Equestrian Events

Equestrian competitions may not dominate the sports pages, but for those who train vigorously to compete in horse shows, there's nothing more rewarding than scoring well for sitting tall and clearing the rails in the ring. We visited the Los Angeles National Hunter/Jumper Show at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank recently to talk with some riders about what keeps them in the saddle.

Lis Hartel, 87, an equestrian who won two Olympic silver medals for Denmark in the 1950s despite being paralyzed below the knees because of polio, died Thursday of undisclosed causes, the Danish Equestrian Federation said in Copenhagen. She had suffered a stroke in the 1980s. Hartel was 23 and pregnant with her second child when she contracted polio during an outbreak in Denmark in the 1930s. She gradually regained the use of most of her muscles, although she remained paralyzed below the knees.

In a move laden with political implications, International Olympic Committee officials announced today that the equestrian events at the 2008 Beijing Games will be held thousands of miles away, in Hong Kong. The action comes in response to concerns by officials in Beijing that staging the equestrian events there would mean the inadvertent importation into mainland China of an equine disease.

The four-day, six-round U.S. Show Jumping Olympic trials begin today at Del Mar with 12 California riders among the 42 qualified for a shot at this summer's Olympic Games. Horses and riders will fly over five-feet-high, six-feet-wide jumps today beginning at 7:30 p.m. There will be two sessions at Del Mar on Saturday -- 1 and 7:30 p.m. -- before the competition finishes with two days of riding May 22-23 at Oaks Blenheim Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano.

She tried. Margie Engle gritted her teeth Friday and pushed away her fear. She climbed on a 1,400-pound horse and flew around the 13-jump Olympics show jumping trial course at the Del Mar Arena. Hidden Creek's Perin, with Engle sitting lightly on his back, finished a perfect tour with not a bar wiggling or a block teetering. Clean. Engle, 46, was riding essentially one-legged. Her left hip had been broken Friday, Feb.

Husbands compete against wives. Teenage girls compete against 56-year-old men. Stallions compete against mares. With the horse as the great equalizer, there is one Olympic discipline in which male and female athletes take the measure of one another, man-to-woman-to-horse.

Beezie Madden and her horse, Authentic, had a perfect Sunday. During a dank drizzle in the fifth of six rounds of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Olympic show jumping trials at Oaks Blenheim Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano, and then again in the afternoon when the day brightened, Madden and Authentic floated over fences, walls, water, over all the obstacles placed in front of them. Madden, 40, from Cazenovia, N.Y.

Scrap the Thigh Master and hop in the saddle. Riding a horse not only provides a scenic respite from urban stress, but it means never having to worry about inner thigh flab again. Trust me. My muscles were so tight after my first lesson, I could hardly walk straight. A class at Traditional Show Jumping Inc. in Calabasas is no leisurely trail ride. Mike Henaghan, who has trained some top Olympians, teaches competitive hunter/jumper show riding.

Steve HOEFT sways back and forth with exhaustion. Nine hours and 85 miles in the saddle. Fifteen miles to go. Victory. Right there. Except that Crockett Dumas, one of the cagiest endurance riders alive, is out there in the dark desert, closing in. Denny sags too. Shivers ripple across the stallion's sweat-drenched coat. But the chestnut's heartbeat is strong. "You feel pretty good about your horse?"

Endurance rides can kill horses. Half a dozen have perished during or immediately after endurance rides in the United States this year. Two others dropped dead of exhaustion at the rain-slicked, mud-slopped World Equestrian Games in Spain last year. Because of their herd instincts and desire to please, horses can push themselves until they drop. "Good horses have an amazing generosity and courage," said John Strassburger, editor of the trade publication the Chronicle of the Horse.