Really too bad…
What a shame, I’ve been meaning to go dig that up, thanks for posting a direct link. Up to that point he looked like the most rideable dressage horse I’ve seen all week! (too my very un-dressage-educated eye ;-)) I loved his free-walk too, but this camera angle may not catch the tenseness those high-quality NBC cameras caught a little too well.
Was it discovered what set him off?
A bit of explanation here
http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2012/08/04/presidential-view-olympic-grand-prix
http://www.dressagedaily.com/article/ashley-holzer-advances-canada-olympic-dressage-competition
“I’m devastated for David, he is such a lovely guy, so hard working, and so supportive,” said Holzer empathetically. “He came out of the stadium thinking that he had let himself down and let the team down, but I reminded him that you can’t do anything when a horse is petrified. He couldn’t have done anything differently.”
That is just so sad. It reminds us just how quickly things can go sideways with our horses!
Does anyone know what happened? Was there some specific thing that spooked the horse or did he just melt? Its too bad, the horse held it together through all the rain and then couldn’t quite finish. Nice rider…
The first article posted above indicates the spook was because of a TV camera; reports on YouTube state people were opening up umbrellas because of the downpour. Either way, Canada just can’t get a break these Olympics.
