Bruce Oram Davidson is an American equestrian who competes in the sport of eventing. He grew up in a family uninterested in horses, but began to compete in Pony Club events after a family friend introduced him to riding. He began college at Iowa State University, but left in his third year to train full-time with the United States Equestrian Team. In 1974, he married, and his two children were born in 1976 and 1977. His son, Bruce Davidson Jr., has followed in his footsteps to become a top eventing rider.
Eventing is an equestrian event where a single horse and rider combine and compete against other combinations across the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. This event has its roots in a comprehensive cavalry test that required mastery of several types of riding. The competition may be run as a one-day event (ODE), where all three events are completed in one day or a three-day event (3DE), which is more commonly now run over four days, with dressage on the first two days, followed by cross-country the next day and then show jumping in reverse order on the final day. Eventing was previously known as Combined Training, and the name persists in many smaller organizations. The term "Combined Training" is sometimes confused with the term "Combined Test", which refers to a combination of just two of the phases, most commonly dressage and show jumping.
Happy Talk was bought by Furlong's brother from Clare Ryan, and was imported to the United States. He was originally intended to be shown in hunter classes at the Royal Dublin Horse Show, but he contracted ringworm and could not compete. Brendan Furlong bought the gelding as a four-year-old, and sent him to show jumper Michele Grubb, but Happy Talk's personality was not suited to the discipline.
Show jumping, also known as "stadium jumping", "open jumping", or simply "jumping", is a part of a group of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes are commonly seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics. Sometimes shows are limited exclusively to jumpers, sometimes jumper classes are offered in conjunction with other English-style events, and sometimes show jumping is but one division of very large, all-breed competitions that include a very wide variety of disciplines. Jumping classes may be governed by various national horse show sanctioning organizations, such as the United States Equestrian Federation in the USA or the British Showjumping Association in Great Britain. International competitions are governed by the rules of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports.
Dr. Furlong's wife, Wendy, began bringing the horse along in eventing, before Davidson began riding him.
Happy Talk was difficult to train in dressage to the quality he would have to have to be competitive internationally, as he was very stiff in his topline. However, Davidson persisted, and competed the horse three times at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day: 1992, 1993, and 1995. Happy Talk won the event in 1993, and finished eighth and seventeenth respectively in 1992 and 1995.
Dressage is a highly skilled form of riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an "art" sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined by the International Equestrian Federation, dressage is "the highest expression of horse training" where "horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements."
Pittstown is an unincorporated community located at the intersection of the boundaries of Alexandria, Franklin and Union townships in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. The area is named after William Pitt. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP Code 08867. The area was named Hofftown in the 18th century after landowner Lawrence Hoff.
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