’t agree and remain silent, it appears that you are approving of it.

I have alienated and antagonized lots of people when I have spoken out about the direction being taken by modern eventing. I think it has become, at the upper levels, too complex, too tricky, too technical, too many skinny fences, corners, sharp angles, and too potentially dangerous, leaving too little room for error.

Let the horses see what is being asked, like in this old Rolex photo,

I think that when the sport got rid of the endurance challenge they filled the resulting hole by making cross country harder, and there it is in 2026.

But I haven’t hidden behind silence.

11/27/2025

"I soak my bit and stirrups in the sink, but I’m careful not to rinse them off too close to the salad greens in the colander next to them. My mother-in-law, who is not a horseperson, once picked my pelham bit up out of the sink and tried to squeeze a lemon with it."

Indulge in this Chronicle classic, Cooky McClung's "How To Cook Thanksgiving Dinner Without Missing The Thanksgiving Hunt," first published in 1987.

🖊️ Custer Cassidy

11/20/2025

Back in the “old days” of USA eventing, before so many riders went south, leading to a 12 months of the year competition calendar that exists today, the big Radnor 3-day event in Paoli, Pennsylvania was the destination final competition of the season. This is a photo of a big 7/8ths Thoroughbred named Griffin over the final fence, sometime in the 1990s.

This was a glorious place for an event, set on the grounds of the Radnor Hunt Club, rolling bright green meadows of old turf in all directions. There was a steeplechase track, a club house, tents with all sorts of sale items, the famous Radnor omelet breakfast tent.

Full format 3 day competitions starting at preliminary, a huge young rider division, big galloping fences, crowds of spectators because this was in the then heart of horse country.

So much of what made USA eventing special and successful was bound up in events like Radnor, and once these places were no longer used, I think that many of us felt that some of the magic was also lost.

It’s a much more commercial world now, good riders, expensive horses, much more technical expertise, I’d imagine, but those early, misty autumn Radnor mornings when you could hear those Thoroughbreds drumming out on steeplechase were more to the essence of what that sport was first designed to be.

10/29/2025

The rider on the left is from the1960s. He is jumping in a Puissance. On the right is US Hunter Jumper Hall of Fame rider John French. These two images reflect the changes in riding and jumping over the past 65 years. For me the change is night and day.

The question is, which rider position would you like to be in if your horse stumbled in the landing? French could be dead meat with his feet way back and his upper body lying on his horse's neck. I'm thinking potential broken neck as he would slide forward onto his head if his horse went down in front.

By contrast, the Puissance rider is in a position to "keep the horse between himself and the ground", advice I received from a hand when I worked on a ranch. This rider is riding defensively with his feet under him in complete balance and in unity with his horse, thus reducing the odds of a stumble on landing. I am thinking he fox hunts as a Staff rider with one hand on the reins and the other free to carry a hunt whip.

I learned to ride in the 1950s and I've observed every declining step between the left picture and the right since the 60s. It's been hard to watch. Why has horsemanship declined so much in less than a century after centuries of horsemanship improving? It makes no sense. Going from practical effective riding to totally stylized riding is dangerous.

10/14/2025

Upper level eventing doesn’t have many major injuries or fatalities in show jumping. Those mostly come from falls over the solid jumps on cross country.

One thing that the sport has been reluctant to do, but probably should try, is to make show jumping bigger and more technical, while making XC less technical and more of an inviting and galloping experience.

If a horse isn’t a good enough jumper to handle bigger show jumps, and if the rider lacks the skills to leave the rails in the cups, neither horse nor rider should be out there flying around over solid jumps. Get a better horse, learn to be a better rider, to create a less dangerous sport.

(Keep the lower levels pretty much alone, inviting and straightforward.)

I doubt it will happen, but it would be something to experiment with.

10/05/2025

Ain’t it the truth.

Why eventing---and other horse competitions---have gotten SO expensive.

In 1962 I became member number 63 of the three year old US Combined Training Association. That was how small it started, and we did every single part of it as volunteers. We built the courses, laid out the dressage arenas, coached each other---such as it was---and judged, organied, and officiated basically for free.

We were building the sport from the bottom up.

Over time, slowly at first, and then with building momentum, all the things that were once done by volunteers began to be done by professionals for money, course design, jump building---ever fancier jumps---officiating, judging, professional barns, and today there are professional riders.

Money has replaced volunteerism, and at some of the big events there's enough of it around, but it leaves a weakened base of feeder events.

At some point if the sport can’t figure out how to keep costs down, in many parts of the world eventing , which is simply shrinking in New England compared to 30-40 years ago, will probably become an insignificant sport.

Lots of people now depend on their incomes from eventing, and guess who pays for all of that? You got it---The rank and file competitors. And the various associations that are meant to support are also full of paid employees, and so membership fees and hundreds of rules and regulations add to the burden. These sports have become too top heavy for the rank and file members.

It is as though those who are current competitors have forgotten where these sports started. In fact, they have NOT forgotten. Most of them never even knew in the first place.

Photo---Jumping Lighting Magic at GMHA 3-day in 1962 over a jump that I had helped build a month earlier.