IIRC Bettina crossed her line AFTER entering the stadium, after the whistle, well on her way to the first fence. Not for doing circles before entering the stadium.
Took a protest and review but it was pretty clear she did it. She, however devastated she may have been, did not whine and blame somebody else for it or publicly sulk.
I also remember the Bettina Hoy incident. The incident I am remembering happened around that time but was a dressage competition. Oh well- hate it when the old memory lets me down. 
Wasn’t the rider on Genesis Helen McNaught-Maendli?
[QUOTE=dressagetraks;7738419]
I vaguely remember reading about an incident years and years and years ago. Not sure if it’s the same one you are referring to or not. Some big competition. The horse’s name was Genesis, forget rider, country, etc. Don’t remember all the details. I think the rider broke the start line accidentally with her horse’s rump or something while turning near it. Clock started somehow before she had intended. She finally noticed and refused to start. Basically staged a “walk-in” right there in the ring, walking her horse around, refused to compete until they reset the clock but refused to leave. I think they finally let her go “pending a hearing,” or something like that. She went on to do well that night but not in a subsequent round, so wouldn’t have won even if that first round counted. I forget what ever happened with the hearing/review.
What I do remember is her blatantly refusing to either compete or leave until she had her way. She was holding the whole competition hostage. Struck me as incredibly disrespectful of the sport, the stewards, her fellow competitors whose warmup schedule she was throwing into disarray during her several minute demonstration, etc. She really came across, in my opinion, anyway, as sounding like an entitled jerk.[/QUOTE]
This is apparently what you are supposed to do though. There was an incident in an FEI class at Thermal where a jump off was changed last minute in pen. It was unclear and the first rider in for the jump-off, Enrique Gonzales, went off course due to the confusion. All the other riders thought the course was the same as Enrique and if any of them had gone first they would have also gone off course.
I was at the ingate the next day when they were discussing it the next day and the consensus of the Stewards and jump judges was that he should have stayed in the ring until they reviewed it properly, and should have insisted on being allowed to rejump the course. As it was he left the ring, which gave him far less leverage, and once the class finished he was out of options. As it was he probably would have won the appeal, but since he never got to finish the course there wasn’t really anything that could be done.
Just to give a differing perspective, although your case sounds different as the rider seems more likely to be at fault.
Didn’t Jan Ebling have the same issue at the World Cup last year? He was late entering. He basically said it was a stupid error on his part, owned it and went on.
I recall a lot of these incidents - silly mistakes can be made at every level, probably more so the bigger the stage…feel for them…not just greenhorns. It is how they dealt with them that we remember the athlete, be it graciously or …not.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
