How racing and eventing training techniques can benefit each other *H&H Plus*

Each equestrian sport can benefit from the specialist expertise of another. Catherine Austen investigates the advantages of interaction between eventing and racing

If you placed racing and eventing in a Venn diagram, there would be some obvious shared characteristics: adrenaline, physical risk, equine athleticism. But the sports, despite descending from a shared heritage, are often poles apart – and that distance is increasing. Sam Watson, the Irish international event rider and co-founder of data company EquiRatings, thinks they would both benefit from learning from the other.

He is in a position to judge; not only does his work with EquiRatings mean that he looks at equestrianism, in all its forms, in an analytical way, but he is also a big racing fan and has worked with horses – and riders – at some of the biggest yards in Ireland.