I can’t believe Michael Jung’s frangible penalty hasn’t been removed. The story seems to be that the jump fell several strides after Chipmunk galloped away, which would indicate that he was never in danger of falling. It hadn’t fallen for quite a few riders before him, so I think it was probably weakened and maybe Chipmunk gave it a tap, but not enough to need a save.
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Allegedly from people watching on the ground, Chipmunk hit the rail pretty good with his front legs. So it may not be a case of a faulty frangible. If he did indeed hit it hard enough, it may have just been slow to fully release.
Of course, this is all scuttlebutt until we see some sort of official word or replay.
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It sure seemed like that 14C fence fell a lot. But sometimes it didn’t fall when you could hear a hit, and sometimes it seemed like it fell with just a brushing.
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I have no idea how the post competition review process works, but given that the fence deployed six times, I just can’t see the ground jury removing the penalties for some riders and not others unless there is some completely objective way to do it.
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And then, oddly, kept referring to Dalera as male during the Grand Prix Special. I was surprised she wasn’t all over the top scoring horse being a mare since she did talk about mares so much.
At least one rider would have likely fallen if it hadn’t deployed (blanking on who it was but they plowed through it). So I agree it would be very hard to objectively review the 6 rides and say who was deserving and who was not.
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And I guess it’s a moot point. Just read a piece on EN that said there is no longer a review process:
“One thing that appears to have gone by the wayside is the appeal process for pairs who lightly tap a fence, as they might during show jumping, and have the rail fall. In 2019, the proposed rule changes for the 2020 rulebook were discussed, with the primary focus being on the controversial flag penalty. Under the radar flew the removal of any clarifications to the frangible pin penalty and as of 2020, the FEI rules now read that the 11 penalties will be applied to any change in dimension of the fence with no qualifications regarding strength of hit.”
The EN piece (by Maggie Deatrick who sometimes posts here as @Divine_Comedy ) also pointed out that there were three TEs recorded after the competition due to riders jumping wrong obstacles in combinations that had multiple options. Riders were from Sweden, Netherlands (2), and Poland. There was a 4th TE that happened at the 2nd water combination, and that rider was pulled up, but she was in her last minute before they flagged her.
I myself thought some of the numbering seemed very confusing in the course pics I looked at it, but I knew I wasn’t seeing everything. Interesting that it happened to so many riders at this level in this competition and from countries where eventing is well established.
Edited for spelling and typos.
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boy, they are whipping right thru the jog!
All U.S. horses passed the jog.
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She did mention that the top two horses in the regular dressage were mares. Actually, she just sid “the dressage”, and the man qualified it by saying “the pure dressage”, and she said yes.
Thanks for pointing the rule update out. I totally missed it! Unfortunately for MJ, it does make sense 
Frangible pins were introduced as a safety feature, designed to mitigate the effect of a fall. The penalties were added later on as many senior people (including di Grazia if I remember rightly) feared the riders would not respect a fence that they knew would fall if they rode it badly. Riders can totally demolish any other type of fence with no penalty, so long as they go between the flags and stay on their feet, but frangibles are penalised.
MIMS clips can deform slightly when a thump isn’t quite hard enough to break them and they can be quickly changed. With pins it is much harder to see if they are damaged by a knock and they are time consuming to change. The problem with pins is that many previous horses knock the fence, pin stays up, nothing visible for the Fence Judge or Course Repair to see, then horse #n knocks the fence with no more appreciable force (from a viewer’s perspective) and the pin goes. Was it that particular horse or the culmination of many horses tapping the fence?
Frangible pins and MIMS clips are designed to deal with slightly different issues, angles, forces, and they are not interchangeable. Both are used around a course.
Maybe the frangibles rule will be reviewed by the FEI yet again as yet another result is heavily influenced by penalties given for a frangible pin breaking.
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No mercy on that orange double
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Team Gold - Great Britain
Team Silver - Australia
Team Bronze - France YAY!!! And without 2 of their best riders/horses!
On to the individual final later today.
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Great Britain wins Team Gold. U.S.A. 6th
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Anyone know how long the break is before the individual final?
Supposed to start at 7:45 am EDT, so a bit under an hour!
Off we go!
Is the time tight?
I love the jump designs! My kids were so excited to see the kokeshi dolls on jump 4. Kawaii!
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