Eventing vs Golf

Last week, I watched the entire Masters tournament. No, really, I mean the entire thing, like Thursday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. This wasn’t like when I had that one concussion that put me on the couch, and I chewed my way through 5 Sharknados and one Sharktopus. I was marginally present for those, but this thing with my knee means that my brain is completely functioning and firing on all cylinders. I willingly and happily watched 24 hours of golf (cue gasps from the crowd).

Hey, I really enjoyed it! And I can partially blame Netflix for that. I watched the series Full Swing and it helped me understand the psychology and the demands of the sport at the highest level. It was compelling and interesting. And, it has me thinking about the similarities of eventing and golf, and I want to share it with you.

Both are categorized as individual sports, but there is an *asterix* on that because clearly the horse is our teammate with its own emotions, abilities, moods and personalities, and that hugely contributes to our success. The horse makes eventing a unique blend of team/individual experience. But, bear with me, it’s not just the horse that contributes to the team, oddly,it is also your fellow competitors.

While watching the Masters, I realized that, like eventing, the winner is the person who does the least amount wrong. It was cool to watch Rory’s ball end up in the pine straw and trees at least 5 times, and he still managed to come out on top. His mistakes did not mean his undoing, because in the final account, everyone else made more mistakes than he did.

It is just like eventing; the lowest score is the one who did the least number of things wrong.

How many 2nd place finishers of big events have lain awake at night and wondered how it could have gone differently if they only had that clean change in dressage or just taken an inside line to a jump, I think it is a lot. Our sport can drive you crazy because it can so easily have gone another way, if it had only been another day. And I bet golfers feel that too.

But, what makes eventing special is that all of us riders are bonded together in the love of our horses and fair play. I remember at Pine Top one year, I was running an intermediate horse and the course made a turn through a pasture gate. I galloped through and found myself immediately on the ground with my horse. The mud was slick as snot and I never appreciated that in my course walk.  When I finished the course (yes, that was when you could get back on) I made a point to go to warm up and tell my fellow riders about that turn. I know that all of them would have done the same for me. None of us wants something so shitty like that to happen and take anyone out of the competition or risk an injured horse.  Most of the field was going to best me that day because of the time it took for me to get back on, but I could not forgive myself if someone got injured there because of the same mistake that I made. I’d rather they beat me than be unsafe.

Studies have shown that individual sports create more anxiety and depression in athletes than team sports do. All the pressure falls upon the single athlete to be as perfect as they can be, without the support of a team. Team sports bond together through a shared experience, but I would submit that eventing breaks that rule. We have the common love of our horse and safety to join us tighter than the scorecard. Event riders want the best pair to win, fair and square. We want them to win because they showed mastery at all three phases and did the least wrong.  

Next time you are at an event, listen and look, I bet you will catch all of us individual competitors behaving like we are a team.