The Chronicle of the Horse
April 25, 2009

Craig Thompson headed up a group of riders from the Professional Riders Organization in a press conference at Rolex Kentucky to get the word out about the new group.

Allison Springer, Phillip Dutton, Buck Davidson and Leslie Law were among the riders who joined Thompson to promote the new organization. “We asked ourselves what could we do as riders to make our sport better at every level,” said Thompson.

Some of the group’s priorities include providing a strong, unified voice for upper level, professional riders, encouraging the free exchange of ideas and consensus, increasing professional riders’ representation on boards and committees and establishing programs to increase community awareness and general fan interest in eventing.

“We’d like to get 10 percent of the spectators here [at Rolex Kentucky] to follow the sport throughout the rest of the year,” said Thompson.

“We want to make competing a way to make a living,” said Davidson. “We’d like people to come watch us.”

“We could be criticized as riders for not doing enough,” said Dutton. “We want to do this for the good of everybody in our sport. If an event makes money from a crowd coming in, then entries can be less and the event managers can put money back into footing and other improvements.”

Increasing prize money was certainly on the agenda for PRO, and members are putting up the money to help make that happen.

“The biggest roadblock is getting the money going,” said Dutton. “Each of us has put up a substantial amount of money.”

Two levels will be available for PRO membership, a $150 professional membership and a $35 participating membership.

“It’s not just about us,” said Springer. “We want to improve the sport at every level. There is so much that’s good and positive in the sport, and we want to draw attention to that. We hope through PRO we can be more accessible.”

One example PRO hopes to base their group on is the Professional Bull Riders, but Davidson also referred to NASCAR.

“We want to give back to the fans,” said Davidson. “Our fans are the lower level riders and amateurs. We want to bring more people into the sport.”

Sport is full of ups and downs, and as much as it would be nice to see an “up” coming along some time, it was not to be this weekend. Though Orion looked liked a million bucks leading up to Kentucky, he developed some heat in his right front foot. As a result he was just a touch less than perfect when we jogged up this morning. Just a touch, but enough that we decided to withdraw him from competition this afternoon.

Doing so was terribly hard, especially knowing Orion’s love of the game and the beautiful cross-country course that Kentucky offers. For what it’s worth, however, my socks did match my tie.

Only the very bitter or the very jaded could arrive at Kentucky Horse Park and not be impressed. There is nothing else like it in our sport. Those of us who get to be here in any capacity, be it rider, owner, groom, friend, spectator or vendor, are lucky. For a few days once a year we get to be part of something incredibly special.

For my part, I have been here in a variety of capacities over the years, though not as a rider in a very long time. I have ridden Orion since he was 3-years-old, which is to say for the last seven years. And in some regard or other, every day of every week of every month of every one of those seven years was designed to lead us here. He is the best of friends and I am privileged to be here with him.

It’s odd to think that just yesterday we were at the Fair Hill Horse Trials with Brew doing the preliminary, last night we were fine tuning our dressage and availing ourselves of Jules and Libby Anderson’s amazing hospitality, and now here we are, in Kentucky. Things certainly happen fast. For me, having been around the block a time or two, taking the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the moments that are offered is essential.

For those inclined to see auspicious signs in nature, the day ended with a brief rain shower, then a perfect rainbow framing the park. It could not have been more beautiful.

It’s been hard to post with all that has been happening! Craig has been meaning to update the blog for sometime now, but life is busy!

A quick re-cap…Brew moved up to Intermediate at Southern Pines. He was a superstar and finished 2nd out of a tough field, only beat by a CCI**** horse headed to KY this spring! He jumped around the Intermediate at The Fork as well. He’s never seen anything that hard in his life and took a bit of extra time that kept him just out of the ribbons in 9th place.

Orion has returned to competition after stifle surgery last fall. He was 4th in the Intermediate at Southern Pines and was quite good in the Advanced at The Fork. He’s feeling fit and full of himself. He has made some significant mistakes in the dressage these past two events. After spending a couple days with Jules and Libby Anderson in VA, he and Craig seem to feeling pretty good about the new **** test.

The highlight of The Fork were Craig’s students Coren Morgan and Jalcyn Burke. They were super in the Intermediate and Preliminary respectively, each placing fourth. Both improved their cross country and show jumping performances tremendously from their previous outings. Congratulations!!

Brew is competing in the prelim this weekend at Fair Hill, along with several of Craig’s students, and then we are back to Jules briefly before making the drive to KY. We promise (again) to be better about updating this!