It finally rained, it’s autumn eventing season – and for Jess Rimmer it’s a fresh reminder that eventers are never quite satisfied
All images: Courtenay Hitchcock
Right – I know we’ve been doing our rain dance for weeks now, but BOO! It really feels like winter is here already, and oh my days I haven’t missed it … Muddy hooves, fresh horses, being soaked through by 10am … yuck!
Don’t get me wrong, the ground has seriously needed it, and I think we are all secretly grateful that our autumn events will hopefully require significantly less watering, spiking and aggravating to give us the going we’re after.
For those unaccustomed to the pickiness of us event riders, we quite like the best going possible for our horses, regardless of the time of year, climate and location. In a dream world, we’ll always have even, smooth ground with good grass coverage and enough “give” in it to minimise concussion to the horses’ feet, joints and tendons. All of which is EASY PEASY over acres and acres of grassland which hasn’t seen rain in months …
The amount of work the major events have been putting into the ground recently is second-to-none – at Hartpury, the track we rode was deep lush green grass, while the going either side was crisp, brown and baked! The lengths the event teams have been going to certainly don’t go unnoticed (or unappreciated), but I’m sure the autumn event teams are breathing out a big sigh of relief!
But now we get into the really picky Goldilocks part – there will be a lovely window where the ground softens as a result of the recent rain … and then we’ll all be begging it to stop. Too much rain and the ground becomes a mucky, churned-up quagmire from which many horses find it difficult to extract themselves, often leaving shoes behind in the process!
When the going gets … sticky
Just like people, different horses prefer different types of going. Anyone familiar with the racing world knows this – some horses like heavy going, whereas others would rather stay “on top” of the ground.
It’s trial-and-error with each horse, really, but there’s a bit of a nature vs nurture debate: horses exposed to all kinds of terrain as young horses often cope better as they grow up, feeling more confident in their own balance and strength.
But with the recent influx of European breeding and imports, lots of our up-and-coming horses have missed out on this early education. Which is where the “nature” part comes in! Jimmy and Max are perfect examples – Max was born and raised in the Netherlands, Jimmy in Germany, both with strong European showjumping breeding lines. Neither of them grew up with the mud and hilly terrain the Irish-bred horses do, meaning they were both introduced to it a little later in life.
Max is naturally very nimble and well-balanced – but he is absolutely the little prince when it comes to mud. He would much prefer a nice, even astro turf to run on, please!
Jimmy, on the other hand, has the balance of a top-heavy milk-drunk toddler. But his footwork is brilliant, and if you asked him what he thought of the mud, he’d say: “Mud?! What mud?”. He really couldn’t give a monkeys. He just ploughs his way through it all in blissful ignorance.
I’m not saying that either one of these is better than the other. Both of the horses have their own strengths and weaknesses, and now that it has rained we will use their autumn runs to practice in different conditions and strengthen them, so that they’re ready to win a wet, mucky Badminton when nobody else makes the time (hey – a girl can dream!). Time will tell what sort of autumn we will have – regardless of whether it stops raining, the horses are feeling on great form and are ready to crack on with their exciting September runs. See you on the other side!
