Debbies explanation for what went wrong with Brentina

[freestyle2music]

Devastated

Courtesy of DressageDirect and FEI

Devastated
America’s Debbie McDonald was devastated by her performance with the 17-year old Brentina who seemed to struggle all the way through. “I don’t know what to say, I just feel awful, I know I’ve finished the team,” she said after the judges awarded her a mark of 63.000%. Chairman Gislain Fouarge explained afterwards that he felt Brentina had not been in the right shape to perform a test at all. “She shouldn’t have done this to her horse”, he said.
American Steffen Peters showed a great piaffe and passage and some nice extensions. However his score of 70.0% didn’t bring his team back in medal position.

[2_tbs]

I’m a H/J and have never seen this horse/rider combo. I was awe struck by the size and movement of the mare It was as if I had never seen horses before - just lovely…er, well, until it fell apart

Now, I’m not used to that type of movement so I couldn’t really tell if the mare was off. I will however go back and watch as I just played it on my DVR but want to see the rest of 'em before I go back.

What I did pick up on was the horse was not right overall. Breathing was maybe more intense than many others but beyond the breathing I saw a horse quite unsettled. The halt was hardly a solid halt-she stopped but she looked like a time bomb. The walk out of the arena was quite animated compared to the rest who dropped their head and gave a great forward stretching walk. She looked worried/anxious/overwhelmed.

What I don’t know is how they normally perform so I can’t say that this was out of the ordinary. Did the horse sustain an injury? Maybe. Did the horse do her best to hold herself together when she really wanted to freak out? Maybe.

I thought the article was a bit harsh. I mean, who cares if she “almost tripped” because she didn’t so get over it. I’m not worried about almost. I’m worried about what really happened and I saw a horse that was completely on edge/ready to explode for whatever reason. Granted, I only watched from the angle of the TV. I don’t know what was really happening on ground level. Maybe I’ll have a different opinion when I go back and watch now that I’m over the shock of how pretty Brentina really is

[cyberbay]

Well the Eurodressage article was a good read. If you want to be in bigtime sports, which the Europeans already are with dressage, you have to be able to withstand astute media coverage…

I feel really badly for Debbie that this probably last time on the world stage was so unrepresentative of the mare’s talent…

[ridgeback]

[QUOTE=freestyle2music;3444277]
Courtesy of DressageDirect and FEI

Devastated
America’s Debbie McDonald was devastated by her performance with the 17-year old Brentina who seemed to struggle all the way through. “I don’t know what to say, I just feel awful, I know I’ve finished the team,” she said after the judges awarded her a mark of 63.000%. Chairman Gislain Fouarge explained afterwards that he felt Brentina had not been in the right shape to perform a test at all. “She shouldn’t have done this to her horse”, he said.
American Steffen Peters showed a great piaffe and passage and some nice extensions. However his score of 70.0% didn’t bring his team back in medal position. [/QUOTE]

Let us not just blame Debbie because Klaus is the one who ultimately decides who goes in the ring!!!

[springer]

to my non-expert eye Brentina looked incredible, except maybe at the pirouette. Anyone can have a bad day, and I understand the heat is stifling there. Bless her heart. She is 17 years old and I thought she was amazing under such circumstances!

[snoopy]

[QUOTE=springer;3444318]
to my non-expert eye Brentina looked incredible, except maybe at the pirouette. Anyone can have a bad day, and I understand the heat is stifling there. Bless her heart. She is 17 years old and I thought she was amazing under such circumstances![/QUOTE]

but lame

[Schiffon]

No one really thinks Astrid at eurodressage is a journalist, do they? She has a good eye and will say things that other people won’t say, but at the end of the day, her pieces are simply opinion.

I love the site because it has lots of timely information, but take it with a grain of salt.

[ridgeback]

[QUOTE=Schiffon;3444332]
No one really thinks Astrid at eurodressage is a journalist, do they? She has a good eye and will say things that other people won’t say, but at the end of the day, her pieces are simply opinion.

I love the site because it has lots of timely information, but take it with a grain of salt.[/QUOTE]

what about this? “Chairman Gislain Fouarge explained afterwards that he felt Brentina had not been in the right shape to perform a test at all. “She shouldn’t have done this to her horse”, he said.”

Bottom line is the mare is retired now…what was done is done.

