From the video the distance in between the vert and oxer looks like the problem more than anything else bc it does look short and he came in off a long approach. He came into the combo very conservatively and there doesnt look like there is anything else he could have done to get the horse to read it right. Based on angle of the video I saw it looks like a 1 and 1/2 stride in between jumps so you can see why the horse did what it did.
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H&H article:
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Has anyone seen McLain’s High Star Hero and Ilex do this at Spruce and WEF recently? The incident was not related to a combination. The distance was fine (based on the angles of my video) but both took one stride out. I haven’t seen McLain after the last incident on HSH. Any update appreciated!
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I was at Spruce when Ilex fell. To me it looked like he did not read/notice the first jump and just fell over it.
It was a single fairly built up vertical (boxes?) if I recall correctly … no vertical-oxer or any type of two stride combination. Just a single jump.
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Is the video posted somewhere?
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I am down in Wellington and heard he broke his back.
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And he walked out of the ring, no? Sending best wishes to him & the Castle Hill team. It really leaves a void not to see him riding in the Sunday classes.
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I just googled it and found it, but warning it is a nasty fall and tough to watch.
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Ugh that’s such a bummer. I wonder if he’ll join Laura Kraut wearing a safety vest in future. Honestly that’s a question I have whenever I see one of the bigger pro riders have a nasty fall.
Are you guys talking about the video of McLain falling off? Or Harry Charles?
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Remember Ward complaining on Facebook after the Rolex Grand Prix of Geneva (when so many riders had a very tough time), about Karl Cook’s 2 year old article mentioning Cook’s thoughts on position?
Caracole has since won a Horse of The Year honor (form=function) and now McLain has had a nasty wreck. I hope he’s OK. It’s worrisome that there’s been no update.
Rather goes to show that life will sometimes come back and possibly make you re-think being so harsh toward another rider.
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Both falls have been discussed in this thread. I have seen both, and both are very nasty falls. Also similar to the fall with Ilex at Spruce. In the fall Harry had in the 2 stride you can see how the horse misread the striding.
Is the video of Harry posted somewhere?
I think I saw McLain’s fall on the live stream. That stinks to get hurt at any time, but particularly at the very start of the WEF season.
Where did you see it? Clip My Horse?
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I was asking about Harry Charles, which I could not find.
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I think I saw it on the Wellington site - I found the class on demand, checked where he was in the order of go, and scrolled through the class until I found his round. But now that you mention it, it’s definitely more efficient to use CMH and just put his name in the search bar. I think they should have it too.
I haven’t been able to find Harry Charles’ fall on CMH. Wonder if they took it down?
Maybe they did. See the link below for where I found the class:
McLain’s fall is on CMH. Jeez – talk about leaving from a long spot. Hope he’s okay.
Given we’ve seen these falls happen at oxers in combinations or alone, I wonder how much of the issue is truly course design and how much is the type of schooling or super-careful tendencies of the horses involved.
Are these horses generally jumping extra big to avoid touching the front rail, thus getting themselves into trouble when they’re asked to jump from a deeper distance and feel that they need more room to avoid the front rail?
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