I thought this quote from Andrew Nicholson in the H&H article was very interesting - saying Nereo knows 4* events are the long ones because of the spectators -
“Nereo was unbelievable — it’s just my job to stay focused and every now and then I pull or kick,” explained the New Zealander. “The course was nice to ride, but Nereo was telling me he was going at the best speed he could — he knows when there’s big crowds that the cross-country isn’t just going to be a six-minute track so he preserves himself.”
Just an observation but that log into the water for at least half the day jumped fine and the problems was the final log. I think maybe the later competitors were in the mindset of focusing on elements b and c and not respecting a in the same way as earlier riders.
Yes, I totally get that it is not the same – I haven’t seen the footage but clearly it must have looked bad, as it did with Amy Tryon years ago, with far worse consequences to the animal. Back in the day Might Tango needed OXYGEN after a cross country run with Bruce Davidson.
I’m just saying, this is someone who does not (as far as I know) have a history of bad judgement and she is relatively new on the scene.
When I was at Burghley watching WFP walk the course at the Trout hatchery where there was a similar log he was advising & chatting with maybe Pippa that the goal was to slither in over the first log however you needed to, to set up for the up bank and log & bounce out. To get the add with the 4 at Badminton they needed to have that same type of conservativeness at that first log - which on this type of course isn’t going to be pretty. However I’m guessing the ones that didn’t have such luck here were pulling and not keeping some impulsiveness and/or jumping it too crookedly. Jung jumped the initial log into the trout hatchery on Sam like this at that Burghley.
Unfortunately, I seem to remember another time, much earlier in her career, when she was prepping to go to her first Fair Hill CCI*** on her first advanced horse and, like everyone does, ran the advanced at Morven as a final prep. The ground was rock hard and everyone went slowly except her. She stormed around much, much faster than anyone else on the cement ground. She won the Morven XC, but the horse didn’t make it to show jumping, or to Fair Hill and may never have competed again, IIRC. She sort of disappeared from the advanced level for a while after that and seemed to come back older and wiser. But I suspect she’s got a competitiveness that maybe shoves out other rational thought from time to time.
I read these posts yesterday and was ready to forgive her if she didn’t get up quickly enough or whatever, but watching her on the replay last night really upset me. Compare her not touching or even looking at her horse to Andrew Hoy, who fell off the gray earlier and clearly got his bell rung pretty hard, but was trying to assess his horse & get a slipped boot off even as he was stumbling and looking swimmy-headed himself. Nobody knew as well as her how tired that horse was and how important it was for him to walk.
Argh.
I do hope she’s learned a lesson, and I hope her lovely horse hasn’t gotten the stuffing knocked out of them too badly. I’d like tobsjee her come back and redeem herself on a horse who finishes ears pricked.
Sadly there do seem to be suggestions that this is not Elisa’s only mistake of this nature, going back to her first days in the big leagues so to speak, but hopefully she will learn from her experiences.
I do think they gave the yellow card for horse abuse, right, not DR? That is surely a sobering thing to receive.
update on Charlton Down Riverdance (via H&H forum):
Charlton Down Riverdance is sore on his stifle, we think he probably knocked it going into the lake. Amazing what adrenaline does, he jumped an amazing round. Looked a little off when he pulled up, but his recovery was good and he was sprightly walking back. Unfortunately stiffened up in the evening and Becky felt it was unethical to withhold pain relief. So he had some and was withdrawn
Agreed. I saw the footage, I thought it looked bad, the horse clearly, clearly out of gas, and the commentators were remarking on how sympathetic a ride LW was giving him, “nursing” him home, and how this was not abuse - and then they fell at the last fence. Too bad she dug herself this hole. I think Might Tango’s upper level career was pretty well finished after that XC run, and to this day can’t forget how awful the other incident was.
I have to agree with this. At the end of the day we have to understand that Miss Wallace is a YOUNG professional. Unfortunately we can’t come out of the womb knowing how to pilot around a tough 4*. Combine this with the fact that she, like every rider at that level, has ambition and wants to be a star. The truth is that taking risks is inherent to the sport of eventing. She made a decision, took a risk, and unfortunately it did not play out for her, but she learned a valuable lesson and will come out of the start box wiser next time. You have to make mistakes in order to learn!
That log into the water was so unfair. It’s not rocket science to know that a steep slope after a jump gives no chance of recovery if an error was made. The horses naturally back off going into water too. Big mistake on the CD! Hopefully Mr. Winter learns from that course and goes back to the drawing board. I am not familiar with his previous courses so I’m not sure if this is a consistent habit of his. If not, then I look forward to seeing what he learned yesterday in his future courses!
