Jan Tops Buys Palloubet D'Halong For $15 Million

[DMK]

Roxy, I wouldn’t be quite that harsh. I don’t entirely disagree with your assessment of the errors, but you make it sound like she lacked the skills to be there at all.

Rather, I saw a rider relatively new to 1.6m, the international stage … at Aachen. Lack of experience and a whopping case of nerves can account for mistakes we wouldn’t otherwise make at home capably riding the same height/degree of technicality. Very few of us are fortunate enough to move up seamlessly and without disruption. Most people I know marvel at how awful their first few rounds are when the move up. It’s like you wonder who was in the ring that day because it couldn’t have been you. “You” haven’t done stuff that stupid in years!

She was far from awful, and because she is a good rider with a freakishly talented horse, she ended up 2nd to Big Star. Any other horse and it would have been an 8 fault first round, welcome to the big time day that most riders experience (and are thrilled with) when they move up.

[Madeline]

I don’t believe that there is a gelding in the world worth $15 m, but this horse is just lovely. Rideable, brave, scopey and accurate.

[Belmont]

He is just lovely. I mean not only is his jump fantastic, also find his movements to be pretty dreamy too. Just looks like a class A citizen!

[ammye]

While I agree that it does look like he’s covering up for her a bit in certain places (jumping her out of the tight triple in the first round most notably), not even the the scopiest, most willing horse in the world gets to that place without being in a wonderful program and feeling incredibly supported by his rider. The rider may be new to the 1.60m and this type of pressure, but clearly she has done a TON right by this horse to bring him along over the last four years such that he can perform so exceptionally at this level while taking care of her at the same time. It is no small feat to be developing a young horse towards this level of competition while you yourself are also developing towards this level of competition, and she deserves a lot of credit for being able to do so. He’s a special horse, no doubt, but she clearly brought him along beautifully, so hopefully she’ll be able to utilize those talents on the other young horses in her barn. It is always lovely to see happy horses who are doing their jobs so willingly, even when their riders are not the most perfect. When the rider herself has brought them along the whole way, it says a lot about the rider!

[MHM]

Ammye, well said.

I’d love to ride well enough to be second in the Grand Prix at Aachen, on any horse! :yes:

[omare]

He jumped out of his skin for her.

[iEquitate]

Does make me wonder if he just really likes her, since she’s had him so long and really developed him. No doubt he’s a freak of a horse naturally, but I’d be interested to see if he continues his no rails streak with Edwina… yes, she’d probably be heading towards WEG and the Olympics which are even bigger than Aachen, but I wonder how much of those amazing rounds with Janika was due to their strong partnership.

[Roxy_SM]

[QUOTE=DMK;7182315]
Roxy, I wouldn’t be quite that harsh. I don’t entirely disagree with your assessment of the errors, but you make it sound like she lacked the skills to be there at all.

Rather, I saw a rider relatively new to 1.6m, the international stage … at Aachen. Lack of experience and a whopping case of nerves can account for mistakes we wouldn’t otherwise make at home capably riding the same height/degree of technicality. Very few of us are fortunate enough to move up seamlessly and without disruption. Most people I know marvel at how awful their first few rounds are when the move up. It’s like you wonder who was in the ring that day because it couldn’t have been you. “You” haven’t done stuff that stupid in years!

She was far from awful, and because she is a good rider with a freakishly talented horse, she ended up 2nd to Big Star. Any other horse and it would have been an 8 fault first round, welcome to the big time day that most riders experience (and are thrilled with) when they move up.[/QUOTE]

I agree she was far from awful, but most riders new to 1.60 still have a very thorough understanding of the technical fundamentals of jumping a significant track well. Things like knowing you should gallop to the base of a triple bar, get the quiet 5 to big oxer done early so you can add some leg that last stride instead of stuffing it in and taking away the horse’s power, come forward in the loose five to the skinny so you can balance and wait the last step or two. In the several videos I’ve watched of the pair, it does not look like she has that knowledge.