[dutchfan]

“Chairman Gislain Fouarge explained afterwards that he felt Brentina had not been in the right shape to perform a test at all. “She shouldn’t have done this to her horse”, he said.”

This quote is from DressageDirect - not Eurodressage.

But anyway - so sad to see Brentina end up like this.

“to my non-expert eye Brentina looked incredible”
Sorry - but she was noticably, blantantly lame from the beginning of the test. She should have been rung out in the first trot half pass. Really lame. RF/LH from what I saw. The RF was always short and guarded. THe left hind was dragging and carried off to the outside throughout.

It would be better for all concerned if Debbie/Klaus et al just stood up and said something like - “she didn’t feel quite right in the warmup but we thought she would warm up out of it” or something like that. Fess up and acknowledge the mare was lame. But to hide and say “she was spooky” etc is an insult to all of us.

[Schiffon]

[QUOTE=ridgeback;3444346]
what about this? “Chairman Gislain Fouarge explained afterwards that he felt Brentina had not been in the right shape to perform a test at all. “She shouldn’t have done this to her horse”, he said.”

Bottom line is the mare is retired now…what was done is done.[/QUOTE]

So what.

I made an observation from reading eurodressage for 5 years or how ever long she has been doing it.

[yaya]

There were two times where she didn’t want to put the RF down. Once in the two tempis and once coming out of the second pirouette. When you watch the replay, you can see it’s almost like she wants to change leads, but then she holds it up for a stride and stays on the same lead.

If I remember correctly, she was very lame on the RF in the walk at the WEG.

[ridgeback]

[QUOTE=Schiffon;3444410]
So what.

I made an observation from reading eurodressage for 5 years or how ever long she has been doing it.[/QUOTE]

OOPS sorry:o I got you confused with someone else…:o

[Marieke]

I’m a big Brentina fan and I was very sad to see the test Darn it, darn it darn it.

[ponyjumper4]

I’m having a hard time accepting that a NQR/lame Brentina could contribute more to the team than a sound Neruda.

[ridgeback]

[QUOTE=ponyjumper4;3444460]
I’m having a hard time accepting that a NQR/lame Brentina could contribute more to the team than a sound Neruda.[/QUOTE]

It’s not about what Brentina and Neruda can do for the team it’s about the welfare of the animal…SIGH

[asb_own_me]

[QUOTE=cyberbay;3444307]

I feel really badly for Debbie that this probably last time on the world stage was so unrepresentative of the mare’s talent…[/QUOTE]

Agreed. That is the saddest part of it IMO.

I feel the same way about my mare…obviously we were not competitors at the Olympic level, but I have the same sentiment about the horse’s last performance being subpar compared to their capabilities.

[Renn_aissance]

I know very little about dressage but I think it is a damned shame for the mare that she went into the ring. This lameness, is it a recent thing? I know she was unsound for WEG from what you all have said, but that was two years ago; she must have been sound for the Trials this year or certainly she wouldn’t have gone.

Brentina is a phenomenal horse and a wonderful athlete and I just think it’s a damned shame that she had to go into the ring like that, especially as it will be her last time going on the world stage.

[BLBGP]

Don’t the dressage horses have to jog?

It sounds like she was off in two recent competitions. Is it common for judges to let an unsound horse compete?

[Happy_Feet]

I only got to see the parts of the test from TV coverage, from the angle of the camera, and the fact that they didn’t show much of the trot at all, I can’t say much about the uneven trot work, She looked stiff in the back and not comfortable behind in the canter, several times she jumped together behind, mostly in the corners. But, amazingly, she really did have lovely piaffe and passage and her trans in between were just great.

I would certainly put money on politics, there wasn’t anyway Neruda and Michael were going to do well here, Leslie and Klaus don’t see eye to eye and there wasn’t anyone else… Not that, THAT makes is okay for what happened today, but it is really sad, when 2 of the members of the team made it possible for a silver medal this year. I do feel badly for Debbie, she can’t be feeling good right now, and we ALL have bad days…

[ponyjumper4]

Obviously it’s about the welfare of the horse, but if it was one of those “well, she might work out of it” situations, there was no reason to chance it, either for her health or for a medal.

Would Michael have gotten a score like Steffen or Courtney? No, probably not, but I do feel it would have been better than a 63% and at least a healthier horse would have been presented.