Really? Her telling people that they “don’t have a brain” simply because she disagrees with them isn’t catty?
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When they’re saying a saddle is literally sitting on the withers of a horse at the 5* level, based on a photo…
Yeah. I mean it 100%. [edit]
Maybe the comment about the saddle is a bit catty (not to mention, presumptuous, ignorant…) eh?
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Or that ULRs whose saddles aren’t flat on a (moving, jumping) horses back = they care more about their sponsor than their horses comfort…
I mean come ON.
Can you even hear how ridiculous that sounds??? [edit]
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All I know is that there are quite a few people I’d like to yellow card right now for making a #$%%^&&&ery of this thread!
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I don’t know whether to roll my eyes or laugh at this point so I give up on talking to the armchair QBs. I just suggest maybe some common sense and introspection is in order for them. You’re not a victim when you throw the first stones - you just got called on your crappy logic/comment.
I didn’t want to jump in on this. But we need to not glorify UL riders, or riders who ride at the UL just because they do so.
There are many reasons people ride in certain brands of saddles, and honestly-it’s not always because they understand saddle fit, anatomy or the structure behind saddles. You can speak with riders who rode at a certain level for a long time, in a particular brand of saddle, who stayed with that brand and then, due to chronic injuries or what have you, realized the saddle brand they were sponsored by weren’t actually helping anything other than their own position.
An UL rider repping a particular brand of leg protection doesn’t mean anything to me-a groom or a rider with only one big horse tells me more, because they are the ones handling the horse day and day. On that vein, I would love to have honest conversations with UL riders body workers to determine if the tack actually fits.
We glorify UL, and there are really great ones out there that are smart about every aspect of horse care. I’ve met them. I’ve also met the opposite. We need to quit assuming because someone rides at a higher level that they are a better horseperson. Maybe that isn’t what you are meaning to infer, but it certainly reads that way.
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I can agree with this. But:
Do you really think that if the body workers were saying that the tack didn’t fit that the horses would still be in it? These riders, even if you want to think only of the ones you would deem hyper-competitive win-at-all-costs types, are looking for marginal gains wherever they can find them. They want to win. If they are aware enough to have body workers, do you really think they wouldn’t heed the feedback and change the tack, even if only for selfish reasons like a performance gain? What’s the point of a sponsor if your horse can’t perform at the event because it hurts?
(Obviously welfare reasons should be the driving force in all horsemanship decisions, but if we are assuming as seems to have been implied that not every UL rider is aware of or cares about welfare, pain still decreases performance and they care about performance. I’m not opining on that base assumption one way or another, just pointing out that if we do assume certain UL riders are just in it to win it, they still have a strong incentive to make sure their horse isn’t in pain).
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I agree that riding at the upper levels does not mean someone is incapable of bad horsemanship. But I think it’s a bit much to go claiming that there are lots of upper level riders hurting their horses’ backs with poorly fitting saddles because they don’t care about them enough, simply based on still photos you saw online.
The false dichotomy of “lower level riders who love their horses and put them first at all time” vs “upper level riders that just use their horses and think they’re disposable” is tiresome.
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Had a bit of time this morning and decided to look over this a bit-- I am disappointed in the three riders who were given yellow cards at Maryland. But, if you go back, they’re not repeat offenders. Granted Woods has not been on the field that long; he could become a repeat offender, but I’m back to 2018 now and have yet to see Buck Davidson mentioned again.
Tammy Smith, Sinead Halpin, Piggy French, and Will Coleman are all on the list somewhere. Ollie Townend is featured more than once. And then there’s Astier Nicholas who is on the list for-- checks notes– being late and not leaving the dressage arena at A.
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Um, I was with your point until we have to jump things to know things. This is a brainless comment on your part.
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You DO need to jump high to understand the physical differences between a 3’ effort and a 4’+ effort, and it’s always the low level jumpers who run their mouth about this stuff. Anyone saying that a saddle should be flat on a back all the time has no idea what the difference is, besides a YouTube video.
The people who jump the heights know there’s no way for the saddle to sit perfect all the time when you’re asking the horse to do the things they do. Period.
With the ‘saddle fits perfect’ thought process, there should be no need for a breastcollar on any phases, right? Ha. No way.
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sorry, that’s BS, boo. If you study the sport and horses across disciplines. and appreciate the real physical EFFORT it takes, you don’t have to sit it to know it. Point being: I know that the effort is different and I’ve never jumped a thing bigger than a log. I’m living proof that you are wrong.
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OK, I’m in the UK and we do have a different horse culture, but I see UL riders, of multiple nationalities, running their 5* horses at top level events year after year and producing yet more top level horses year after year. That is not down to bad horsemanship, poor fitting tack, rubbish bodywork, dreadful farriery, lack of skill or knowledge.
Personal observation: the better the horsemanship the better the riders do in competition.
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Some people clearly do not understand that, though. And it’s not the people that have jumped the height.
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I’m not saying the bulk of them are bad horsepeople, I’m simply pointing out that the assumption that because someone rides at a high level (and to be clear, I consider that 2* and above) doesn’t mean they know how to care for every aspect of the horses welfare at the highest level.
We have riders who refuse to budge on old school methods, we have young riders who haven’t had the opportunity to gain that breadth of knowledge, and we have those who have too much ego to admit they are wrong. This goes across the spectrum, not just eventing.
I think one of my biggest soapboxes in life is about assigning attributes to a person based on a role they fill in life.
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I’m not saying they’re all perfect, or even exemplary. We all know a lot of top riders train in heinous ways and many get away with it.
I’m commenting specifically about “saddles sitting directly on withers” and the comment about cantles that implied that if they aren’t down on the back for all portions of a jump the saddle doesn’t fit and the rider cares more about a sponsor than their horse.
^^ that is asinine armchair QBing.
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How on earth did that happen?
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If I had to guess, it was probably an unintentional exit but it really does sound like he just stepped over the rail. I’d be curious to know.
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I compete at heights a lot higher than the average rider (4’5" and up) and I honestly have never thought about where my cantle is over the fences. I recently removed my breastplate and have had more success with my horse. We haven’t done much beyond reflocking his saddle this spring but realized since it didn’t move anyway… the breastplate might have been bugging his shoulder’s range of reach. Took it off and it’s gone well.
I think that if you’re invested as a person in your animal’s well being you strive every day to do a bit better on all fronts.
Some people want sponsorships and success and that alone doesn’t negate their ability to pay attention and do right by their horse. Those who are not as attentive likely were either never that type of person or success and more pressure has given them more to attend to than they are able.
Em
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Slight tangent, but this makes sense as there have been a few studies about how breastplates negatively impact jumping form. 
I believe that Fairfax did one of the studies.
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