7 north American riders
5 retired or eliminated
one completed
one left to go
it is Badminton, but still.
I mean the Brits aren’t doing super great either. 2 falls on course just now. 2 falls at fence 2
I don’t think this course is any tougher than Rolex but it really is a lot more punishing. The mistakes are having much more negative and punishing results. I think this just showcases what a brilliant CD we have in Derek.
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Loved the look of Claas Romeike’s horse. It’s out of a Heraldik XX mare and you can tell.
interesting. How many horse falls have their actually been today? Izzy Taylor (one of the UK’s best XC riders normally) had a shitty mistake and fell. The US rider we have discussed to death - that was just poor horsemanship, the fall at the water just now, we have seen people tackle that in so many ways that it really doesn’t seem to have been an unfair test that deliberately trapped the horse, more that they just got it wrong. I haven’t seen all the falls at all - but what specific examples do you feel have unfairly punished the horses?
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Tom Jackson just wrote the book on how to navigate the staircase. That horse looks very deliberate, like he is thinking all the way around. I hope it continues on this note for them.
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Punishing in confidence. These are not just my words, commentators and Mark Todd mentioned the same thing. It was also said the striding was perhaps off on the out from the lake. It is not just falls, but the retirements where good horsemans realize that to continue would not be fair to the horse.
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Putting on flame suit in advance. I’m no expert, but just looked at the GIF of Elisa and Johny over the last. I think perhaps her frustration was more about her inability to stay back on the landing/ when they got into trouble and help her horse. All I’ve seen is the GIF, so I’m commenting about that in isolation.Getting pitched up on his neck made it much worse than it had to be, but may well have been unavoidable.
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There have been quite a few horse falls and even more scary jumps. And we have had a number of top riders say the distances are not right and punishing horses. Including Mark Todd. That says a lot.
the distances are punishing confidences…especially for bold horses. I’m worried for Lauren on Veronica. This is not a good course for that mare. It will take all Lauren’s skill to keep her on her feet.
eta: Also now seen 4 horses with bloody mouths when all were not ridden badly. I think that is also telling of a not good course design.
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no they are not doing great, but they have about 12 completions and 8 retired / EL so far
on this course 60% completion is not great but not a complete failure
but as a happy N/T level rider, I don’t have the insight some others do at this level
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Helping her horse would have been pulling up way before this fall happened. Seeing this GIF out of context does not give the full picture I think.
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Waltham Fiddler’s Find looks like an absolutely top class horse.
She should have retired and will likely get a deserved card for pushing a tired horse but that’s a very unfair comparison and an unnecessary dig. It’s a lot easier to retire your horse when you have the experience of 20+ prior 4 stars, have 4 other 4 star horses, a cadre of fawning owners and get international travel/competition grants on an annual basis and when completing itself is no longer seen as any sort of accomplishment
.
Elisa has a 16 year old horse who may not have another 4 star in him. She has nothing close in the pipeline as far as I know. The last time she was at the advanced level, it took her almost a decade to get back. This could be her one and only shot at Badminton. They were 6 from home and clear. Yes she should have pulled up, but i’m not going to crucify her for not doing it. She will likely be hard enough on herself.
Don’t they say that experience is what you get right after you need it. That seems incredibly apt here.
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Really? I thought it was one italian that fell at fence 2? fence analysis for you here: https://www.badminton-horse.co.uk/index.php/cross-country-fence-analysis-2017/
The other way of looking at the Brit performance is that we had no riders in the top 17 - and then in 18th are two first time Badminton riders - and now we have 3 in the top 10 (so far) who are all Badminton first timers - exciting! Not all bad, though of course room for improvement. 
On the side, I love that the ground folks have bowlers. Very proper I must say. At the moment I am glad things are quiet.
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interest info from commentators - many retiring after one stop, likely bc they have several other 4 star options to re route to in England / Europe.
Why must my horse have a massage appointment right when Jonty Evans is supposed to go? If someone wouldn’t mind reporting back about his and Ingrid Klimke’s go’s, I’d be forever grateful. Hopefully the replays will be up by the afternoon.
That was a confusing post sorry. I just meant the 2 falls in terms of the course, not the Brits themselves. Commenting on 2ndifferent things in the same post. Sorry.
Everything about that shameful lack of horsemanship needs to be left where it can be seen, reviewed and serve as a reminder of the rider’s responsibilities. Ms. Wallace thoroughly deserves whatever formal and informal sanctions she receives for pressing that exhausted horse.
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Someone made a comment here about Michael Jung having been “asked” to carry the Willberry charity horse. That made it sound like an honor and I can understand why it would be. I’m seeing several more of them going around. I’ve read the Willberry website, but I don’t see much about why and with whom Willberry is traveling around course- whether riders are asked or if they are involved with the charity and do it for publicity. Does anyone know where I could find more info about why certain riders ride with Willberry?
@kt-rose I don’t disagree that it was a disgraceful display of poor horsemanship but I don’t see any value in showing a short snippet out of context of the rest of the course. That smacks of shock value when the real lesson to me seems to be “This was coming from 7 fences away, and there were 6 opportunities to avoid it that weren’t taken.” In that sense a gif of a few seconds is useless.
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