I can think of several riders who are also short on 1.60 experience in comparison to the veterans they are riding against - Katie Dinan, Brianne Goutal, Lucy Davis, even Reed Kessler when she jumped the Olympic trials - who look like they have a deep understanding of such technical dynamics, honed through years of experience at the lower levels.

[Lix_Tetrax]

What a handsome boy!

*edited original post, because I’m in a mood, and the post was unnecessarily snarky! I’m sorry.

[nutmeg]

I’ll be snarky! Fortunately now that Jannika Sprunger’s sponsor can afford to buy her four $3 million dollar horses she will have time to hone her technical dynamics until she is as good as the Americans named above.
And un-snarky me says, what a shame that she had to lose her wonderful boy, but at least it was to Edwina who is a smart and sympathetic rider. I do worry that Jan Tops, coach of the Qataris, has another end-user in mind, but I have faith that he’ll do the right thing.

[pinkpony321]

I will agrree that this rider may not be the most sophisticated and subtle of riders, but I am not jumping 1.6m so i can’t really point too many fingers.

HOWEVER, that horse just keeps trying so darned hard, never even looks the least bit grumpy about helping her out. If i had $15M to spend on a horse, THAT’s the attitude i’de be looking for. The fact that he is freakishly athletic is almost just a bonus!!

[NMK]

The partnership between these two just screams at me. What a lovely horse- jumping around in a snaffle. Gads imagine how difficult that would be to see him load on another trailer.

[Cannonball]

Amazing horse! And i think he’s obviously worth $15,000,00 since that is the price that was paid. I personally can’t imagine spending that amount on a horse. But people who spend $15,000,000 on a horse aren’t spending there last $ on the horse. They are people who are worth hundreds of millions if not billions and it’s just not a large portion of their total wealth.

If some owns a $500,000 with no mortgage and a few stocks and a retirement account worth $150,000. They have a net worth of around $700,000 a $40,000 horse would be around 6% of their total wealth.

Same scenario for a $15 million dollar horse at 6% of total net worth would be $250 million. In 2011 the NY times said there were around 3000 US families worth $100 million or more. Add in the rest of the world and there is a large group of people who could spend $15 million on a horse and not blink an eye.

[Capall]

While I wouldn’t buy a horse for that kind of money, I certainly wouldn’t mind selling one for that!

[yeehaw]

The insurance policy alone on a $15 million horse would likely exceed my yearly household income, times two (or three, or four!). I can’t help but imagine how many not-so-talented horses could be saved from starvation or abuse with that kind of money.

[Cannonball]

[QUOTE=yeehaw;7184098]
The insurance policy alone on a $15 million horse would likely exceed my yearly household income, times two (or three, or four!). I can’t help but imagine how many not-so-talented horses could be saved from starvation or abuse with that kind of money.[/QUOTE]

Two very interesting and different points. First; if you have that kind of money would you insure a horse that expensive?? There are good reasons on both sides.

Secondly; I’d like to believe someone with a love of the sport and a desire to win that allows them to spend that much money on a horse is doing significant charitable work and giving. Maybe, maybe not???

[DMK]

if you want to crawl down that rabbit hole (and why, really?) 90 seconds of advertising space in Superbowl 2013 would net you about the same. It’s a stupid rabbit hole to visit, you know?

[goodlife]

[QUOTE=DMK;7184109]
if you want to crawl down that rabbit hole (and why, really?) 90 seconds of advertising space in Superbowl 2013 would net you about the same. It’s a stupid rabbit hole to visit, you know?[/QUOTE]

Or that Grand Theft Auto game that just came out that took 250 mil to create…

…heading out of the rabbit hole now, stat!

[FLeventer]

That horse saved her butt in a couple of the videos I watched. He did close distances, long distances, and saved on her misses. Imagine what he could do with a top notch rider with tons of experiance?

The horse is worth its weight in gold, just maybe not 15mil in gold. JMHO.

[grayarabpony]

What a gorgeous jumper!!