May 16, 2016 
When I learned that the life of yet another eventer was lost this weekend, my immediate response was not sadness—I was outraged. Outraged that human and horse deaths continue to be reported with alarming regularity in the sport of eventing. Outraged to read another beautifully written “she died doing what she loved” tribute fuelling the idea that this is somehow an acceptable result of horse sport. Outraged that a child will grow up not knowing her mother.
Because while it is true that riding is a dangerous sport, no other discipline puts a horse and rider’s life at risk as consistently and devastatingly as eventing. In its current manifestation, it’s closer to blood sport than horse sport. If that sounds extreme, consider this: an FEI event is widely considered a success when no horse or human died that particular weekend. Avoiding death is the standard to which we now aspire?
Avoiding death is the standard to which we now aspire?
And we’re all complicit in it.
Because the other thing we do in the wake of these tragedies is appease our collective conscience with the idea the very real problems plaguing eventing are someone else’s concern—the FEI’s, the course designers, the athletes.
It’s not. It’s the problem of every horse person and fan because it reflects on the public perception of all equestrian sports. It’s my problem.
As a member of the media, I promote the sport every time I write about it. We celebrate “epic saves” and applaud a rider’s “stickability” with entertaining posts and GIFs instead of calling them what they increasingly are—near death experiences. It’s coverage that rewards bravery over accuracy and skill. Much like the sport itself, it seems.
Why is that acceptable in eventing when it’s not in any other equestrian sport?
We call out dressage riders for not wearing helmets and criticize the use of inhumane training practices like Rolkur. In show jumping, a kamikaze ride that puts the horse at risk for serious injury isn’t celebrated—it’s frowned upon, contemptible even. A death at a chuckwagon race or steeplechase can’t be reported without the PETA crying in-humane! Racing is constantly under the microscope for doping and horse deaths.
And yet, with eventing, we brush off the unacceptably high number of serious horse and rider accidents with comments like, “oh, eventers are crazy” and offhand jokes about the “insanity” of the sport.
There’s something fundamentally f—-ed up about that.
Crashes—and more specifically, rotational falls—on the cross country course are so commonplace as to seem inevitable. Spectators applaud and cheer when a rider recovers his seat because we all know that outcome of falling can be, and too often is, devastating. Maybe instead of celebrating near disaster we should be condemning its alarming frequency.
I’ve only covered eventing for two years and I’m personally sick to death of all the death. Of the “we’re sorry to” news reports. Of the condolence hashtags.
The time for being sad is long over. We owe it to the Philippas, the Caitlyns, the Olivias to get angry. To be outraged. To demand change.
I don’t know the solution to eventing’s problem. I do know that we all have to be part of it. For me, that means no more posts that celebrate “saves” caused by rider error or that contribute to the ongoing complacency surrounding death in the sport.
I’m too f—ing angry to let that continue.
