I also noticed the Brits are better at their changes 
Wonder why that is?
Food choices?
you know, they didnât used to be. About 10 years ago or so, they got really good at dressage.
@Larksmom The UK is the epicentre of Eventing. On an average day at a low level show there might be riders from eight or nine nations competing. My record, when I counted one day, was 14. Good competition makes for good riders etc.
Iâm old enough to recall a long period when British riders did not win at big Events. The Australian and NZ riders had arrived. Then Germans. British Eventers had to raise their game and it took time. Fortunately, there is a lot of cross training. In the winter, when there is no Eventing, riders can take their horses to pure dressage and pure Show-jumping shows.
I am loving WFP as commentator ⊠âthat mark was stingyâ, âjudge finally found the â8â buttonâ, âa â7â for that halt? 7 is âfairly goodâ, what was fairly good about that?â (suggesting it should have been at least an â8â)
Does anyone know what the yellow ribbon on the wrist of some riders represents?
Anyone here streaming from your phone and mirroring it to your phone? Have you been able to remove the blue and black lines taking up the side of the screen?
lol as long as theyâre consistently stingy, I guess? 
Jesse Campbell is 7â8" ??? What???
Probably access to stables etc.
i heard that too.
I wonder if she meant 6â8" or it was a bit of a joke because he is the tallest rider?
@JenJ The yellow wrist band is for competitors. It allows them access to the stables, warm up, walk the course etc. while lesser mortals stare from the other side of the string!
I know that. A lot of that is to an American, it seems as the Brits are born on horseback. Foxhunting is much more common over there than here. What I meant specifically was Dressage, The Brits suddenly got really good at dressage about 10 years ago or so. It seems with Carl Hester things have just gotten better.
6â 6"
There is still a lot of foxhunting here but eventers, except lower level type, donât play as much. I know Boyd hunts some. When I started foxhunting about 30 years ago it was pretty common to see eventers out hunting in the winter. Iâm talking about seeing upper level horses out. Not any more. Eventing seems to have taken up the mantra of the show hunters, my horses are to expensive to take hunting. Also, the upper level riders now head south for the winter.
I do know one upper level rider that goes south and hunts down there but she grew up hunting.
One thing the US riders have done is improved their dressage. It used be that our scores on the road were always worse than the scores at home by a considerable margin.
I am also glad to see young riders going overseas for some time to train and compete over their. The competition on any given weekend is much stronger than here.
I donât know what happened to the text. Thick fingers!
Iâm going to stick my neck out and make some predictions. The course, to me, looks a bit softer than in some years as everyone is aware of the interrupted preparations nearly every horse has had in this wet spring. It is still massive, it is still full of challenges and puzzles but there are some options available that wonât affect time but will offer riders the chance to adjust their plans according to what horse they have beneath them. Some of the other long routes are very time consuming, enough for big time penalties. The course has been substantially altered at the end so tired horses are no longer being asked to balance themselves over rough, undulating ground (near the staircase). The ground has been drying since Tuesday but it has been such a wet winter that the going could still be testing and tiring, particularly in the middle third where the fences are perhaps the most challenging.
The fences that I predict will be influential are:
7ABCD Huntsmanâs Close because it always causes problems. I couldnât actually see the alternative D though it is flagged as such. Iâll have watch on TV.
#10ABCD Mars Badminton Lake not necessarily because of the obstacles, which are challenging, but because of the crowd which is very close. The CD skinny is narrow and the string is quite close.
#15 ABC LeMieux Eyelash Brushes. A and C are just a pair of tightly angled brushes BUT in between is element B, a ditch brimfull of water. It isnât something horses see regularly. I suspect some will jump the brush, see the water, react enough to throw off their stride and distance and then meet the second brush wrong. I predict there will be run outs at C.
17AB & #18 Sustainability Bay. This year it is numbered as two fences not one. That allows horses to circle coming out of the pond because the massive log is not visible to the horse until very late. I think there will be some run outs at 18.
21 Silver Birch Rails. A deceptively simple fence but the ground in front is a steep drop down then a steep up to the rails, which are airy. The left hand one is on the lip of the slope, the right hand is set back a couple of feet but giving the horse more time to read the fence. I think this is a âride by feelâ fence. I think it might give a tiring horse the opportunity to stop.
26ABCD The interesting thing at this fence is a low rail placed at the lip of the drop. This is not common so it will be interesting to see how the horses jump off/over as that will influence the subsequent elements. Itâs a clever fence at the point where riders will be nursing their horses along a bit.
I think it looks really tough. But I am sure once a horse or two get through it will look better. But 31 numbered fences? Isnât that quite a lot? And the one jump that really frightens me is the big drop that looks like the Leaf Pit at Burghley. But at Burghley, the horse can sort of slide down and then jump off. Here there is a sort of lip so they have to lift off. It just looks dangerous to me, and there are some quite big jumps at the end.
I didnât get up early enough this morning to watch at the beginning, I think I picked up at the second group. WFP was commentating, and suddenly it was a woman. Can someone tell me who she is? Thank you.
Boyd hunts a LOT both in PA and in SC in the winter. I always loved that about him. Iâm a low level eventer and I think hunting has been super helpful in developing confidence in both me and my horse but if I had owners and syndicates and people to be accountable to I would not be hunting him. Iâm fairly certain Boyd either has different horses for hunting or borrows a hunt horse. Either way, itâs always fun to see him out in the hunt field!
WFP has gotten SO unfiltered in his ageâŠ. and Iâm here for it He cracks me the f up!
