Oh shoot. Looks like Michael Duffy had a similar fall yesterday in the CSI5* 1.50 classic. Oxer two strides to a vertical; horse seems to have not read it correctly. From what I saw of the class, most had the question ride well.
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It looks to me almost like the horse stepped on itself or tripped
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Ouch.
I still remember the time in the early days of the whole livestream concept when somebody fell off in the ring at Upperville, and the camera stayed pointed at him the whole time when the EMT came in, and eventually I think he ended up leaving in the golf cart with the EMT.
I believe that was when the word went around to everybody that if something bad happens on a livestream, they should immediately point the camera in a different direction.
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Any horse can read any jump incorrectly at any given time. It happens because they are live animals and we are asking them to do an unnatural sport. Does it mean all jumping should be done away with? No. Does it mean all combinations should be done away with? Also, no. It means we have to accept that this is a risky sport and do everything we can to assist in making it as safe as possible. Trying to find a specific reason for horse falls is usually a dead end - they happen for different reasons and almost all have different outcomes.
I wish all those who have fallen well and hope the horses have no lasting impacts from their falls.
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I watched two of the falls. I feel bad for both horse and rider. The gray rolled over his neck - I really hope he is ok.
But does any one else feel like the falls look - for lack of a better term - weird. Like the legs just got stuck under the horses and they couldn’t catch themselves. I know horses can get poles caught in their legs, resulting in horrible spills. But it didn’t really look like that (please correct me if I’m wrong). I myself, more than once, have swum through and oxer, scattering everything. But I didn’t feel like my horse was in danger of a total wipe out. Could the footing be an issue too? Just asking (and definitely not an expert)
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Or are we breeding and schooling horses to be ultra-careful to the point where they will contort themselves into risky positions to try to avoid touching a rail, even when a crash is inevitable?
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I’m not sure if this is so much in these cases because in 2/3 it really looks like the horse just made a really dumb decision and read the jump wrong. But, side tangent, I do think this is a problem. How many ISO ads do you see that say ‘absolutely no stop’ in them. I get not wanting a horse to stop because the flowers are purple but people really think they should be able to set their horse up to the worst distance and the horse should fix it for them in the air somehow. Horses should stop when they need to.
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When McLain broke his knee at WEF the camera stayed on him and we watched him driven away in a golf cart.
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/updated-mclain-ward-breaks-leg-fall/
An equitation horse and rider in the WEC Equitation cup tonight just had the same fall at a single oxer. I only caught it happening out of the corner of my eye so I didn’t see how it started, but it ended with both horse and rider on the ground. They both were up and walked out of the ring.
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It was a oxer to a loooong 4 stride to an oxer. The horse took off then decided to add but it was too late. Scared the crap out of me. The rider seemed to be okay though.
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Geeez! Thanks for the link. He sat and up and pulled and then the horse somersaulted. Yikes the poor neck on that horse.
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That horse seemed neither well balanced, nor ridden in a straight manner to the jumps by the rider. Hope they are OK.
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Horses are tricked in training through false distances or hidden rails to get them to hit fences, not to mention good old fashioned rapping, so of course in the ring they don’t always trust what they see, they are being trained on the daily not to. It’s naive to think these practices aren’t being used, just watch the first day of any big money show and see the horses schooling in a class, they are all so ready it’s ridiculous, if you go for a job with a rider that asks you to sign an NDA then you know what’s going on in that yard.
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How to rapidly ruin a good horse: trick distances, hidden rails and rapping. These horses are bred to jump. They want to jump. They can stay healthy and jumping for many years. Given the huge price of jumpers these days, particularly the ones being ridden by the likes of Harry Charles at international shows, anyone who uses such shortcuts is a fool. Anyone who uses a trainer who teaches them to abuse horses is also a fool. So yes, useful for trainers and riders who lack any other tools. Not habitual for the vast majority of riders.
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Crazy thought; could it be because of all the square oxers? It seems like a lot of these falls wouldn’t have happened if the jump had been a vertical; like maybe the horses just keep reading as a vertical. I don’t know the solution if that is the issue because sometimes a ramped oxer causes a weird optical illusion and clearly we aren’t getting rid of all oxers
Michael Duffy’s horse fell at the vertical, not the oxer. Just like us, horses make mistakes sometimes. They may not see the jump as it is, they may not be looking at it, but somewhere else, the rider may have interfered with them causing a bad distance. Stuff happens and I’ve seen horses just walking around on flat ground trip and fall.
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You’d think. But honestly this was my first thought…especially with McLain’s horseS (plural) making the exact same mistake.
I inherited a once careful 1.45m horse turned stopper (at 2’6”) by a well know Irish rider…poling was involved. Have you seen the video of Erynn Ballard? Sorry to say, but I wouldn’t trust most at the top, and more than likely the truly good ones are few and far between.
All to say, I completely agree that using such methods is foolish. But alas, I’m a lowly meter level ammy. What do I know 
On an on-topic note, these past two weeks at Thermal every single on of my classes (6 total) started on an oxer and every single AB element was oxer - vertical.
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@Rumorhasit93 I’ll admit to being a bit of a Polly Anna about horses now being correctly trained, and the demise of such ineffective, crude techniques as rapping, mainly because I’ve seen a change over my many decades. Probably most of the horses I’ve seen with jumping issues caused by rapping are ammy ponies with ignorant owners.
Interesting.
I’ve never heard, or seen, an amateur rapping. To go a step further - I would actually suggest that many amateurs, unless particularly well read or connected, wouldn’t even know what rapping is. If trainers are doing this, they are doing it without their clients knowing.
But if you know professional grooms well enough for them to be candid, they can tell you who raps, and who doesn’t. And exactly why some barns are 100% closed on Mondays, or Wednesdays, or any day that the pros decide is the day to rap. Or worse.
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Or, they are closed because everyone needs a day off from dealing with clients.
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