Does anyone else have a hard time watching the xcountry? Im usually pretty tough but>

[NOMIOMI1]

I mean its one thing to have a mishap… Or a refusal…

But I was so entirely upset to see a couple of these horses just look plane out exhausted and then give as much as they could towards the end and watch them get less careful and just know what was next. You could see them trying their heart out and then just go down.

A hang up with a fresh horse, or a horse that is ducking before is one thing but we seem to have made this so exhausting that the top horses ON THE PLANET (who obviously are plenty fit) could honestly put themselves in danger…

Honestly I am pretty tough and cant hang with it… It just made me very sad.

The only hazard should be time or refusal IMO.

[Appsolute]

Interesting how this course exhausted some horses, yet back in the day they used to do roads and tracks, and steeple chase before heading out on cross country.

This video is astonishing.

Bromont Olympics – 1976.

These horses were asked to complete 18 miles in wet boggy conditions.

[Beentheredonethat]

Yeah, it used to be much harder. I worked for Torrance Fleischman just after the 84 Olympics and remember going to Rolex, I think, and adding those roads and tracks before the cross country was a whole other sport.

I see how they took it out because it’s “boring,” but why did the horses back then seem to be able to do so much more? The course seems like a good, solid course, and I think the up and down are a good test of conditioning, but maybe that’s what’s making the difference? Are they not conditioning horses as much as they used to? I don’t know. I don’t event, but when I worked for Torrence I was out every day riding sets of horses for hours at trot and canter up and down hills.

Maybe the roads and tracks phase was needed for just this.

[Appsolute]

I watched that Bromont film twice this weekend – boy has the sport CHANGED. I grew up eventing in the late 1980’s early 1990’s. It certainly wasn’t the sport shown in the 1976 video – but it was closer to that, than what we see in 2012.

As for conditioning – if you watched the dressage from the 1976 Olympics – some of those horses could hardly be contained in the area! These were FIT – military fit horses, ready to RUN over miles and miles. They didn’t have the fanciest movement, or the best dressage scores – but these horses could BRAVELY gallop over miles and miles of fences.

[skippy60]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;6467079]
Interesting how this course exhausted some horses, yet back in the day they used to do roads and tracks, and steeple chase before heading out on cross country.

This video is astonishing.

Bromont Olympics – 1976.

These horses were asked to complete 18 miles in wet boggy conditions.[/QUOTE]

:eek:poor horses:eek: did you hear the announcer at about 38:00? “This course is well suited to the british because it take a lot of riding” :rolleyes:

[caffeinated]

@Appsolute;6467079

Interesting how this course exhausted some horses, yet back in the day they used to do roads and tracks, and steeple chase before heading out on cross country.

This video is astonishing.

Bromont Olympics – 1976.

These horses were asked to complete 18 miles in wet boggy conditions.

Wow!

I’ve never seen that before, that’s some pretty amazing stuff.

[Appsolute]

Yeah, its not that I necessarily want eventing to RETURN to 1976… that course was all together too dangerous and WAY too many horse falls for my liking…. Man was it muddy – and that water got so deep!

But I DO wish that the courses were once again natural – galloping – forward courses, and not a spin around a weird amusement park.

I would like to see the return of the long format, and the type of horses it demanded. A return to cross country being the deciding factor, not dressage. A return to the thoroughbred.

[NOMIOMI1]

I really feel like the last bit (where we expect to tire) should be a long stretch to gallop so that it comes back to the ground covering horses without it being unsafe for the animals. It is cross country after all… You can cross some country while youre at it LOl

Just my opinion.

I still love the event, but have a hard time watching tired horses going through accuracy jumpst and ditches and hills…

That one horse looked like the stifle was out. It made me tear up.

[subk]

I don’t think I saw any horses have falls or stops based on being exhausted. I didn’t really think I saw “exhausted” horses. Tired yes, wrung out exhausted no. I suspect the problems in the morning are going to be dues to the soft going, slipping and sliding and lost shoes.

In fact I thought the course and the last couple fences were extrememly kind to horses that came in tired. See WFP at the second to last and Toddy at the last.

[Justa_Bob]

It’s how the horses handle these courses and how they may or may not survive uninjured that affects public opinion about eventing. How do we treat these horses? How many horses are forever altered by the rigors of eventing – including those that never get to competition because of life-altering injuries?

Eventers at these higher levels have to answer to that.

That’s before even putting in the rider.

The Olympics and Pan AM games are especially illuminating because there are so many levels of rider/horse ability all competing on one playing field. Sometimes it is not pretty.

[Equinita]

Nomi, its not just you, AI cringe watching some of the XC jumps, knowing how exhausted the horses must be, and hoping that they don’t make an error that hurts them. The Japanese rider who went down, I was cringing, but his horse actually seemed to do a fall and roll, seeming to get up shaken but unharmed. It’s hard to watch that stuff sometimes.

[OverandOnward]

I was happy noticing how amazingly FIT many of the horses were. They went up the steep hill later in the course with a will, ears up and a very forward attitude.

A few horses were tired, but most were finishing nicely, ears up and galloping on past the finish.

If someone wants to find something to grieve over, they will. ;):yes:

[NOMIOMI1]

“If someone wants to find something to grieve over, they will.”

Somone posted about the “carnage” earlier… That word shouldnt apply to horse sports in my book. Yes, I will grieve over one horse falling let alone as many as did today.

[Equibrit]

[QUOTE=Beentheredonethat;6467204]
…Are they not conditioning horses as much as they used to? …
Maybe the roads and tracks phase was needed for just this.[/QUOTE]

Obviously.

[subk]

[QUOTE=NOMIOMI1;6467505]
Somone posted about the “carnage” earlier… That word shouldnt apply to horse sports in my book. [/QUOTE]
Just because someone said it hardly makes it true.

[kmwines01]

I didn’t watch every single ride but for the most part didn’t see any horses that looked like they were pushed so far beyond their limits as to be unridable and unsafe. Tired and needing help yes, but not completely exhausted. Many of the falls I saw were falls that could’ve happened anywhere along the course, not necessarily due to being at the end.

[texan]

@subk;6467343

I don’t think I saw any horses have falls or stops based on being exhausted. I didn’t really think I saw “exhausted” horses. Tired yes, wrung out exhausted no. I suspect the problems in the morning are going to be dues to the soft going, slipping and sliding and lost shoes.

In fact I thought the course and the last couple fences were extrememly kind to horses that came in tired. See WFP at the second to last and Toddy at the last.

I watched it on the OLN network today and Kara Whitham did the commentary. This is just what she said… the last couple of jumps were more the long galloping with the last jump a nice easy let down. She seemed to be quite impressed with the course.
I thought the majority of the riders did quite well.

[alicen]

Holy, Moly NOMIOMI, it’s a cross country course. Jumping fixed jumps is dangerous. This wasn’t even a 4 star and much less gasp producing then, say, Badminton.

[Graymaresrule]

[QUOTE=subk;6467516]
Just because someone said it hardly makes it true.[/QUOTE]
Yup

[whbar158]

I did think that some of the horses looked tired for what they just did. The course was about as short as it can be, and the horses use to have to go much farther and did not look as tired as some of them did. I saw lots of pretty tired horses go through that last combo pretty tired, more tired than I would have liked to have seen with the shorter distance. I do know the terrain played a part, but still a little tired for this level to me.