Final Four in Showjumping is set.

[Sundown]

Sundown, Rodrigo had two super stupid faults, fairly easy jumps, both verticals I think (one might have been an oxer)! He’s still my favorite rider. Makes every jumper look like he could win a hunter class.

Thank you! That’s a bummer. He is also one of my favorites, such a quite rider, every horse seemed to really like him.

I loved that Rodrigo had a long chat with the guy who ended up third (cannot for the life of me spell his name haha!) before he rode his horse. I thought that was such a display of horsemanship and I also loved when Phillipe went over and was kissing and hugging his own horse. Unfortunately I didn’t see the last two trips either, but I know Rodrigo had eight faults. Congrats to all of them for great riding and those horses were SO nice!

I agree! The horsemanship, especially the love towards the horses that Phillipe showed was great. I loved how he hugged and kissed Hickstead’s neck after his round, that was so sweet. It was so nice to see most of them acknowledging how much each horse did for them.

[mbhorse]

[QUOTE=bascher;5148345]
I loved that Rodrigo had a long chat with the guy who ended up third (cannot for the life of me spell his name haha!) before he rode his horse. [/QUOTE]

I don’t know why, but every time I saw the Saudi guy’s name I kept reading it as Shartbelly He looked petrified on Hickstead, but did a very good job with all of the horses (however, I did miss the entire first round since the feed wasn’t working).

Thanks to everyone who provided updates when the Universal feed kept going down. I wish my cable company carried the actual channel. What a great evening of show jumping!

[Bravestrom]

[QUOTE=Canadien;5148331]
Hickstead = best horse ever!!!

He should get the gold medal[/QUOTE]

correct me if I am wrong but isn’t he the only horse that did not have a rail?

[War_Admiral]

[QUOTE=prodomus;5148377]
correct me if I am wrong but isn’t he the only horse that did not have a rail?[/QUOTE]

Yes. And he got the Best Horse award.

[farfel]

FEI TV coverage was awesome!

Kool & The Gang for the victory gallop…also got to see that some of the young men in Abdullah Al Sharbatly’s enthusiastic family have very impressive afros!

[Roxy_SM]

[QUOTE=bascher;5148345]
I loved that Rodrigo had a long chat with the guy who ended up third (cannot for the life of me spell his name haha!) before he rode his horse. I thought that was such a display of horsemanship and I also loved when Phillipe went over and was kissing and hugging his own horse. Unfortunately I didn’t see the last two trips either, but I know Rodrigo had eight faults. Congrats to all of them for great riding and those horses were SO nice![/QUOTE]

I agree it was great to see the sportsmanship between them all. I loved how Philippe gave Hickstead a bunch of hugs, then hugged Hickstead’s groom as soon as he dismounted, then ran over to hug his horse’s groom, and then of course his horse too!

[LearnToFly]

[QUOTE=Discobold;5148346]
Sundown, Rodrigo had two super stupid faults, fairly easy jumps (only at that level, lol), one vertical and one oxer, I think. Both single jumps. He’s still my favorite rider. Makes every jumper look like he could win a hunter class.[/QUOTE]

and honestly, neither rail looked like it was his fault- the horse just looked tired and didn’t jump big enough. Shame for him.

[ChampionMercedes]

I loved watching the sportsmanship between them as well! It was nice to see them working together for the best interest of the horse. Nobody wants to see their horse be ridden poorly or have anyone get hurt because they don’t know the horse well enough.

I just wrote a letter to Universal Sports as well. Very disappointed in the coverage. It was great for me during dressage, never watched eventing, but this week has been a trainwreck.

[Jeito]

Yeah, they either put on a big show for television, or they really are good sportsmen. And the horses didn’t exactly look stressed, unhappy and abused. . .as some people earlier had suggested :lol:

I have to admit the Saudi guy impressed by exceeding my expectations.

[mbhorse]

Thank goodness it didn’t happen, but I’m curious so I have to ask. What would have happened if one of the horses had come up lame before all four rounds were finished?

