2022 Kentucky Three Day Event

[Sticky_Situation]

I do think that Ashlynn Meuchel wasn’t having a good round and I’d like to see stewards be more proactive about pulling riders up when things are deteriorating. However, while I do think there are lessons to be learned from what happened, the internet railbirds have a tendency to pile on any rider perceived to have made poor decisions in a way that is far more vicious and self-righteous than constructive (not saying that there isn’t also plenty of constructive discussion as well, which is most of what I’ve seen here, but we’ve all seen the “well I know that I have never let my emotions get the better of me and exhibited less-than-stellar horsemanship!” crowd throwing stones before) … let alone the reactions of animal rights types who are likely to assume that such sketchy moments during a round that isn’t going well are the “norm” for eventing.

I hope that it isn’t actually swept under the rug, but unfortunately I agree for this reason with keeping it somewhat out of the public eye.

[rudy753]

Yeah I totally agree that things can get blown way out of proportion when in the hands of the wrong people. I really hope that we can all learn from this and that the rider isn’t subjected to any bullying over the issue. It’s so hard to be in the riders seat and that’s why my grievance is fully directed at officials. We always need that back up plan and safety net when at all possible to prevent these things from happening in the first place!

[Djones]

There is every variation of railbird under the sun.

There’s a pile of them insisting that Doug Payne’s Starr Witness mare was “obviously unfit” and shaking with “fatigue and exhaustion”, and saying they were glad ‘she’ had her vest on…And there are the responses we saw here and the educated commentary by Wofford.

There will be every stripe under the sun, there’s no way around it.

[Jealoushe]

@Djones

There’s a pile of them insisting that Doug Payne’s Starr Witness mare was “obviously unfit” and shaking with “fatigue and exhaustion”, and saying they were glad ‘she’ had her vest on…And there are the responses we saw here and the educated commentary by Wofford.

Where are you seeing that?

[krak]

Do they not do CR at 5*?

[Djones]

Some random thing on FB, where someone grabs a video entirely out of context and the little birds go bananas.

[Jealoushe]

I was guessing Twitter hahah close.

Twitter is the WORST for that. So many uneducated idiots on there.

Not to mention the Twitter folks thinks BM does his own social media and video edits now LOL like he clearly has hired someone.

[Jealoushe]

Not for FEI

[Djones]

yeah rail birds on FB running their beaks and pooping everywhere lol

[Jealoushe]

taking notes from Amber Heard

[Sticky_Situation]

Starr Witness was so “distressed” that she stopped and had a snack as soon as Doug came off, lol

[Djones]

LOL we saw the same thing! Lol I am the one who said It’s a HORSE. They eat.

[Jealoushe]

yeah! and she stood there like an angel with no bridle LOL

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

That was hilarious! Doug probably did have a solid moment of sheer rage and frustration, after having such a great dressage test, and there’s the mare like, “this grass is delicious”!

[Djones]

https://www.facebook.com/reel/394912402509248?fs=e&s=cl

It’s so absurd reading the minions being all !!!1111!!!

[CleverUserName]

You make some good points. However, I think the question regarding being pulled up will always be a sticky situation (hey! That’s your user name!). Based on…what metric? Two bad jumps? A percentage of jumps jumped of which 3/4 were part of a combination or difficult question and the other quarter were scary at let-up fences? I just feel it’s impossible to put a blanket over what should constitute being pulled up. And, realistically, we didn’t see the whole round. My stream glitched right around the time of her fall. Maybe her other jumps were spot on. I did see the first water, and while it wasn’t pretty, I have no idea if her next jumps were good or not.

I’ll probably get flamed for this but we can’t expect every round at any upper level (or, really even at the lower levels) to be undangerous (that’s not a word, sure). No/ very few rookies will go out and have a foot perfect round (Yasmin notwithstanding). Clearly, AM did the work to get to a 5*. IF, and I do mean IF, she or any other rider got to a 5* and was truly dangerous, the fault should be on the preceding events which she/ he completed and subsequently moved up from.

But broadly, I think it’s a bit unfair to criticize her or anyone else who is talented but inexperienced at that level on a mistake they made the first time out.

[enjoytheride]

Yep, the horse was shaking, injured, tired, and was eating grass because it was too exhausted to move. Also, rider needs to work with a trainer and that the dip after landing was clearly unsafe. I think they mean the ditch?

[Jealoushe]

@enjoytheride

Also, rider needs to work with a trainer

Yeah, 5* National Champion needs a new trainer

I’m just glad to know even people like Doug Payne get people bashing them online saying they need a trainer…it’s not just us nobodies haha

[enjoytheride]

I mean, if Doug needs to “work with a trainer” I’m screwed.

[MNEventer]

A few years ago, I was jump judging and there was a pair at novice or training that was clearly out of control. The kind of ride that we’ve all seen, where the horse is basically bolting and the rider is just trying to aim them at the right jumps and hoping they stay upright. The JJs starting saying things in the radio like “Rider XX, clear at fence Y, but out of control/has no brakes/going way too fast” and it was only 4 or 5 fences and the TD requested that she be pulled up so they could talk to her. She ended up getting eliminated. Is the process that different for FEI vs USEF? With all the eyes on XC, you’d think it would be really easy to stop a rider that’s not even having a mediocre day.

We do it for the jogs afterwards, even though it may make riders mad afterwards. Case in point, Leah LG posted a video on Instagram of AP Prime and griped at the ground jury because how couldn’t they see that he’s sound: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CdBlQacl2MB/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= I would not describe the horse in that video as sound, personally. Maybe he would have been fine if allowed to SJ, but the GJ made a decision that they felt was in the best interest of the horse, regardless of the feelings of the rider/owner/sponsor of the horse. That mentality needs to be present during XC, not just the day after.