George and Brigitte Simmons of Sanford have just run their final horse trials at St. Georges Quarters, voicing the sentiment of many of us aged show managers. The jumps are peeling, our backs are hurting and our equipment is worn out.

Where are all the young event organizers?

Many colleges have added equestrian studies to their undergraduate curriculum. Everything from stable design to therapeutic teaching is offered, but what about basic sports management?

These colleges are missing the boat. We need a crop of interns to take over the events that are fading away because nobody is left to run them. College catalogs could include the fancy course titles they seem so fond of:

Applied Communications (from radio protocol and wiring the PA to your basic spastic charades across the show ring), Resource Management Basics (checking the port-a-jons after the event to see if there were too many or too few), and Practical Salvage Techniques (from ironing old ribbons to collecting all the buckets and whips left in the barns after the show).

We could have courses such as: Interdisciplinary Theories and Skills (a study of the differences in approved bits from eventing to dressage), Integration of Mechanics (mending broken golf carts and weed eaters), Advanced Sports Psychology (settling fights between the parents of competitors), Evaluating Initiatives (when the jump crew thinks they can run the timer, too) and Problem Based Learning (what to do when the judge’s flight is canceled).

How about a course in Abstract Concepts in Aesthetic Enrichment (silk flower arrangements in the ground line boxes), Feminist Theories and Bioinformatics (why the women’s bathrooms need to be larger than the men’s — the Raleigh Fairgrounds finally applied this theory!), and Motivations and Ethical Considerations of Individuals and Groups (why we love the pre- special-low- limit- schooling- amoeba- tadpole- hunter divisions so much).

Spanish courses should be mandatory, as well as computer labs with an emphasis on database, web, and file management.

Just about every class in a modern business college catalog could be useful when it comes to running horse shows. A horse show is like a mini-village, with the show manager as the (benevolent, hopefully) dictator.

There are only three people in all of Moore County who can stake out a dressage ring, and one is presently in the hospital. What’s going to happen when we all croak?

Colleges, get with the program. And young people, take notice. There won’t be any more events if you don’t start picking up the slack.

The Scoreboard

Local riders excelled at the State Fair Horse Show in Raleigh last week. Nick Ellis continued his win streak with his two talented geldings. His Duncan won the age division amateur-owner hunter championship, and his Gepardieu topped the amateur-owner jumpers.

Kathy Bennett piloted Marty O’Rourke’s homebred Winning My Way to the reserve championship in the older adult amateur division.

Mike Rosser posted one of only six clean rounds in the featured $10,000 mini-prix on Saturday night with Sheri Cook’s Mirage. With two time faults, Rosser claimed the paycheck for sixth.

Veronese Atkins’ homebred gelding Social Graces was inadvertently omitted from the Five Points Horse Trials report last week. Under rider Bobby Stevenson of Vass, the gelding won his second start at training level to top the leader board for the $1,000 Sandhills Series.