My opinion is concerning qualifying Eq classes, not just the Finals. If anything, more…creakiness…occurs all year at qualifiers then at the Finals.
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Totally agree - I was commenting on @Sarah616 question about jogging for big eq FINALS specifically.
But yes - week over week, many shows throughout the country, I agree an FEI-style jog before would be nearly impossible. The loose rein circle makes the most sense and logistically would be easiest to implement, and perhaps employ a formal Jog for finals only (like they do for jumper Zone finals - and those horses don’t even have a soundness criteria written into their regular rules!)
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Exactly, and I tailored my comment towards finals, not the rest of the year, because the original article referenced finals pretty heavily, and because many of us spent the last 6-8 weeks watching finals and commenting on the lame horses.
In reality, first and foremost the wording of the rule in the equitation section of the rule book regarding soundness needs to be fixed to be stricter regarding soundness levels. After that, I think there would have to be separate ways to reinforce soundness. Of COURSE you couldn’t before an FEI style jog at every USEF show, week in and week out. But for finals I think that wouldn’t be a huge stretch to accomplish.
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I feel like they can make all the rules they want, but until somebody actually enforce them at the show, it doesn’t really matter. I think a lot of judges, and stewards are afraid because they won’t be hired again. I mean think about it, if Northrun sent in a horse that was lame, are you going to be the one that eliminates them and they loses their chances at indoors? I think it gets very dicey!
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The one lame horse would be eliminated for that class, not the whole barn.
And they would probably bring back up horses for just such a situation.
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That they, in fact, do. As do most of the larger barns with Medal Finalist. May not be the same quality but the top kids practice on multiple horses and their “practice horses” are quite capable plus keep the mileage off the primary mount.
Holy broad brush, Batman. I am not saying this has never happened, but it is certainly the very rare exception, not the rule.
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I missed this!! Half the horses are nerved??? Seriously? Tell us you’ve never dealt with high end equitation horses without saying it
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I know one very big eq horse that is older that has been nerved twice. People go on and on what great care this horse has had to still be at the top and 20. It drives me crazy. They will squeeze every last dollar out of that horse before he is done.
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No doubt it happens but has not been my experience or observation and been around more then one.
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I like this.
The one thought on repeat in my head is “doesn’t/didn’t one of them (the Maclay??) have the word horsemanship in its name?”
Apologies if I’m repeating anyone else. I lost track of the thread!
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Ok, so you know 1. That still doesn’t mean half of them are
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Some trainers will do a serapin block to the front feet. They think it’s good care for the horses. I’ve had a conversation w a BNT who tried to tell me it’s kind to block feet at indoors, because they work so hard. Not unique to eq. Hunter trainers do it too.
ETA: it’s actually vets who do the block by request of trainer.
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