That was sort of my point - he had a head injury (or two), which IMO can cloud a person’s judgment, even if they appear totally coherent and normal. 
He’s superhuman, though, so it’s possible it was just another day at the office for him.
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11 years ago? I believe he has learned and grown, jmo.
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Funny story about eventers and individualism. I had a TB who would R-U-N-N-O-F-T any time we parted ways - and we parted ways quite often in the first two years. After one too many walk-of-shames home without my horse, I swore my next horse would be taught to STAND the second I parted company with him.
So I spent a lot of time abruptly dismounting at the walk, trot, and canter on this new guy.
Well, Catch-22. Any time he feels me loose a stirrup and abruptly shift, he slams on the brakes and looks back like “well, you gonna give me a treat for standing patiently”?
Catch 22… But after that poor horse that was euthanized a few years ago at Burghley (I think it was Burghley but my memory is failing me) after he got loose and took a jaunt across the grounds, I think it’s worth taking the time to teach a horse that they should stand after a rider fall.
It’s terrifying when loose horses take off across the grounds, and it puts a lot of riders, volunteers, and officials in jeopardy.
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Poor Shanghai Joe at Badminton! And yes, his independence was not helpful in that particular instance. Although it wasn’t from running, but rather slipping and falling in the stabling area. https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/shanghai-joe-euthanized-after-sustaining-injury-at-badminton-horse-trials
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One of my worst nightmares. I knew it was one of the Bs, thanks for jogging my memory for me.
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Oh hot dang. I’ve had my guy step on a shoe at the walk in our hay field and I kept riding him. I’ve also had him lose a shoe in my dressage arena and kept riding him. He’s also lost shoes in the pasture and continued to run around like an idiot.
My other guy is barefoot and I’ll only throw on hoof boots if we’re walking on really big and pointy rocks. He’s lost a hoof boot before too and I’ll only hop off if we find more pointy rocks.
There are some things to argue about with eventing, but losing shoes seems to be a weird hill to die on.
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For all the young up-and-coming riders who don’t want to saddle up if it’s so much as sprinkling, I always point out that there is about an 80% chance that they will ride in the rain at their first Kentucky 5*! 
Where I live, there are many months that would lose enough training days to go backward if one does not ride in the rain from time to time. Eventing is an outdoor sport, after all.
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I never thought to teach them not to run off if we parted ways. I raised the wait-until-I-got-back-on-horse from when he was a weanling until he died at 18.
I only went off him twice, three times if you count his falling with me once, and he just waited for me. I was surprised and grateful.
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Jimmy Wofford told a funny story on the livestream - he had a really promising student running her first Rolex, the weather was bad, and she did terribly. He asked what happened and she said “Jimmy, I’m from California, I’ve never ridden in the rain!”
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Cirencester Park International Friday 30 April Intermediate level. The forecast was for sun and showers and the persistent hail wasn’t anticipated by anyone.
Competitors included William Fox-Pitt, Jonelle Price, Jesse Campbell, Harry Meade and Kevin McNab. The weather in Kentucky was business as usual for the European based riders.
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whoa. I’m good with riding in the rain, but if it were HAILING, I’d scratch. That’s the only time I honestly thought my Old Man was going to take a fence down was when I got distracted in the barn and a wild storm front came through. He was in so much pain he couldn’t think straight.
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I had the funniest conversation this weekend. I camped at a friend’s farm, she’s an eventer so we chatted about KY… and she told me she was doing a clinic Saturday AM with Tami Smith. I said I am terrible with names, who did she ride? She says Mai Baum and I totally fan girled lol
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It is the British Isles, we only really do temperate climate. The hail stones were far too polite to cause pain, the problem was the quantity as one couldn’t see well. The course was held for a time but competitors then said they were happy to run.
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My first time attending an event, at any level, was Kentucky 2010. At the end of the day the group I was with decided to go up to The Hollow and watch the big names (people with multiples ride) navigate the complex. It was getting ready to thunderstorm and the crowds were light. I stood on the rope, head on to the banks, as three riders – if memory serves, in a row – had rotationals over that hanging log. They’ve never jumped down those banks again at the 5*.
When the horse fell down the bank and rolled over Ollie, I had a clear view of his head snapping back, off the edge of the bank. I was certain I had just watched him break his neck. In the intervening years I’ve been unhappy with some horsemanship decisions he’s made, including presenting a horse with grade 3 lameness to the final inspection this year, but that fall, that day, wouldn’t be on my list. There was a problem with how horses read that question.
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We were standing right there that day too. I can handle crashes, but that one shook me to the core.
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I see one of the horses who jumped around Landrover is doing Jersey 4L this weekend. Not much rest there.
There are a number who were in the 4* and 5* at Kentucky. Most (all?) entered didn’t finish the 5*.
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There’s one that fell in the 5*, ran a Prelim HT last weekend, and is entered in the 4*L
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Who is that? I could play detective but I’m lazy ;).
