Norwich
Moments prior to receiving it, Hutchins had been one of four recipients of the not-quite-as-prestigious Governor’s Cup, issued to those who exhibit generally outstanding dedication and sacrifice to the sport.
“I’d been told to come to the meeting because I was getting an award, so when I got the Governor’s Cup, I thought, ‘That’s very nice, That’s what the award is,’ ” Hutchins recalled. “I went back to the dinner table and was talking with a rider I’d met.
“(The master of ceremonies) started talking about the Wofford Cup, and I didn’t really hear what he was saying. All of a sudden, everyone stood up and started clapping and one of the gentlemen at my table said, ‘That’s you!’ and I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t really heard anything during the introduction, and I had to write people afterward to find out what the award is all about.”
A New York City native, Hutchins learned how to score equestrian events at South Woodstock’s Green Mountain Horse Association in the 1960s and has remained involved since. Today she is a technical delegate, course designer and scorer, overseeing events at South Strafford’s Huntington Farm and Hitching Post Farm in South Royalton. She also volunteers anually at international-level events in Maryland and Kentucky.
Prior to her USEA awards this month, Hucthins in 2012 received GMHA’s Constance Knight McCollom Memorial Stewardship Award — named for her original mentor, Connie McCollom — as well as the USEA’s Area 1 Chairman Award for outstanding contributions, received last year.
The Valley News recently spoke with Hutchins at her Union Village Road home. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Valley News: Both the Governor’s Cup and Wofford Cup are awarded to those who demonstrate exceptional dedication and sacrifice to the sport. Do you feel as though you’ve sacrificed a fair amount?
Mary Hutchins: Yes, because the part of the equestrian world that I’m a part of is very dependent on volunteers. I’m wearing a jacket right now for (Fair Hill International), the competition in Maryland. I’ve been going there for years as a volunteer and it’s an event that depends on tons of people like me, volunteers, to make it happen. I also go to the Rolex International event in Lexington, Ky., every year. I’ve been going there forever. My youngest daughter (Rebecca) has a house in Lexington, and my son-in-law owns a home just outside of Lexington, so I have places to stay.
VN: You’ve been scoring events for almost 50 years. How has the format changed from when you first began at GMHA in the 1960s?
MH: Well, it’s all on computers now, electronic programs. There’s one called Start Box, which is what we use when I oversee and do the scoring trials at Huntington Farm. The other one is called evententries.com. They’re both pretty helpful programs. There is one thing I score at Fair Hill that is still done by hand. They have a competition called Young Event Horse, and the East Coast Championship is at Fair Hill. Whoever is the final winner gets to travel to Europe for an international young horse championship. Those tests are different from your normal dressage tests. They’re all still done by hand, except for putting the final scores in. The individual stuff is all still done by hand.
VN: During course-design work, do you rely heavily on intuition or is it mostly a matter of planning and logistics?
MH: I work with someone else who (physically) builds the courses. He and I look over the territory, think about what we did the year before and ways to move the jumps around so that there’s kind of a fresh picture — a fresh track, you might want to call it. At least 60 percent of the jumps (at Huntington) are portable, so they’re moved to different spots.
VN: Why is it important to keep changing the layout?
MH: People would get bored with coming to the same-old, same-old.
VN: It’s not to do with making it more challenging as riders progress?
MH: Well, there are different levels of competition that we run. We have courses for four levels for the sanctioned events as well as a course for beginners, which some people call the grasshopper course. Those are tiny jumps with small distances that we use for the schooling trials, along with a novice course. They’re all flagged with different colors.
VN: Course design and technical inspection are the types of elements that equestrian competitors and fans might take for granted. Have you always enjoyed those behind-the-scenes aspects of the sport?
MH: I’ve always seemed to have been involved in it (laughs). The other place that I do a lot of helping out is Hitching Post Farm in South Royalton. I’m a technical delegate there, so I have to make sure the heights of the fences and the placements are legal. You really have to go the day before to make sure everything is right. Then I make sure the entries are appropriate and in the right age bracket. Make sure a senior is not trying to ride in a junior category, for example, and that all the forms are signed. There are a lot of rules. The ruling body of USEA is the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF). They’re the ones that make the rules, and USEA has to follow them. The USDF is the United States Dressage Federation, and they follow USEF rules, too, and that goes for really all sanctioned equestrian events in the United States, including typical runner/jumper horse shows. USEF are the rule gurus.
VN: Do you ever find infractions where you have to impose corrections prior to competition?
MH: It’s apt to be the kind of thing where you look at a fence, for example, and you see that there’s no good ground line (visual guide for horses) in front of it. You might suggest that you place a log there to stabilize it (visually) at each end, or you might break open a hay bale and stuff some packs of hay in the front to make it more welcoming for the horse. Decoration with flowers in another popular ground line. You also might say, “This fence is a couple inches too high. Can you bring the tractor over here, scoop out some dirt and lower it a few inches?”
VN: You taught math at Hanover High School for 20 years. Is there an educational aspect of what you do that you particularly enjoy?
MH: That’s one of the reasons I do a lot of these schooling trials. You can tell the competitors if they’re doing something wrong or suggest to them that they do something better. Many times, when you get into these schooling trials, you have trainers and parents who don’t really know what some of the rules are. So you’re trying to teach them as well as the children. If they’re not doing something right, I always explain to them why they got a penalty. That’s the educational part of it.
VN: Do you feel as though there are enough young people today involved in the sport?
MH: Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly more expensive. When my daughters (Molly and Rebecca) were competing, a lot of entry fees were $15, $30, maybe up to $50. Now they probably average around $200. There are more and more rules coming out, and most of them make events more expensive because more staff need to be on hand. Then there are the stables. A lot of kids used to keep their horses at home and had to learn about the management side of it, having to get up early before school to take care of them. Now most kids’ horses are in (commercial) stables, which is another expense. … Fortunately, there are still organizations like GMHA that offer scholarships and help make the sport more accessible for people.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.