I believe it is Brian, not Oliver.
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That oxer-oxer 1 stride looks insanely long, but I havenāt been watching long enough to see anyone meet the in correctly either.
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Completely agree. Brian doesnāt need to fill every moment with idle chatter. I like listening to the focused comments on the rounds.
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This course seems like if you donāt meet fence 1 right, you donāt get a chance to regroup for quite a while. Oof.
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I miss Jimmy Toranoās Maclay commentary. Agree that Brian is rambling off topic for a lot of these rounds although I appreciate his effort to talk about things that less experienced viewers may wonder about like lead changes etc.
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Can we please talk about the round in the ring??? These other topics are fine for between riders.
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I do absolutely love that Ava seems to find something positive to say about each riderās round, no matter the actual quality of the trip. I feel like I remember her doing that on other commentaries too.
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Yes! She is also skilled at acknowledging mistakes instead of just staying silent when things get rough - and pointing out what could have caused the issue but framed in a positive way.
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Brian - āIām letting the true experts (Ava and Erynn) carry the show here today!ā
Please allow them to carry it a little more.
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Katie Triantos is the first person Iāve seen ride the first line well.
Not sure who just went, but agreed with Erynn and Ava that she did an excellent job holding that horseās hand all the way around.
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There really was a lot of strong riding in that first group of 50. Seems like more are struggling in this group.
I particularly liked how she met the oxer combo
If you miss to 1, youāre screwed for the first third of the course. If you miss to 4, youāre screwed for the next third of the course. Not least because that combination is insanely long.
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I really donāt like the super long oxer-oxer 1 stride question (in general, not just here). I donāt think itās usually used in a way that tests RIDING as much as itās just used as a weed-out to test scope, which is how I see it being used here.
Put it by itself and not in a related line, okay. Put it in a line like the one itās in here, where riders on a shorter-strided horse donāt have a chance to open up their horseās canter? Youāre not testing how they ride. Youāre testing how fancy their horse is.
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While they were busy rambling about hunt caps vs. modern helmetsā¦ I thought Eva Fischerman put in quite a nice round.
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Every once in awhile, we have a conversation about posting the canter and some pearl-clutching about whether itās acceptable, and I always wonder if the person who is seeing āposting the canterā is looking at someone like Eva Fisherman, who has a very tall upper body and is riding a horse with a normal length neck. When she rides in two point position, she must hold her body quite open through the hip to keep her body in balance, and it creates the perception that her body is moving up and down even though it is up and in balance off of the horseās back. I think she has a beautiful position and she uses her body particularly well- particularly, she uses both seats well- so Iām calling her out by name as someone to watch who is not posting the canter even though she has motion to it. As opposed to Brianne Goutal, who did legitimately post the canter the first couple of steps, and she was so good she won anyway.
Anyway, Iād like Ava Stearns to commentate every class I ever watch.
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I feel like the current rider on course really proved your point. From my quick glance they jumped in nice and barely made it out.
I agree. I think if they were going to set an oxer-oxer one stride it could have been a pair of ramped oxers set a foot or two shorter and it would have asked the same question of the riders who qualified out of zone 1 and zone 2 and were prepared for this level of course without scaring the horses whose pilots came in with different preparation.
Not that I ever went to Maclay Finals, but my big eq horse was 15.2 1/2. He was plenty adjustable in his time and could get down a 14ā stride. That wasnāt a problem. But if Iād walked that one stride I might have scratched right then and there.
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Unfortunately, that often turns out to be an issue in these classes.
