A vet commenting on the relatively much longer careers of UK, Irish, European, and Australian TBs for the recent NYT racing documentary on Hulu, says that turf is safer at high speeds.
Trailer:
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I am in love with Caroline Powellās Special Cavalier. that was a beautiful test
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I remember a viral fb post about GGT causing soft tissue injuries circulating a while back. Actually what I remember most about it was the alarmist nature and lack of supporting evidence.
Iād love to see data on this. Is there a true increase in the incidence of soft tissue injuries, or are we just more likely to find them now that every vet has an ultrasound in their truck, and hear about them since social media exists? If so, is the footing causing it? Are we riding and conditioning our horses differently so that they are more prone to injury?
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So on the footing topic, and everyone wanting more research.
Racing currently has a lab to do testing on all dirt tracks & turf that hold races. Alot of their research is very interesting to me & they tell the tracks where they fall compared to average.
This is one thing I am very interested in learning more about & applying the same to sport horse disciplines.
Also, some the data is public. I would love to have that for XC courses at different points of the year (rock hard summer surfaces vs wet, soggy spring surfaces) so you can have true data to decide where to run.
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There is data with racing, but if you ride on the footing you can feel it is a bit different. I still prefer it to a bog though lol
We arenāt going that fast nor jumping as high as pure showjumping or racing so I think eventers should be relatively ok on it.
Back to the event, glad Pippa is having a much better test today!
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The thing about grass footing - if you are the first couple of riders it is fabulous. Nothing better than nice springy turf. But if you are the last it is getting pretty torn up. So an unlevel playing field for the competitors. But I guess you could say the same thing about cross-country. Although you can modify your approach to a cross-country fence somewhat, and for stadium and show jumping you are going to pretty much all going to follow the same path. Hopefully so for dressage.
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Horses jump better on grass than any other surface.
The problem is usually maintaining the grass at the big venues due to overuse of the ring with the large numbers at hunter jumper events. Thatās the main reason everyone has switched to modern footings, although, of course, weather is a factor as grass gets hard to maintain under adverse conditions, whether either wet or dry. The special events that run on grass are very important in our sport, and I would think in eventing as well, particularly since they arenāt running week in and week out series at one venue. The main problem weāve had in the hunter jumper industry is that as the bigger shows shift to the expensive modern footing people do not want to show at the smaller shows with sand or grass, which has killed off many of our smaller historical shows as they cannot afford the change. It would be unfortunate if eventing were suffering from the same issue.
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Turf in other countries is different to US turf. (Mainly due to climate)
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Does anyone know when XC starts tomorrow?
The website Cross Country Start List link shows āfailed to get timetable dataā
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Thank you!
very glad it starts so relatively late, so I can sleep in until 6 a.m.
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Badminton radio has great interviews currently.
Quite anecdotal evidence here, but I do not like GGT footing.
My old barn had exclusively GGT and my horse was always sore in the stifles - we tried to mitigate this by riding in grass as frequently as possible. I also notice an increase in tiredness/soreness after clinic-ing or showing on these surfaces as well. It really does change the way the hoof moves as it hits the ground, not necessarily for the better.
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Came here to say the same thing. I was at a barn that had it in the indoor and the outdoor. The outdoor version was all-weather and my horses went well in it but in the indoor version, which did and should/could not be watered, was a different story. They felt stuck and looked it when I would lunge them and see it for myself. There wasnāt much break over. My horses always got quite stifle sore through the winter months and then it would magically resolve come spring when I could ride outside, especially on grass, again.
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If that is what your back yard looks like Iād love for you to come do mine! They absolutely irrigate and maintain the footing in the Badminton arena.
An overlooked detail here is that Badminton (and Burghley, and others) are greenfield sites - with the exception of a few of the cross country fences, no part of this event is a permanent feature of the site. The event has permission to use the property, but they must remove everything each year and build it all again the next (grandstands, tradestands, etc). Using the event as a greenfield site and returning it to natural estate for the rest of the year is what allows us to use some of the best land and terrain in the world. We are losing far too many sites of this nature recently, and itās devastating for the sport. We must remember it is not all about us. The event horses are more than capable of continuing to do dressage and show jump on grass (and I personally prefer it, but Iāll let you in on the secret that Iām not exactly riding at Badminton).
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Yes I am aware of this issue as I have competed in the UK at some of these venues with similar set ups. I doubt they would fight over a sand arena installation but I also do recognize the astronomical cost of these rings now.
I do appreciate the conversation on footing on though itās been interesting!
and yes my yard does look a bit like a golf course haha I like my manicured lawn and gardens 
I got to sit and listen the other day when my trainer and our farrier were talking about her 5* horse and how much he loved to run in the mud and was honestly more confident when he got to slip and slide around some, and it honestly gave me a new appreciation for turf. He was one of the last horses to run in KY one of the years when it was an absolute slopfest and she said he had absolutely no issues with the footing on course even though it was completely chewed up by the time they went. They would have to do pour-in pads for dressage and SJ (and then cut them out for XC/repour afterward) because he hated artificial footing and trained on sand/rock dust at home if he wasnāt on grass, so it was actually ideal for her if an event ran all three phases on grass.
As far as my own personal preference, we have fluffy sand that never gets dusty in our indoor because my trainer keeps it dragged and adds mag flakes when necessary and Iād take it over the GGT at my friendās barn any day of the week. It just feels better and doesnāt pack like the GGT can. Same goes for our outdoor (minus the mag flakes), plus we jump into the arena from and out of the arena onto grass because we have a few jumps built into the fence line. We didnāt have an outdoor at my last barn so my horse learned to go on grass from the beginning and I like that itās still a āthingā in eventing (at least at most of the places I go).
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someone can correct me if I am wrong but I thought Iāve seen old pictures of Badminton where dressage was done in front of the house. With everything being done in the arena Iāll concede it can get torn up. If the XC jumps were not in the arena or if dressage was done somewhere else you could have the option of shifting the dressage ring so that Friday started fresh.
The last time I was at Badminton they had had a lot of rain leading up to the event and it was raining the day off. They donāt really get mud there like we get here. The turf is so thick so that when it is wet, it gets spongy but not muddy. When my brother and I were walking the vicarage field I told him there were going to be some tired horses because the turf was so giving.
My horses jump on grass routinely at home and they fox hunt. I find that they are much more conscious of footing and setting up properly for a jump.
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As a groom, there is nothing I hate more than driving up to one of those manicured hunter/jumper places after an 8 hour drive and unloading my horses onto concrete to do temps (not naming any names but maybe somewhere this weekend that Iām thankfully not at). Most of those places are so horse unfriendly too with minimal grazing and a lit up atmosphere everwhere you go. Give me a one day in a field where I can tie my horses to the trailer, thanks. The only thing that really grates me is stabling directly on the grass in the rain or with a horse that paws. And having to strip stalls (which is a targeted crime against grooms IMHO ).
The footing aside has been interesting. I think eventers ride WAY too often on footing nowadays and would like anything that encourages us not to. Most top programs Iāve seen ride on footing 75%+ of the time. And then do road or hard surface hacking which is detrimental to joints. Seems like way too much to me.
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With all do respect to Nicola, I have found her to be extremely boring.
Bring back Pammy Hutton!!
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