As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and this fits right in with the LEGIS ideals. Because safety is on the forefront of many eventers' minds these days, the LEGIS Optimum Time Award was born.
Rewards for safe event riding
LEGIS recognizes the desire of the USEA, professionals, event organizers, and riders to promote safe and sane riding practices and wants to reward good, safe riding.
© 2012 by Craig McCubbin
LEGISequine.com is all about optimizing the horse ownership experience, not only through providing insurance that offers peace of mind, but through education and programs that promote safety and well-being for horses and riders.
"We are horsemen insuring horsemen," pointed out LEGIS Managing Director Marnye Langer. "Plus, some of LEGIS staff are eventers and we want to support that community. Cross country is the reason eventers event.
We recognize the desire of the USEA, professionals, event organizers, and riders to promote safe and sane riding practices in the cross country phase. We want to reward good, safe riding.
Optimum time classes are used in jumper classes, often for introductory levels and they really help teach riders proper pace and track. It seemed a natural to port this concept over to eventing."
Toward this goal, at select eventing competitions during 2013, LEGISequine.com will sponsor Optimum Time awards in the cross country phase for all sections through Training Level. LEGIS seeks to reward those riders who produce clear cross country rounds as close as possible to the optimum time.
"We realize that some people rarely put in an ace dressage test or often have a rail or two in show jumping, but they can go home with a ribbon for riding smart on cross country," Marnye added. "They will get some reward and acknowledgement, and we think that can only do positive things for the sport. Besides, it is fun to go home with a ribbon as recognition for a job well done."
Megan McGee, Event Organizer at Fresno County Horse Park Horse Trials, is thrilled to offer the Optimum Time Award program at her events. "The LEGIS Optimum Time Awards are innovative, yet simple to implement for organizers," she remarked. "We now have an opportunity to recognize eventing riders for their best effort to ride at the cross country speed most appropriate for their level of competition. What a great idea!"
The shows currently signed on to offer the program include:
- Fresno County Horse Park Horse Trials: Apr 26-28, Oct 18-20, and Nov 15-17
- Copper Meadows Horse Trials: Mar 15-17 Jun 8-9 and Sep 6-8
The first Optimum Time awards were presented at Fresno County Horse Park Horse Trials (Feb 15-17), and they were a big hit with riders. It was also a big hit with John Marshall, owner of the Horse Park, who competed and won the third place LEGIS Optimum Time award in the Senior Beginner Novice Rider division when he came in at 5:00 with his Cutamo, a respectable bid for the 5:27 goal.
"An award like this encourages people to improve their performance and rewards them for it," John noted. "It felt good to get that ribbon. You have to come to close to optimum time in order to be competitive, so it's important to ride accurately and have a sense of your time and how fast you need to get through the course. That ties into the quality of your riding and shows in your results."
"Riding too fast is dangerous and going too slow can result in time penalties. It's a skill to get it right. You can wear a watch, but you can't stare at it the whole way. The sanctioning bodies have done a lot to try to reduce the risk of the jumps in cross country, and I think they've had some success. This award ties right in with that."
John was third after dressage, stayed in third after cross country, and was clean in stadium jumping to win his division overall with a total score of 39.5.
Robyn Fisher showed that accuracy is her strong suit when she not only won the LEGIS Optimum Time award for Open Novice, she hit the optimum time of 5:33 on the mark with With Class (Con Caletto Enterprises, owner). In fact, she was right on the mark all weekend, in first after dressage and cross country and rode clean in the stadium jumping to win the blue for the division with a score of 20.4.
"I was very excited to learn about this new award!" she remarked. "Of course I was thrilled to win. It was a total fluke that I came in on optimum time. At the lower levels I always try be running at the required pace, but they usually give such a large window between speed fault and optimum time that it's not an issue. The horse I was riding is very new to the eventing world. In fact, this was her second time ever doing a cross county course, so I was really trying to just give her a good positive experience and it happened to work out."
Robyn echoed John's and Megan's thoughts on the value of this type of award. "I think this program is going to help promote safe riding on cross country at the lower levels. I feel like the speed fault window is too large and riders are more concerned about not having speed faults than coming in close to the optimum time. I hope this program encourages more riders to ride at the pace required for the level and teaches them about how the differences of pace are relevant to each level and the technicality and difficulty of each level. I also think it's great to make more than one winner at the end of the event, especially for the juniors."
It certainly worked out well for Tayler Ravenscroft (Lauren LoPiccolo, trainer), who placed eighth in her division but won second place in the LEGIS Optimum Time Award for Junior Novice on her TC Royal Flush. "I did not know about the award, and it was an incredible surprise," she remarked.
"I was trying to get close to the optimum because we were in a tie and I wanted to win. I was so happy when I actually won the LEGIS Optimum Time award. When I'm out there, I am constantly aware of my time and checking my watch."
Fourteen-year-old Tayler is currently in ninth grade, and being homeschooled gives her a few advantages when it comes to showing. "I have always been homeschooled. It’s really nice to devote a lot of time to riding and showing. I compete about once a month or so, and winning this award has been a highlight of this show year thus far."
TC Royal Flush is a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, and he and Tayler have been through a lot together. "I have been competing with him since the end of 2009. When I got him, neither of us had ever done an event, so it was new for both of us and we have grown together. I have been riding for about nine years. My parents always film me while I am riding, and I love being able to watch myself with my trainer and reflect on my ride."