The Greenhorn Chronicles 49: Annette Case on Eventer Stereotypes and Family Life (2)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/10/08
*Interview conducted September 4, 2023.*
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Abstract
Annette Case is an Adult Amateur Eventer/SJ who was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She started riding at the age of 4/5. She moved to Canada in 1987 and married David Case in 1991, with whom she has 3 girls. She is a small-time breeder of Canadian warmbloods abd competed in preliminary level eventing before having a family with David. Annette is one of the few people responsible for bringing eventing to Northern Alberta in the South Peace Horse Trials. Case discusses: “crazy” eventers; injury in show jumping for a famous man; training; relationship with the horses; and a family life, a balanced life.
Keywords: Annette Case, crazy, eventers, family life, horses, lifestyle, responsibility, show jumpers.
The Greenhorn Chronicles 49: Annette Case on Eventer Stereotypes and Family Life (2)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Many show jumpers I’ve talked about define eventers as “crazy.” They use colloquialisms like that in that they prefer standards, rails, shallow cups, and light rails. The safety aspect of it. They find events, which I’m gathering, more dangerous than show jumping.
Annette Case: I have heard that. Sometimes I tell people I have a dirty little secret – that I’m an eventer. They say, “Oh my God, I’m not brave enough to do that.” It’s just something I’ve alway done. I think any jumping can be dangerous but cross-country is becoming a lot safer. Frangible jumps have been introduced in the last5 or so years and have made the sport much safer. Unfortunately these jumps are quite a bit more expensive to build.
I’m an eventer, however I’m more nervous about show jumping than I am about cross country. I’ve seen rails get caught in horse’s legs and bring the horse down. I feel like my horse will either stop or bounce off the jump out on cross-country whereas, in stadium, they can get mixed up and tangled. I believe or something like that. Superman, Clark Kent, got badly hurt show jumping too.
Jacobsen: What happened to him? I believe he was in a wheelchair. Was he not?
Case: Yes, that was through show jumping.
Jacobsen: Really?!
Case: Yes.
Jacobsen: I didn’t know that.
Case: You learned something today. Getting back to it, it doesn’t bother me if they want to say I’m crazy, I don’t find it offensive. I’m just more comfortable doing the cross country. A jump is a jump is a jump. Laura, when she walks a course with us, she’ll tell us exactly how to approach it or what to do or how to do it or whatever and the same thing with my cross-country coaches. We have a few different varieties: water, banks, drops, etc.… Yes, slightly different questions, but it’s still a jump.
Jacobsen: When you’re doing the three-day eventing, how are you in your mind structuring? How are you going to be doing your training? How are you going to be going about each day?
Case: What I do right now is I have a dressage coach. I see her usually once a week, depending on what’s going on, once every two weeks. We work on straightness, connection, and impulsion. We’ve worked through tests that I’ll be riding too. I have a jumping coach as well. I also take full advantage of lessons with Laura Balisky when she comes up to Grande Prairie, Alberta. She has definitely helped my show jumping. My coaches help with preparation. They know the courses we’re going through when you get to that. If it’s a two-day, it’s slightly different than a three-day. If it’s run over the two days, you always have the dressage first then stadium; I don’t get nervous anymore. If you’ve done your work beforehand and the test is in your head then you just ride to the best of your ability and hope you’ve done your homework.
And then it’s switching gears to the different saddle, different course. Now you’re jumping and the cross-country course is usually around 2K, anywhere between 15, 18, or 20 jumps and some combinations depending on your level. I usually walk four times. I get there and get my package. I try to walk one more time, sometimes not with my coach, but there’s always a course walk with my coach. And then the last time, it’s so I know exactly where I’m going. I usually put on a good 8k. Then, on the third day of the stadium. Again, you put on a different saddle. We got the jumping saddle on and changed gears. You get used to changing gears quite a bit. It was like when I was at Thunderbird with Laura; each day was a new course. I concentrated specifically on that. In some ways, that made it easier; in some ways, it made it harder because you would feel frustrated as you want to keep getting better and better and better. I’m insanely competitive all the time, but know that nearly 100% of the mistakes my horse makes, come from me. We can always get better. So, it’s a humbling sport, that’s for sure.
Jacobsen: Outside of simply competing, do you think the work and thought and construction of a relationship with a horse is for some people a very good part of their life, in that it’s a mechanism for psychological health, it’s helpful?
Case: Yes, 100%. I am one of the very fortunate people. We have 20 acres, so I can have my horses here. I’ve got friends who have land but take the horses to an arena in the winter. I ride outside in the winter. I play with them. I see them every day. For me, it psychologically makes me healthier. I’ve come from a country where I could be outside all day even if it rained, whereas here, I’ve come to a place where it gets cold and you don’t get enough sunlight. I think the horse is a lifesaver. If I hadn’t thought of that, I would now because, with the broken ribs and a concussion, I haven’t been able to get out and get my therapy. I’ve talked to them but I need to ride. We’ve got a provincial park about 10 minutes away. I’m probably down there three times a week with the horses. It’s a huge parcel of land called the Blackfoot Provincial Park. You can look that up if you want. It’s next to Elk Island National Park in Strathcona County.
We go for miles and miles and miles. One day, we might go out for a hack. Sometimes I go by myself, but I’ve got a couple of friends who I meet at six o’clock in the morning. We’ll do hill work, pace work, hacking, gallop sets on acres and acres of land. like quarters… I did look it up, but we’re allowed to ride on this huge amount of land.
We’ve got apps on our phones that we tap into. It records how much walking, trotting, cantering we do, how much hill work, measures the kilometers, cardio output etc. Eventing horses need this; we’re not running them the whole time, but I believe our horses are much happier by doing this rather than doing circles in an arena, on a race track, or something like that. It’s interesting. But we’ve got trails. We’ve got open pasture land. So to answer the question, roughly 3 days a week fitness, one day is dressage, then one day jumping in a week. The horse will probably get two days off a week, sometimes one day, depending on what’s going on with the rest of my life because I do have a family. They do come first, but the horses are a very close second. That’s my life that I need, but I do need the horses. They’re very much a part of my life.
Jacobsen: Even despite having a family making that choice, how do you find horses as a part of that in and out of your life for so long? The first thing I heard about this industry before I even got into it was that it’s a lifestyle.
Case: It’s a 365-day-a-year responsibility.
Jacobsen: How would you encapsulate that? The word that comes to mind is a consuming passion, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily right on point.
Case: You get all sorts of different horse owners. It’s not all-consuming for me because my husband does come first followed closely by the kids. Sometimes, he complains he doesn’t, but he does. I’m a huge family person but my family includes cats, dogs and horses. I am quite willing to go away on holiday. We have one week of holiday in the summer. Usually, we have a couple of skiing holidays, but they might be long weekends, or they might be a week. If we go down to visit my family in New Zealand, then I’m usually away for a little bit longer, but that’ll always be in the winter here, but yes, horses are a big part of my life. I know it’s been a way of life for me.
Jacobsen: Annette, thank you very much for today’s opportunity.
Case: You’re very welcome.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 