Kent Horse Trials

07/28/2026

06/17/2026

Why is it, do you think, that the horse magazines like now defunct Spur, and the “old” Chronicle, those that talked about country living like fox hunting. point to point racing, sport horse breeding, are gone?

Replaced by glitzy show horse mega mansions, puff pieces about young riders’ multi million dollar strings of European horses, stuff like that?

Suburbia? Loss of open land? The chickenification of a generation scared of getting out of a ring?

What’s the deal?

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.