Really? I was thinking more like a bullshitting narcissist who thinks the whip will bring him glory and riches. People like that can be from any cultural context.
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At least, Townend didnât flip two out of their three horses on their heads, like Boyd Martin. Pushing a horse too fast to try and make time to grab the top spot seems worse than jogging one and accepting the juryâs refusal.
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That is what OT did with the whip infractions at Badminton, and presumably later in 2018 on the other whip infraction with Tregilder since I looked up his result in that class and he was first.
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I did see that, which is why I found it somewhat ironic of ULRs to make public posts about smurfs needing to mind their own business âuntil theyâve ridden at that level.â
I replied to the link to the article on the COTH FB page saying I felt Kyle should have worded his paragraph about Boydâs toughness a little more carefully, with the caveat that I was not singling Boyd out personally. Naturally people passive-aggressively flamed in other comment threads on FB, saying Boyd was a hero and any commentary by nobodies on his physical/mental fitness to ride after two hard falls was inappropriate. 
The sheer fanatisicm and defensiveness about some riders can be pretty astounding, as we found with the Plantation name change debacle. 
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Can anyone find Meyerhoffâs dressage ride? Supposedly, itâs here https://broadcast.usef.org/coverage/2021lrk3de/ , but my hands gone numb looking for it. Thanks.
Yeah pretty scary when the team coach says he took a risk paid the price and is totally ok with that.
No wonder no one takes RIDER RESPONSIBILITY seriously.
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This strikes me as particularly inappropriate this year, where the only reason they even got to play was that the fan base was passionate enough to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars so the event could run. âGive us your money and shut upâ doesnât seem a very good PR campaign to me.
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Riding to win in any timed event like cross-country almost always requires taking risks. Life is not Disney and choices happen very quickly. Funny how that awful Boyd was the best placed American rider on a horse that Duvander said really rose to the occasion and from how I heard him, surprised him with her effort. That was a risk that paid off, no?
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No one is saying he is awful?
Yes but it didnât for 2/3 of the rides so only 33% success rate?
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Aww, Iâm just honored I was able to help one of the tack queens of COTH!
Signed,
A person who once identified the brands of several strap goods without seeing makerâs marks in a giant pile of pony club donations
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How many horses did WFP crash on Saturday? 100%, correct?
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I just read Mark Phillipsâ comment on Kentucky. He said it was âBurghley bigâ and a real test - but there was an unacceptable number of horse falls, âa fate I suffered with my 2019 Burghley track.â
I would have changed the wording to âa fate the horses sufferedââŠ
Derek is going to take over course designing Burghley from Mark⊠I wonder if Kentucky will bring in someone new?
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Youâre obsessed with me arenât you 
Is this a pissing match? WFP had the most 5* wins in the world. Compared to?
WFP hasnât admitted taking a risk and it not paying offâŠ
I could go on but Iâm honestly bored of you always going after me with these silly statements.
I just want to reiterate again that itâs a discussion and no one is hating on anyone. We all know they could ride circles around us.
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Thatâs rich coming from him. How hilarious the stance taken after years and years of carnage on his courses and he steadfast held steady that was par for the course in Eventing.
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Looks like he just posted the fall at another angle.
Ouch
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No, not at all. I do believe that you arenât hearing your own bias and itâs coloring your pronouncements. You are positing your opinions as facts and when challenged, you make it personal.
This isnât personal. That Boyd crashed 2 out of 3 is fact. That WFP crashed 1 out of 1 is fact.
Consider that Iâm challenging your positions, not you personally.
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Do you happen to have a link available for those comments? Iâd love to read the article.
There were more horse falls at Kentucky than most of us wanted to see, I donât think people would argue that. But there is a massive difference between a horse that trips onto its side landing on a downslope on the backside of the fence, like we predominantly saw at Kentucky, and some of the rotationals and crashing landings we saw at Burghley. All horse falls are not created equally (which is why frangible pins are designed to prevent only one kind: rotational).
Of the 7 falls per the results at Kentucky:
- three pecked on downhill landings (Stella Artois, Fernhill Wishes, FE Stormtrooper)
- three left a single leg and couldnât get their legs out in front of them in time for the landing, but did not rotate (Oratorio, Favian, Steady Eddie. Note that Tsetserleg was marked as a rider fall)
- one found a bad distance to a fence they couldnât clear and landed somewhat on the fence, which deformed as designed to allow the horse to untangle itself safely (K.E.C. Zara)
Of note, the ambulances did not move all day. While of course we would like to see the horses remain on their feet at all times, I think a lot of these falls could easily have become rider falls or even been prevented entirely if the horses and/or riders were a little fresher. These werenât jumps knocking the horsesâ legs out from underneath them, which we have seen at Burghley in the past, these were predominantly horses who werenât quite able to catch themselves (the exception possibly being Favian).
I am biased because as a fan, I have developed some trust over the years that Derek will not build a course I wonât want to watch. I donât think heâll be happy with the results himself, but that statement continues to hold true for me after last weekend. Not necessarily so for other designers (NOT that I could do better myself).
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This is well stated. Not all falls are equal.
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Derekâs 12ABC combo at Head of the Lake reminded me of a combo through the water at Burghley a few years back that took a significant toll because it didnât really ride like it walked.
I know you are challenging my position I donât take things personally Iâm just being cheeky. Eventing isnât that black and white, I disagree with your points. Many factors at play that are considered so arguing over simple semantics doesnât do it for me.
