And the dog was in the lane again as Lauren approached.
Just let them get home safely.
ETA: the dog situation is ridiculous and [potentially] dangerously thoughtless of the spectators.
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Very smart riding by Lauren.
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Lauren and Veronica home safe. Beautifully ridden.
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God that was slow. Gorgeous jumping but she didn’t even look like she was trying on the long routes to get moving.
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if that horse was tired, she did a wonderful job of helping her home safely and successfully
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Lovely ride for Lauren Kieffer.
I assume that going without particular concern to time was the plan all along from an experience standpoint since it never really looked like she shifted up to full cruising gear. I edited this out originally because I thought it might be read as snark as I phrased it but putting it back in differently- it looked like she was very determined not to make the same mistake on the same horse that she made at Rio.
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Veronica has some gas, but I think from Lauren taking the foot off the gas.
We seem to not have an ability to condition horses anymore.
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The annoying thing about that those people clearly know that the riders are going to come right in front of the the corner where they are standing but they still let the dog wander into the course and only pull it back right before the rider skims in front of them.
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The french are getting eaten today. I bet they will be going back and doing some homework
Lauren put the pedal to the metal at Rio and paid the price, so I can understand putting in a conservative ride for the completion. There are big team spots open next year and a completion with time looks better than stops or not finishing at all.
And as ever, Badminton isn’t a dressage show. Bummer for Burton.
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Tough moment for burton at the logs. Unless Andrew can pull it out we’ll see a German jump off for first.
So happy for Lauren!!
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Are there peculiarities of terrain or environmental conditions in Europe that cannot be adequately replicated with the available land in the US? I’m thinking of Jung’s comment last week about the heat and humidity in Kentucky being a challenge that perhaps he does not face in his training environment at home, and my own experience running (human) cross-country in humid Baltimore versus Dallas where the air felt thin. So something in our conditions doesn’t translate that needs to be better accounted for. Again asking out of inexperience as I’m not an eventer myself- taking it for granted that the top level riders in this country have half a clue about fitting up a horse for the available conditions, it looks like fitness for Europe translates better to fitness for North America than vice versa.
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She paid the price thanks in part to DOC and not a great decision. Speed was not the issue. Here I think she was riding a horse that halfway through did not have the gas to keep going full out. She did the smart thing to give a confident ride to Veronica and save her to tomorrow. This way they can have a good stadium eound
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I think it’s great Lauren finished, even if slow. We need some more finishers! Practice getting round first, then go for broke. It was the pair’s first Badminton, after all.
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It could be the ground-it’s usually softer than what our riders see here-may take more out of them, but still hard to understand why they all looked like molasses.
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The Brazilian and Japanese horse’s looked super fit. Not sure if the Japanese guy trains in Japan but the different environments didn’t impact their horses that much.
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In regards to the weather difference, I could MAYBE conjecture if any horses were keen before dressage had to be ridden down a bit would take some out of the tank. But I think an OTTB like Simply Priceless would have had more bottom. I wonder how much mental exhaustion from the course comes into play.
And now there are kids laying under the ropes on that turn, aack!!
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Given the number of horse falls. Slips on turns. And on a horse who can fall down…I thought it was extremely smart riding by Lauren.
I also believe there were shipping issues for her getting over and heard something about them missing a week prep.
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