I realize that road crossings are part of many courses, but with the twisty-turny nature of the Pau course, there seemed to be a lot more than usual - I just watched Andrew Nicolson with Kwanzaa and there were at least 5 changes from sand to grass up to the point where he retired.
Added: here’s a link to a satellite view of the course map - to my eye it looks like more surface changes/crossings than on many courses.
https://app.crosscountryapp.com/pau/cii-4-star?base=satellite
The twisty nature might have a lot to do with it. When the time is hard to make, and there are so many terrain changes and turns, the riders may not be slowing down sufficiently to negotiate these.
Normally I am a proponent of the optimum time being tight to keep things from being a dressage/SJ competition. But one can see in this scenario it’s not the same thing as a more open course.
Here is Boyd Martin’s take on the course, and eventing in general, in the days leading up to Pau:
Boyd’s familiarity with both horse and course should play in his favour this week, although he admits that the tight, twisty course “doesn’t really suit Crackers that well, because he’s a bit wild and hard to control, so I’m better off on a more straight, galloping, big fence course.”
But, he says, “I love riding here: I’ve ridden Remington here, and Crackers, and Welcome Shadow. It’s a different style of cross country riding — it’s like a go-kart track, and you need a brave, honest, quick-thinking horse. It probably doesn’t give you the best feel when you finish the course — you feel exhausted, and you’ve been pulling the horse around everywhere, but I’ve got to say, I think eventing’s going towards this. Narrows, corners, mounds, lumps and humps — we’d better get used to it.”
It’s awful that when I read this a few days ago, I was not happy; it was a damning statement about our sport. It still is.
Denny’s reaction may have been aggressive, but his anger stems from a genuine love of the horse and passion for the sport. Those are qualities I can admire, even if they were not expressed in the best way. No one who truly cares about the well-being of these animals should be able to sit idly by as horses suffer injury or die - whether in racing or eventing or endurance or anything other discipline - without feeling that same rage.
Maybe this accident was avoidable; maybe it wasn’t. The fact that the fracture was unrelated to a particular fence does not preclude the idea that this fatal injury was the result of undue stresses from this horse’s job.
Regardless of the broken system that may or may not have led to Crackers’s demise, I’m 100% confident that Boyd and his team tried to do their best by Crackers on a day-to-day basis. They must be heartbroken and my thoughts go out to everyone touched by this loss. However, they and all of us are not absolved from any responsibility – we must make the necessary changes to keep horses and riders safe. While everyone else (myself included) need to work towards this goal, Boyd and other upper level riders are at the top of the heap, so they bear the lion’s share of responsibility to effect change.
@Winding Down everyone is hating on Denny yet they post a huge pile on calling him names, saying he’s a has been etc and that’s ok, because he called out an UL rider?
He is no better today, but I get where he is coming from. I get where they are coming from too but posting a huge pile on about him solves nothing. It reeks of a club who don’t want to even look inside their sport for positive change, and are ready to attack anyone who dare question the safety of Eventing. This isn’t even about the good old days anymore. It’s about research, data, and a promise to our horses that we owe them a safe trip. As safe as we can possibly make it.
Of course they are sad. Does that mean they really put the horses ahead? I read one article about the course there and that riders thought it looked “horrendous” but did anyone speak up?
regarding the results I mentioned, it’s easy to follow horses and riders looking at results, seeing them at events, and knowing people who ride and train with them. I’m not going to go into details but there is definitely a pattern with some riders of ride the horse at all costs no matter how many times the horse makes it clear it is not into it.
whenever there is live streaming I try to watch it. I watched three rounds today and turned it off because the course was twisty, turny, too many footing changes and just rode ugly. A bad step can happen but we do owe our sport an investigation into what happened.
Sorry I just don’t buy that denny is just posting for love of the horse. He takes every unfortunate opportunity to get pageclicks and will immediately delete anyone whose opinion does not agree with his completely, even if they are being polite and respectful. If truly for love of the horse he would be open to listen and discuss all opinions. He’s just desperately trying to stay relevant.
His reaction seemed pretty genuine (if not well thought out) to me, but you may be right. I don’t know Denny personally, so what do I know? We can agree to disagree.
The only part of your post that truly stoked me is the idea of him – or any “older” horseman – “desperately trying to stay relevant.” Why should he not be relevant? Do we just have so much horse knowledge today that we can afford to turn away the advice and expertise of horsemen who have been in the business longer than many of our pros have been alive? Whether or not I agree with what these older horsemen have to say, I respect their breadth and depth of experience. I can’t imagine considering the opinions of anyone who has dedicated their life to horses irrelevant. There’s always something to be learned. Old traditions may not always be the best method, but we’re damn sure better off keeping them in the knowledge pool than letting them die off.
Is it Santa Anita racetrack where the turf horses have to run across the dirt course in some configurations? That always bothered me, but I don’t remember it ever being discussed as being any kind of issue, and I don’t ever remember any breakdowns associated with the surface change (or maybe 1?–not that I have watched hundreds and hundreds of races at SA, but we used to go there from time to time when we live in CA). But it would be interesting to see statistics on this, since there must be a lot of data, and since turf racing in general has fewer breakdowns that dirt. It would show up as an anomaly.
