At this point Puffergirl is actually hilarious, it’s the only thing in this thread that I’ve legit laughed out loud about. Being a troll is one thing, but being a bad troll is just entertaining. The all caps and repeated use of the word “hens” as if it’s some kind of insult was what finally did me in. HENS. YOU’RE ALL MEANIE MEAN HENS THAT CAN’T RIDE. I’m imagining her at her keyboard with a holier than thou “these idiots don’t know anything, let me see how spun up I can get them” type of smirk, typing furiously, thinking she’s so clever. But it’s not even creative, it’s just… sad. “I’m her mom”. :lol: What are you, 12? MJ is a “false god”? :lol: And then somehow the conversation made it to sperm??? Thank you Puffergirl for a good laugh on a Wednesday morning. You are absolutely slaying me, even though you don’t mean to be.
Stepping back from the pathetic troll…
Pretending that the only opinions that matter are those of fellow high level competitors is wrong on every conceivable level. To wit, look at what is happening with greyhound racing in Florida. The people who voted to ban racing in the state don’t have racing greyhounds, and there’s a good chance they’ve never seen a greyhound race. But it had a reputation for using dogs up and throwing them away, even though pretty much every racing greyhound is adopted out as a pet after they’re done racing. The leaders of the movement that banned greyhound racing in Florida did not even know basic facts about it; one prominent organization was quoted as saying the number of active racers was 10 times higher than it actually was. People are ignorant, but they can still make decisions that have far reaching consequences. The likelihood that horse ownership could be banned because of PETA or similar groups is pretty much zero. But banning eventing competitions in a state like Florida? That’s not as far fetched. All they’d need is a couple photos of ML with blood dripping down her horses mouths, and the ads practically write themselves.
Like it or not, people who don’t know the first thing about a particular sport can have a massive impact on how that sport is allowed to exist. Just ask the greyhound adoption groups who have to figure out how to adopt out 8,000+ dogs within the next year.
This. I’m honestly afraid that within a few generations equestrian sports won’t exist anymore, because animal rights viewpoints have become so mainstream in the general population and even within a vocal minority of the horse world (such as all the “forever home” advocates who think it’s cruel and irresponsible to sell a horse that doesn’t fit your needs, no matter how well you vet the buyers). Look at all the hate Charlotte Dujardin got when she accidentally gave her horse a spur rub, despite how obviously terrible she felt about it happening, how apologetic she was, and the fact that she was disqualified. And the average non-horse person is so many generations off the farm that they have no idea how it’s possible to love and respect your animals while also expecting them to be something other than a pet.
I’m a mom and my daughter events…only to prelim so far, but that is irrelevant. If I saw my daughter reefing on her horses face and almost falling off during a course, there would be a serious talk about it between us, and you can bet it would get fixed
When I say MJ is a great rider nobody wants my riding resume nor tells me I have no business saying this because I have never ridden at the level, why does that standard only apply when you are offering criticism or pointing out bad riding?
And what would you do if your daughter was riding uphill at solid fences with no impulsion?
We focus on the bloody mouth and steel trap bits but the ‘showcase’ video is alarming for other serious riding faults as well.
And then ML’s defenders (all three of them) come on here and say ‘the mare is a freight train’ to excuse the bits. A freight train with no engine, I guess. I’d like to hear their excuses for that. For the rest of us, it’s just plain old dangerous riding.
Actually…
So who are you to say she doesn’t deserve the criticism or criticize MJ’s show jumping. I mean if you have never ridden at that level…
Never mind you jumped the shark when you thought this was about her being a show jumper.
This. I have personally witnessed one of ML’s performances that ended in her and RF Scandalous falling down over a fence (which is recorded as a Rider Fall, I suppose because they decided her hindquarters had not touched the ground - maybe they didn’t, I can’t say for sure - but I can promise you that horse nose planted into the ground and was down on her shoulders at least). I don’t need a PhD in Eventing to know that her screaming all strung out around the course and then standing in the stirrups and seesawing and ripping on her horses face 3 strides in front of a jump is exceedingly dangerous. I honestly can’t believe she hasn’t had a more serious fall. Imagine how athletic and talented that mare truly is to overcome all of that noise and still get around clear most of the time.
I saw her fall in 2016 in Kentucky too…not good.
Look at this ironic little tid bit from the 2016 Rolex write up: http://www.midsouthhorsereview.com/articles.php?id=6085
Out of 64 riders qualified for cross-country, only 56 finished. Di Grazia’s forward course left no double clear rides, each coming out with time penalties. The fastest time was that of Michael Jung, who was only 2 seconds over the time. Five horses were eliminated on course, while three retired. This is a huge contrast to last year where sixteen were eliminated and nine retired. There were four rider falls, including third place rider Marilyn Little, who fell along with her horse RF Demeter, who looked to be tiring during the course. This was the only horse to fall during the competition, and there were no injuries to horses or riders during the entire weekend.
Only horse fall in the competition, and MJ was the fastest time.
False God? I think not 
Well…as they say… “If you can’t do something right, do three things in mediocre fashion.”
Except that she isn’t even mediocre on xc. She’s downright dangerous. I can’t complain about her dressage and sj, but she has no right to be riding a 5* or 4* or whatever these showcases are when she doesn’t have the skills. It’s only a matter of time before a mistake (that could have been preventable with more training) happens that she, the horse, or both of them can’t scrap their way out of. This is about safety, not our own personal feelings about ML.
Not to fall right into your troll trap…(lame attempt as it is), but whenever I see fellow eventers at dressage or jumpers shows, they are usually winning everything…
I wasn’t narrowing it down to Ms. Little.
We very clearly aren’t competing in the same places. No surprises there…
Forgive me for thinking that you would be referring to ML on a ML thread…
How about this: we would be (and are) appalled with anyone attempting to compete at the level in the same fashion as ML. Because it comes down to safety and trying to save our sport (and people and horse’s lives). We would be having this same discussion regardless of who the rider is. I’m sure there are other threads here that would prove it.
Nope because I’m Canadian first of all :lol: Are you regularly competing against eventers? Let’s hear your thoughts then.
Doug Payne is a top class eventer. He wins at SJ with his eventers quite often. Ingrid Klimke does pretty dang well at dressage. I’m not sure why you have such a hate-on for eventers.
Eventers are taking their top level event horses to more and more USHJA rated shows too. Competing in the 1.2m or 1.3m and mini prixes in between events to sharpen up their stadium.
I can name a bunch of eventers in the US competing in high level dressage as well.