[BAC]

@mbhorse;5148411

Thank goodness it didn’t happen, but I’m curious so I have to ask. What would have happened if one of the horses had come up lame before all four rounds were finished?

I was wondering that too, I guess the rider of the lame horse would automatically be eliminated? And the remaining 3 riders would determine their medal position based on 3 scores?

[Hound_Dog_Diaries]

I was thinking that they’d possibly use the last complete round as final scores, rather than eliminate anyone. I’m probably wrong though.

Also - what an AWESOME free riding lesson!

[Lord_Helpus]

@ChampionMercedes;5148343

The feed came back on for a minute but I really wanted to watch the award ceremony. Then it froze again and switched to men’s volleyball? Grrr.

Thank God I wasn’t the only one watching the indian and the centipede ad, followed by Serbian vollyball. I tried to go off line, come back, sign in and get back to WEG 5 times before I gave up. Grrrrrrrr. And I couldn’t get on until 8:35 so I missed the entire 1st round.

Obviously not enough bandwidth. The same thing happened during Dressage Freestyle.

For those people who have Universal Sports on TV — are you on cable or satellite or what?

I am on Dish Network and there is no such thing as Universal Sports TV.

[akrogirl]

We are on Cox cable and we don’t get Universal Sports either

I managed to see the beginning and the end, and missed out on all the bits in the middle. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the ads had at least been good. I guess I have been luckier than many in that I have had no problems until tonight.

[Kinsella]

[QUOTE=Discobold;5148402]
And the horses didn’t exactly look stressed, unhappy and abused. . .as some people earlier had suggested :lol:[/QUOTE]
Never said they were unhappy or abused. Hard to tell about stress through a TV screen… I will say that LIVE they are all starting to look tired. And I still think it is not fair to the horses. You can feel free to let yours do that much jumping in a 6 day period, I’ll keep mine home, thanks.

[BLBGP]

[QUOTE=Discobold;5148336]
WOOHOO! Yay Hickstead! Congratulations Phillipe! I saw wonderful sportsmanship, great riding, amazing horseflesh :D!!

It was on television tonight. Don’t know why people bothered with the internet feed. I tried to tell you [/QUOTE]

Not everyone gets that station. I know I don’t on Comcast in CA. There’s something on NBC tomorrow but it looks like a recap of the week(s).

[Peggy]

[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;5148516]
Thank God I wasn’t the only one watching the indian and the centipede ad, followed by Serbian vollyball. I tried to go off line, come back, sign in and get back to WEG 5 times before I gave up. Grrrrrrrr. And I couldn’t get on until 8:35 so I missed the entire 1st round.

Obviously not enough bandwidth. The same thing happened during Dressage Freestyle.

For those people who have Universal Sports on TV — are you on cable or satellite or what?

I am on Dish Network and there is no such thing as Universal Sports TV.[/QUOTE]
Time Warner Cable. My parents’ Cox Cable also had Universal Sports. The TW Cable just finished showing a reply of the final four, tho they still ended before the medal ceremony. I will forgive them for that as they went a bit over time tonite to show the who thing and went an hour over time to show the end and the medal ceremony on the night of the final Nations Cup.

[Mimi_La_Rue]

Congrats to Phillipe! I loved watching him ride. He made it look so easy. Especially loved him as he hugged and kissed Hickstead and then his own horse.

And a huge congrats to Hickstead! What a fabulous horse.

[Lieslot]

Yippie for Philippe, and of course I’m proud for Belgium.

Here’s what he had to say :
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=DMF20101010_008

This is a dream, I feel great. My dad taught me to love animals and I love horses more then I love people. If my horse could talk, then I would have let him do the talking.

I’ve been riding since I was 15 years old and I felt relaxed from the very beginning of the finals. I have my own style and that paid off.

The fact that with no horse I made a mistake, gives me a lot of satisfaction. This was a fantastic week, I will need a few more days to grasp what I managed to achieve here.

[TheBandit]

@farfel;5148386

FEI TV coverage was awesome!

Was the feed OK for you? We had nothing but problems, it was constantly freezing. At least for the most part we had audio. Several other people were complaining of the same thing.