The Forum with Nick Larkin: A New Game
The first winner of the Rolex Kentucky five-star discusses and outlines the sport he’s invented and developed: Cross Country Equestrian.
It took just over 10 years of work, sacrifice and perseverance to win the biggest three-day event in North America in 1998, the Rolex Kentucky CCI5*-L, which at the time was one of only three five-stars in the world. It was a gamble funded by a bank loan totaling more than I earned in a year and involved a journey to a country I had never visited, with a phenomenal horse and a few pieces of luggage that held perhaps the only pair of plastic tall boots to ever win at that level.
We knew we could do it, but I hadn’t properly contemplated what we might do after. Unlike some of my friends, I have never been a hard-core fan of eventing or any equestrian sport. I was close to fandom with a stint in steeplechasing, and I’ve always loved cross-country, especially the old speed and endurance version. That was probably because the horses seemed to feel the same way. However, being lessthan-fully immersed in a sport provides a different view from that of the passionate devotees: It’s easier to see the broader context and contemplate what’s happening beneath the surface and behind the curtain.
I grew up in the city and got involved with horses accidentally, which most likely established a level of detachment, but once in the saddle, riding horses presented an interesting new challenge. Before I knew much about any of the disciplines, I was hooked by the galloping, jumping and adrenaline. Dressage seemed dull and tedious, so I initially veered into show jumping before realizing that horse-power was everything in that game. Fairly soon, I landed in eventing, where training and conditioning, building a solid partnership with my horse, and effective riding had a greater impact on results. It didn’t hurt that eventing also had plenty of galloping, jumping and adrenaline.
The challenge of reaching the top kept me going. The most fervent eventing fans of a certain age will remember Red, a medium-sized rangy chestnut Thoroughbred with a shockingly scopey jump, who won the first five-star held outside of England. A few months earlier, he had won in Adelaide and, later that year, finished clear with a perfect time around the FEI World Equestrian Games course in Rome, but he pulled shoes and injured a check ligament in the muddy going.
After returning to the U.S., we tried to continue, but I had already lost interest in eventing and was looking for something else to fill the void. I loved the sport but not enough. I couldn’t see my future in the coming version of eventing that de-emphasized cross-country and athletic conditioning—the parts I loved the most. As a result, I decided to walk away from competition.
But I remained in touch with eventing through teaching while exploring other possibilities. Jeannie and I got married, moved to Kentucky, bred some horses, and dabbled in racing, steeplechasing, and even a touch of endurance riding. Looking back, those years of searching and observation were how I ruminated on a nebulous idea that had first formed when eventing was beginning its transformation into the sport it is today. My unconventional ideas on how eventing should be improved in the late 1990s were the seeds for a new sport, one that I wanted to do and knew others would too.
Those ideas eventually grew into Cross Country Equestrian, a sport vastly more intricate and expansive than the handful of adjustments I thought would benefit eventing.
Read the full article in the April 21 – May 16, 2025 issue of Chronicle of the Horse.