Wouldn’t it have been great publicity for the sport of eventing if a person who was warned for horse abuse of both his horses in XC had gone to win the world’s biggest Event AND the Grand Slam of Eventing on the basis of those abusive rounds?
I am SO thrilled that Classic Moet was able to pull it out. She lost Burghley in 2016 because of the dressage coefficient. She saved eventing from a PR disaster.
Her damsire is the very great for eventing TB, Bohemond.
For this year, the equiratings folks tweeted that the top 3 would have remained the same even if the coefficient had been used.
KARMA.
And brilliantly done for that wonderful mare!
But with the coefficient, Ballymor Class would have been 4th instead of 5th.
Updating my own question with Will’s Facebook post:
“Not our day today here at Badminton. Oboe did not feel himself and never really got into gear on the XC. We had a runout at the difficult C element of the Lake, jumped the next couple, but decided it was not meant to be. Extremely bummed, but rooting my fellow North Americans on for the rest of this weekend…”
There is some extremely interesting news for eventing breeders from Badminton. A horse named Mr Chunky finished 8th in his first 4* with only 6.4 XC time penalties. According to Horse Telex, he is a stallion and a son of the great Jumbo. His dam is named Avin Fun Bar by Sergeant Drummer xx (by Exclusive Native) out of an unknown mare. If he IS a stallion, he would be a worthy horse to carry on the Jumbo line.
Viney - that was silly.
Not as silly as having Bloody Marilyn as America’s top rider.
Well, if you read the FEI rules, the GJ is authorized to penalize abuse of horse with official verbal warning, yellow cards, etc. The next rule says that misuse of the whip may be considered abuse of horse. If the GJ didn’t find it abuse of horse, they weren’t authorized to give an official warrning about it.
As best I’m counting, 6 horse falls. I’m not feeling great about that at all. And Jonty Evans & Cooley Rorke’s Drift is not in that count, as it is technically just a rider fall, even though the horse was hung up in the jump.
I loved watching Kentucky last weekend with one great round after another. Badminton this year – ugh, not so much.
Badminton last year – also rather rough to watch, and 7 horse falls.
I’ve been a die-hard watcher of Burghley, Badminton and Kentucky for years. But this many horses bouncing off the turf is not the sport I’m too interested in supporting.
So what has changed, the number of horses falling or your tolerance for that happening?
I ask this with no malice, but I suspect it’s thev latter. Our standards for horse welfare have improved dramatically, I think, and the rules governing eventing along with them.
I admittedly don’t have actual stats on this, but I watch video of old events and see horses falling, riders falling … and then often continuing along on course, sometimes bloody. There’s still much work to be done, but I think we’re doing better now than we were in the past.
All that said, I understand what you’re saying and — I almost prefer to watch XC on replay these days, once I know everyone’s made it home safely.
So why is that? Can you speak to your personal feelings about it - why you’re uncomfortable with the uncertainty with watching XC live?
This is something we need to explore.
A few weeks ago, I watched the Grand National livestream ‘with’ another BB member, who was working a camera at Keeneland but could watch the live feed between races. We texted back and forth, and we were both a little nervous about what was to transpire, even though the GN hasn’t had any fatalities since 2012.
I’ve been watching this race my whole life - Red Rum was a childhood hero - but it does get harder, even with the knowledge that it’s ‘safer’.
I Love that Kentucky had NO horse falls, just silly rider falls that were of nothing. The course was challenging, and not dangerous. It was the perfect course.
As far as the whole event, one thing the dressage co-efficient has done is dramatically improve the dressage. Both Kentucky and Badminton had much better rides. I watched most of the dressage at Badminton, and thanks to the showing of the scoring for individual movements, I thought the scoring was all over the map. I have never seen so many 2s and 3s, and yet, the scores were very high, (meaning low scores.) Mid 30s was mid pack in a very large field.
I think the time was too tight. Period. When only one horse made it, and she even had a second penalty, on the fastest horse in the field. When Sam was 15 seconds over? No, to my mind, time was too tight.
They look so prim and proper, but the gate keepers, and crossing guards, or whatever you call them, wearing full suit and bowler hats is a bit too much for me. I much prefer Kentucky with the pony clubbers opening the gates, and civilians doing the crossing guards. Did I see one of the gents also wearing a jump judge badge? Say it ain’t so!
I am very disappointed in Ollie, and shocked at his response. Looks like he still has more growing up to do.
I must confess, I was bleary eyed, but awake for the beginning of xc, but fell asleep during parts of it. I didn’t see all the falls, I saw Euro Prince, and the Aussie grey at the lake. I saw a couple more, but can’t remember which ones. With Euro Prince, a very experienced horse, just pinging around the course. Such joy! Now we couldn’t see the take off but the announcer said he looked like he was trying to clear the entire bullfinch. You couldn’t quite see the ground either, I suspect he pecked, and just went head over heels. The grey hung a leg at the lake. Too many horse falls IMO.
Jonty’s mistake, (as told by an armchair quarterback,) was that his horse didn’t get in well. He slid over the first element, and should have gone straight across to the smaller side, but went instead to the huge double, and it didn’t end well. I suspect time was playing on his mind.
Didn’t Andrew Nicholson quit the NZ team a few years ago because he didn’t think they took good enough care of the horses? That was a terrible thing to do to his old buddy. No way was I going to get up at 2:30 am to watch the second jog, but I hear Nearo was visibly lame. SHAME on you for even presenting a lame horse!
Lastly, on the broadcast. I am surprised we haven’t had to pay before now. It wasn’t expensive, and overall, a good deal. HOWEVER, I understand they might need to get the bugs out, but not at the time when we are paying to see the production. I think we need the same privilege on the paying end. I missed most of the first jog, not the end of the world but if it is being covered, I want to see it. I was furious about the screw up, when the feed was completely lost during the top 10 in show jumping. I completely missed Lauren’s ride. The only American to complete, and I missed it. But the rest was spectacular. The commentary during dressage was hysterical, and informative. Work out the bugs before hand, and I will happily pay for the service.
lol…a lot of folks in the UK wear that gear traditionally on the weekends when our pheasant hunting and what not…I think its the equivalent to the Kentucky blue shirt and khakis :lol:
I paid for the H & C livestream and was never able to log into their site. I got an internal server error (500) no matter which browser I used on both Ubuntu and Windows 7.
As to the time it is a simple arithmetic function of the length of the course and 570 meters per minute. The only way for the course designer to make it less “tight” is to reduce the complexity of the course. Or wheel the length a different way so it is longer.
Agreed. The ground was holding, and the complexes require the combinations to slow down. Therefore, you have to make up time on the gallops - but in this case the gallops were also energy-sapping.
With the proviso that it requires rider responsibility AND oversight by officials, I like it when the time is tight. It means it isn’t a dressage show. Jonelle won fair and square; her dressage was decent, and she and her horse were as close to flawless as you could be in the other two phases. Brilliant for them!
Nereo lost a shoe and jogged fine on grass, but not on the hard surface. Nicholson immediately withdrew him, even though the vet asked him to re-present. He then announced his retirement from competition and everybody (including Nereo) had a party in the stadium. His daughter will have a wonderful teacher.
No they don’t hunt that way! What they were wearing is traditional for the job they were doing…stewarding at a horse show. More formal at the best events !
PS there was 180,000 spectators on the grounds.
I just meant it was similar attire.
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
