Banning Stop Watches – Tales from a Bad Eventer

I’ve been reading with interest, another fascinating discussion on the rules of eventing.

And I thought I’d share my thought process as I read the discussion.

Let’s ban watches at the lower levels.

Are you nuts? How are we supposed to learn pace without a watch?
Shouldn’t we be banning them at the UPPER levels instead? If you can run Rolex you should know what 570mpm is. Right?!

The lower level is about the training of the horse, so you shouldn’t NEED a watch.

Then why are there time limits and speed faults?

Let’s just get rid of those!
Yeah, so what that I did my Beginner Novice go at 600mpm. I was just prepping for Adelaide.

Canada has a ban on watches already.

Really? Does that mean all eventers there have someone following them around to tell them what time it is? Does the announcer call out the time every 5 minutes? Do they have a “watch box” by the start box to drop your timex in before you head out? Do they have people who CHEAT and hide a watch in – oh – a long sleeve shirt, or a pocket………………

What?

That beeping noise?

Oh, that’s my cell phone, he just won’t stop texting me……

But wait!! Time is RELATIVE!

Let me think about how many sayings there are about it……………
” A watched pot never boils.” Seems like forever right?
Or how about “Time flies when you’re having fun!!”

Let’s imagine that you actually do canter 100meter markers at home.

(Not me. Ever.)

And you actually know what 400mpm “feels like”.

Now let’s add some ~~outright terror~~ adrenaline………………..I’m pretty sure 400mpm doesn’t feel the same with the blood pumping through your ears, as it does at home doing canter sets.