Badminton anyone?

[Lord_Helpus]

[QUOTE=JER;7571275]

Also, can anyone out there explain to me what benefit there is to giving the horse a smack with the whip at the apex of a jump? Your horse has successfully jumped, as requested, and while in mid-air there is nothing – nothing – he can do to accommodate your request for more velocity. So what is the point of this exercise other than to publicly demonstrate that you’re a dunce when it comes to the laws of physics and probably also of animal training? If you want him to gallop away, you tap him on landing. If you want a snappier takeoff, you tap him on the approach. But a big wallop in the air over the fence?

I’m hoping Paul Tapner hangs on for the win. I really admire his classic riding style.[/QUOTE]

JER, I hope you are having a wonderful time. What a bucket list kind of thing to do!

From a hunter rider’s perspective, “encouraging” a horse in midair will result in the horse take a bigger first stride when he lands. I have often been told that you have to ask for a horse to lengthen while he is still in the air (in the hunter world, that means adding leg in the air, since hitting the horse with a whip is not considered seemly )if you want to [e.g.] make a long line look easy. If you wait until the horse has landed, you are too late.

So, if you saw riders use their whip in mid-air, I would hope that there was a related distance coming up quickly that had to be read and jumped in a very precise way.

[CaitlinandTheBay]

[QUOTE=Fergs;7571477]
Here is a video of Mary King making a phenomenal save today (before she pulled up). I have to say that the footing looks pretty craptastic to me.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wkg0DHhKOTw&feature=youtu.be[/QUOTE]

Okay, I know it’s Mary King but that was incredible. I don’t think I could every be that nonchalant abut basically walking my horse through a brush, and then quietly turning around to jump off the side of a fence and come around to a skinny. Fantastic riding and what an honest, honest horse!

[Jealoushe]

Happy no people or horses were seriously injured, I love that the cross country was so influential. That is the eventing I love. best of luck to the remaining riders tomorrow.

[Sannois]

Mary is amazing!
Hope to be able to find more Video of the cross country now that it is finished!

[tootles]

The footing was not muddy but ratheh spongy. I commented to friend that there would be tired horses at the end. I would not be surprised to se only 25 at stadium today.

The wind was the problem. It was blowing at a constant 25 MPh with gusts much much higher. It was strong enough to make you take step to regain your balance. It was tiring just walking into it.

When Mary king came through the bank and down to via caring v it was really howling.

The course was typical of long gallops to jumping complexes. There wereally some breather fences in the middle. It seemed that all r he complexes required from precise rides to find the line through.

[JER]

[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;7571534]

So, if you saw riders use their whip in mid-air, I would hope that there was a related distance coming up quickly that had to be read and jumped in a very precise way.[/QUOTE]

Not in the instance I’m describing.

It was a single fence with nothing in front of it, which is why it looked a bit odd. The combination ran into trouble elsewhere on the course – no surprise there as communication seemed a bit muddled all around.

[Maren]

The Dutch may be a big force - but note there were no Germans there today - THEY are the ones to watch!

Not correct. Kai-Steffen Meier (GER) rode his 17yr old homebred Trakehner TSF Karascada M (Heraldik xx - Anduc) from a horrible dressage (82nd) around Badminton just fine, and ended up 20th after xc. He is a German A-team rider. “Nina” is not aimed at the WEG, this is her last season and she will probably show up at Burghley again. This horse was born 20 years too late - classic old format horse. Her xc rounds are just amazing to watch (she is 15.3h tall), and while her dressage always kept her from better places, her xc record is pretty impeccable. That said, KSM didn’t present her for the final jog, so we won’t know where she would have ended up.

[Fred]

I saw that Riddle Master and Rebecca Howard were eliminated, does anyone know what happened? are they all right?

[3dazey]

Rebecca had a fall at the brushes at the pond just after the vicarage vee. It looked like they weren’t on the same page up to that point and had a bit of miscommunication at the B element. Both walked off the course and appeared fine.