Does anyone know if there are any stats as to how many times an event horse has broken a leg just galloping at each level? How many at 4*, 3*, etc.? I find it hard to believe that this doesn’t happen at the upper levels more than the lower levels, and if that’s the case, then there would be a correlation between the accident and the stress of the xc round.
Great post Reed, this is the kind of intelligent discussion that needs to happen. I know everyone is rightfully upset including me, but we can’t go on throwing scalding hot water on each other.
Did anyone else notice that the two major posts by DE on the demise of Crackers have disappeared??
I think his anger comes from more than a genuine love of the horse and passion for the sport. Many of us are angry and many of us have a genuine love of the horse and passion for the sport. His rants on FB are inexcusable for a person of his prior stature and influence.
I applaud his sober judgment.
I doubt he had the grace to remove it, there’d have been an apology or explanation. More likely someone pointed out the legal trouble he was getting into.
Zero respect.
I guess I am not privy to all of this name-calling - but I have to admit that I stay away from Denny’s rants on FB because I find them so self-aggrandizing. I do not know these minions who love on him so but they definitely stoke the fire.
Curious about what names that he is being called, however. Anything as bad as “psycho?” :lol::lol::lol:
As for posts on FB which offend people, scroll on by. There are PLENTY of friends of mine who post opinions on issues which I find to idiotic, ignorant, insensitive, and not fact-based, but I just scroll on by. Anyway, both of DE’s original posts talked about Crackerjack having already been pushed beyond his limits. Given that Crackerjack had only completed one of his three 4* attempts (one being Rolex, arguably the easiest, one ending in a terrible fall, and one he wasn’t sound enough to complete), then maybe DE’s comments that CJ was being pushed beyond his limits (though harshly worded) were not that far off base factually. Take Crackerjack’s history combined with BM’s previous comments that this course did not suit him, and maybe DE was right that CJ shouldn’t have been there to begin with.
Edited to add - CJ had completed two of four attempts at 4s. He made it around Luhmulen after crashing at Badminton. But still, do you keep pushing a horse to do 4s when he only has a 50% completion rate? And I find it significant that he was spun at Pau last year. In other words, he didn’t finish xc sound.
Yes, it is the Santa Anita hillside course that crosses the main track.
I’ve not seen any apparent breakdowns when I’ve seen races down the hill. What I do see, usually with horses unfamiliar with the course, will sometimes stutter step or a little jump/hop coming on to the dirt.
Don’t know if CA or SA keep records of the level of detail on any breakdowns specially on the downhill turf course vs all turf races.
If one looks at it that way, why was Crackerjack there? If he did not have a history of success at 4* and what he did do seemed problematic, why risk running Pau? What is there to be gained by it?
I agree completely - he was using this tragedy for his own personal soapbox, and he crossed the line. His posts didn’t give the impression that he had even watched the round, yet he attacked Boyd’s horsemanship on the day he lost a beloved horse and claims the horse was pushed beyond his limits. I was watching the livestream when it happened, and Boyd and Crackers were having a brilliant round, no sticky moments or funky strides, right up until the tragic moment. I actually thought it was the most compliant and rideable that Crackers had ever looked, making it extra sad to see it end in tragedy. I also have zero respect for someone who will go through and delete comments that don’t agree with him, which he absolutely did last night (not to mention the attack post about Doug Payne’s comments, it was strange).
Also, maybe someone can clarify, but I have always seen Crackers’ owner listed as his breeder, and Denny’s original post indicated he stood the stallion, but he seemed to be implying that he was the breeder and was taking in all the condolences for “his” loss. Does anyone know if Denny’s involvement with the horse went beyond standing the stallion?
If it is just standing the stallion, he really overplayed his connection to the horse and allowed people to perpetuate that, but if he was further involved, his reactions might make more sense.
100% this. Until it see Denny actually DO something aside from rant on his censored Facebook page, I will maintain my belief that his social media activity is purely to boost his own ego and nothing else. I don’t even follow his page anymore; I became aware of his gross posts when three separate people sent them to me.
"Madison
SchoolmasterI agree completely - he was using this tragedy for his own personal soapbox" (re:Denny)
Cheese and Rice. Everyone is sad for BOYD but BOYD and every other TRULY upper level rider who wants to be completive is locked in the same machine or cog that is eating these horses up. I know and like Boyd, he is doing his job but his job like most upper level trainers and the JOB has become very hard on these horses with ever more and more trappy courses. Maybe Denny and others need to talk about the DEATH trap courses instead of just the athletes who pilot these horses to their deaths. THIS epidemic is not Boyd’s fault but the entire eventing community’s fault. YOU want change step up and quit coming forward only when there is a death to defend or condemn. Because this cycle is getting old and the death toll is rising while the sport is being tarred and feather for its hubris. I feel for Boyd, I know he loved that horses and all his horses but for the sake of the horses the sport MUST see itself for the killing machine it has become and STOP defending the deaths as tragic
Eventing community wake up challenge the FEI, USEA, USEF, course designers, other officials and trainers and riders to make the sport safer for the horses. Because fellow readers if you’re not part of the solution and you stick around to be an armchair quarterback instead than you are in fact part of the problem with the sport.
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