Another unpopular question - was he riding with, or without, medication that could affect reaction time, and/or judgment? What kind of example does that set for the rest of the eventing community?
Had he been injured again, what was the risk of re-injuring the damage that he is recovering from?
Won’t even ask what riding he is doing at home. Not sure I want to know.
I do understand that high-motor “go” riders will “go”, unless something is physically stopping them. That there has been more than one 5* rider that had to have an intervention to stop them competing when it was a very bad idea to do so. And of course many other riders as well. They don’t have a ‘best judgment’ to use in those situations.
As we learned at the end of 2017, a lot of drugs some people don’t think will affect performance are on the restricted list, so I’m quite comfortable that all the ones that do affect performance are there too.
I could see a few of the UL riders deciding to take chances with things like that, but I do not see Buck being one of those riders. He may not have been competing in an FEI, but he’s about to and he’s a current FEI rider, with all the testing opportunities that provides. I don’t see any basis for worrying about his safety due to medication.
As to if he was riding unmedicated (which I would be quite sure he was), whether or not he could focus without it is his decision and I don’t see anything in the results to indicate he made a bad choice. As I mentioned upthread, I’ve experienced most of the more fun parts of his injuries myself, and I did ride the day after surgery. Not at his level, but also not for any reason other than I wanted to and I was comfortable enough to do so (I wasn’t competing at the time).
I’ve always considered Buck to be an excellent ambassador for horsemanship and the eventing community at large, and I don’t see anything in this case to change my opinion.
That’s a debatable point. Because if it were really true, we wouldn’t reams of drug rules in sports generally. Everyone could make their own decision and it would always be the correct one.
It isn’t just that Buck himself could or could not make those judgments. It’s that people generally are not in the best decision-making mode after major injuries. With and without medication. And of course often people are under pressure to do certain things, for financial reasons, personal reasons, etc., even if it’s a terrible idea.