[Mouse_amp_Bay]

Wow, stadium is riding tough. No surprise as yesterdays conditions inevitably took a lot out of the horses. 12 have gone so far:

1 has 4 faults
3 have 8 faults
3 have 12 faults
4 have 16 faults
1 has 20 faults

[luvmymorgan]

So I haven’t been able to watch any video yet so my opinon may change but I fail to see how a course that rewards only perfect riding is going in the right direction. Let dressage test obedience and show jumping test accuracy - xc should be courage and stamina - and whether or not your obedient dressage horse can think for himself. Looked like there were few opportunities for the horses to be allowed to think and figure it out - the riders had to be spot on the whole way round. Glad there were no serious injuries but there were some close calls - I just wonder if everyone’s opinion of the course would be different if just one of those falls had a different outcome…
Not trying to stir the pot just my thoughts …

[nabus]

[QUOTE=tootles;7571750]
The footing was not muddy but ratheh spongy. I commented to friend that there would be tired horses at the end. I would not be surprised to se only 25 at stadium today.

The wind was the problem. It was blowing at a constant 25 MPh with gusts much much higher. It was strong enough to make you take step to regain your balance. It was tiring just walking into it.

When Mary king came through the bank and down to via caring v it was really howling.

The course was typical of long gallops to jumping complexes. There wereally some breather fences in the middle. It seemed that all r he complexes required from precise rides to find the line through.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. I think the ground played a part, but the wind was more problematic - I’m in the UK and went for a run yesterday and it was ferocious, I think an 11 minute xc run in it would really have taken the wind out of a lot of horses. May well not have helped with riders riding accurate lines either

It was certainly a tough course, but I’m not convinced it was too tough - a lot of the non-completers were riders who retired who may well have continued had the conditions been better. WFP, AN and mark todd all had falls at fairly innocuous looking fences - you certainly wouldnt have thought those fences would pose problems to those riders, and indeed they weren’t problems to most other riders! Just one of those things.

The highlight of the day for me was Mary’s act on the outlander bank. Superb bit of quick thinking!

[vineyridge]

How long before the sj starts up again?

I have to say that I’m kind of pulling for Minos de Petra. Horse has been around for many years, was always good XC but not good dressage. His dressage seems to have improved dramatically this year. He used to score in the high 50s, but now seem able to produce in the 40s. Shows that you CAN teach old (14) horses new tricks.

[tlw]

According to FEITV, at 8:40 your time (central daylight saving).

[vineyridge]

Zara Phillips is the female commentator for Radio Badminton.

[Gestalt]

[QUOTE=CaitlinandTheBay;7571560]
Okay, I know it’s Mary King but that was incredible. I don’t think I could every be that nonchalant abut basically walking my horse through a brush, and then quietly turning around to jump off the side of a fence and come around to a skinny. Fantastic riding and what an honest, honest horse![/QUOTE]

That horse is honest times ten. If he had wanted to get out if it I think he could easily have let the rider down. Kind of like she let him down coming into the jump, jmho.

I didn’t like this course, nice galloping lines but gosh the combinations seemed huge and tricky! Maybe not, I’m viewing it on my phoneso the images aren’t the best, but the jump lines were tight.

[Weatherford]

The show jumping was also influential - but not because it was tricky - it was straightforward and the time tight. There was only one clear jumping round, but she had 3 time faults. The footing for the early group was sticky and improved for the last group.

The best thing IMHO was to see that Harry Meade, who was told six months ago he might never ride again, moved up to THIRD!!! Very exciting all the way around!!!

[vineyridge]

Well, its over and this is one for the books. Sam Griffiths, who would have won before except for the dressage coefficient, does it.

It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, effect the coefficient has in this one.

[goodmorning]

Love the radio commentary - “a jumping contest, as it should be” from Zara: “maybe the Olympics will [follow suit]”

The wind blown port-a-lou comments :eek:

[Fred]

[QUOTE=3dazey;7571813]
Rebecca had a fall at the brushes at the pond just after the vicarage vee. It looked like they weren’t on the same page up to that point and had a bit of miscommunication at the B element. Both walked off the course and appeared fine.[/QUOTE]

Thank you 3dazey.
I just had an update from his owner and both are fine.