WFP… how incredible to watch him go around after his injury years ago. Remarkable guy.
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And so brilliantly. After that injury, it didn’t seem like we were going to see WFP ride at this level again.
And about a third of the way through the course, I thought “OK now we are seeing how this course should be ridden”. And sure enough. 
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After many, many years of watching Badminton, it is now officially off my ‘go to-bucket list’.
(Living in France, I’ve spectated and volunteered at Pau several times)
So now, Kentucky and Maryland, have moved up to the top of my bucket list.
(more expensive for me than Pau, obviously… 
)
I will not make any comments on the multiple exemples of lack of horsemanship I witnessed today.
Some riders, and not all on top of the leaderboard, did honor the sport of eventing but sadly IMO, too few of them overall.
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I don’t really agree with that 100%. Most horses can be trained to balance without using great weight or strength to do it - look at all the tiny riders on big old warmbloods doing dressage and showjumping. I think there are exceptions to that of course - some horses who are very hard to rate - but overall this is why men and women can compete equally in eventing: size and strength are not the most important thing by a long shot.
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I have long had the theory that it is a good idea to find an instructor or a clinician who is - generally, not exactly – a similar size, shape and gender as yourself. If there is one at the level. Maybe just for an occasional lesson. Because they have a better idea what it feels like to be you on a horse.
Plenty of instructors teach well for various and sundry physical demographics. But they don’t necessarily know what all of their students are experiencing from personal experience. That’s not a dealbreaker. But it’s nice to occasional have expert advice from someone who does have that experience.
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Is there any video of OT’s first round? Not that I enjoy watching car crashes as they happen… 
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Decopony on IG posted a recording of part of it.
I randomly came across it and saw the poll “should the rider pull up?” And I was like oh god what now. I didn’t put two and two together of who it was / what the event was and I went in with a mindset of “probably not”. And then I saw the portion of the round and am honestly disgusted HE did not pull himself up. HE should know better. Actually, he does know better, he just doesn’t give a rats a$$ because there have been no severe consequences for him.
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Ahh guys but his horsemanship has improved so much! /s
What a turd he is. That horse was SPENT.
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Just watched the clips. The first couple fences it showed were not terrible but the way that horse landed on top of the frangible table? It was obvious he was too spent to make that kind of effort.
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Well at least he posted this nice apology:
Excerpt
'Having watched my Badminton cross-country rounds for the first time when I got home last night, I’m so disappointed and upset about the way I rode. It didn’t look good and I don’t want to look like that.
I fully accept the warning I received from the ground jury. My competitive instincts got the better of me and I will work hard to improve in this area.
I try really hard to give my horses the best ride possible – I try to be as fit as possible, to be as light as I can be, to sit as still as I can, to get them on the best strides and take-off points to minimise the energy they have to waste. I care enormously about their wellbeing and their welfare.
I feel I have let my amazing team down. I am aware of my position in the sport and of my responsibility to be a suitable role model to younger people, and I apologise to them.
I love my horses – I live for them.
/excerpt
Oh wait that was from last time this happened.
All this crap about “social license” and policing bad dressage scores means NOTHING compared to letting something like this go on time after time. Every time a horse at this level goes out on cross country we are asking it to risk its life for what is at the end of the day entertainment. The absolute minimum requirement should be to treat it decently while it is doing its job to the best of its ability. This isn’t Black Beauty. No one’s life is on the line if Oliver Townend doesn’t get around xc.
Oh wait but
‘Yesterday, I had to fight hard. I can win prettily and I can win ugly, and that is why I am seven times British number one and world number one at the minute… Of course you are going to get critics, but AP McCoy, Lester Piggott, Conor McGregor, it doesn’t matter who you are in sport… If you are at the top of your game, you are always going to get someone try and trample you.’
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I will never understand why OT has the following he does. Every year he puts on a spectacular display of poor judgment and then all is forgiven after one or two good rides. Rinse and repeat the next year.
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The first time I ever went to a 5* was the year that OT had to be airlifted to the hospital after he and his horse fell in Kentucky (thankfully I didn’t actually see it happen, but we heard about it over the loudspeakers).
Every time something like this weekend happens I just think back to that and wonder how many times he’s going to make these “mistakes” before it truly catches up to him.
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I think realizing OT had to have a “nanny” to take care of him at events told me he should never be trusted to make good judgement decisions
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JFC, that was painful to watch. I’ve seen show hunters with more impulsion and speed than that! 
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So OT’s past apologies are out there, saying that he’s disappointed himself and swears he’ll do better. I’ve seen them and I don’t even pay attention, if he doesn’t earn himself some critical outrage posts on horse sm.
OT probably has a set of apology texts he can copy/paste each time.
Queston for those who know more about the life & times of OT – How is the improvement going, so far?
/s
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I would suspect (don’t know) that in the world of OT, he deeply believes that all of his life will fall apart if he doesn’t get around these courses. Nothing is more important than completing, getting as much prize $ as possible, being high up in the sport rankings. Nothing.
He will do whatever it takes, by his way of thinking. And that is to muscle horses around courses, no matter what is going on with the horse.
I have no doubt that there are deep psychological reasons for that. But nonetheless, there has to be some protection for the horses he may harm.
To Ollie: "Yeah but … "
No one else riding around the course today was pulled off by the ground jury. Just OT.
Although there is some criticism to go around, no one else who rode the course today is getting this level of criticism. Just OT.
It’s the old test for where to find the root of a problem. When the world is having a big problem with just one person and not so much with others … When that one person has repeated problems with the world, and no one else is dealing with such universal problems … That one person is the center of the issue.
IMO, that is the core of the problem of OT.
His mistakes have caught up to him. It doesn’t matter to him. More consequences raining down is just another day in the life for OT. That’s just what life is, to him.
He’s had plenty of issues that would have (and has) caused other people to make some serious life changes, in or out of the sport. Helicoptered off. Baskets of yellow cards. Problems with people in the sport. Horses that can’t perform adequately to his demands on xc. Frequent and widespread public criticism. Reputation is messy, at best.
Just like anyone else who keeps getting into the same troubles, over and over, and never fixes their issues. This is what life is for them. Whatever happens is meeting their negative expectations. Some of them will make a reform effort from time to time, then slide right back down. What most of us would see as unacceptable consequences, is just another day to them.
So it goes on. And on and on.
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Anyone who thinks comparing himself to Conor McGregor is a good thing has issues. Holy moly, read the air, man!
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Super irritating. All freaking day.
Makes me think it’s a robot that no one knows how to open and wipe.
Maybe I’m the only one worrying for Buck generally. He looked unfit, unwell, less happy than I’ve ever seen him. I know lots of people on this forum have worked with him and I have not, so I hesitated to say a word. I’d give anything to be totally wrong.
Old enough to have seen his dad ride in the '80s and Buck since he started, I simply got a bad vibe watching Buck at Rolex this year. (Please don’t come after me for calling it Rolex. I have a decent source who says basically no one in Lexington calls it anything else.)
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I’m well salty about OT’s first round. SS is a beaut horse, so experienced, yet was struggling. In an interview later, OT said he was stopped by officials as something was happening on the course.
That break wasn’t enough for SS to get his second wind. That indicates how stuffed he was. What a horrid horrid man.
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