Once in a blue moon - Chapter One

The National Fence (Douglas Lees photo)

Once in a blue moon, we all have the opportunity to make a significant change to a community. This opportunity presented itself over three years ago when I considered building a new fence that our steeplechase horses raced over at speed. 

Since 1973, when Secretariat hit the scene as a three-year-old going on to win the Triple Crown, there isn’t anything I have not loved about horses, particularly the Thoroughbred. As an owner of steeplechase race horses since 1992, I have probably owned outright or in partnership over thirty race horses, most of them jumpers. So intrigued with this beautiful sport, my wife and I also founded the QUEEN’S CUP STEEPLECHASE in 1995, now considered by most horsemen to be one of the finest (and safest) steeplechase racecourses on the sanctioning body's National Steeplechase Association's (NSA) circuit. 

Safety has always been my mantra, though I am realistic to know that sometimes, horse and rider get hurt; sometime catastrophically. Riding horses in general, and race riding in particular, is by its very nature, a very dangerous sport. In the 22 years I have owned race horses, I have had a number of my own horses maimed and a couple suffered the ultimate fate while racing. Two exceptionally nice ones paid the ultimate price. Interestingly, both horses were talented jumpers but for whatever reason, decided to go long, landing squarely on top of the frame, both with devastating results. Over the past few years, I have had jockeys, owners and trainers share their stories of their favorite horses being lost or seriously injured due to the fence they competed over, not to mention the serious injuries some jockeys have received due to their mount taking a fall. 

The loss of horses and those stories were the impetus to investigating and eventually creating a new, state-of-the-art fence that would be more forgiving in the event of a jumping mishap yet lighter and easier to set up and move about. As part of my mission, it was clear that steeplechase racing here in the United States and some other parts of the world had lost the art of jumping. Fences were getting smaller and the pace of the race faster. This lead me to think - could an artificial fence with a bigger, fuller presentation allow jumping to get back in the game thereby slowing the pace of the race, in hopes for making safer racing? Many experts in the game believe this is the case and therefore, my friend and retired champion American jump jockey Jeff Teter and yours truly, along with my fence consultant and fence builder, Bill Watt of Watt Fences, Ltd. of North Yorkshire, England went down the path of investigating a new fence design along with a number of other interested NSA horsemen. 

SafTfence at Thornton Hill Races

Three years in the making and over one hundred thousands dollars invested in research, design and mistakes, March of 2010, we introduced the patent pending SafTfence™ plastic fence frame and birch branch system in a state-of-the-art, yet fully portable design. Since the system was designed from the ground up, the SafTfence "hedge" can be made as stiff or soft and tall or small as need be and is generally more forgiving to error of judgement by horse or rider. The fence’s presentation is as impressive to look at as it is to jump. Riders tell me the horse really looks at the fence and is less likely to take liberties with it.

The new fence was first presented to horsemen late March 2010 down in Camden to much fanfare and general acceptance by NSA horsemen. The fall of 2010, the SafTfence steeplechase hurdle was raced over at two non-sanctioned race meets in Virginia. We learned a lot from those two races along with the performance of the plastics from weather changes particularly from the 2010 hot fall to the sudden arrival of early winter. Months of errors, mistakes and a number of successes, the SafTfence hurdle would be ready for its debut at the upcoming 2011 Queen's Cup Steeplechase where the jockeys and their athletic thoroughbred steeds will be racing over the new SafTfence steeplechase fence in four jump races.

It really goes to prove that necessity really is the mother of invention and once in a blue moon, one can make a difference in small and one hopes, powerful ways creating safety for horse and rider alike. Check out my next post to see how it performed.