So, as a nobody in horseshowville who happened to go to spectate and hang out with friends, Iâm throwing out my feeble, unqualified opinion on Region 8 simply because it doesnât sit right with me for people to view the do-over as something just done for the heck of it. It seemed warrantedâfor the good of the horses and junior riders.
It was pretty clear from practically the beginning that something wasnât right when so many early entrants were having notable issues with this particular fence. Seemed to me that these were good young riders who have experience at national shows, etc., and were riding some fine, been-there, done-that, quality horses (some the kind of horses many of us would make Faustian bargains to ride just once). Theyâve seen their share of difficult, technical courses before and have dealt with tricky questions, jumps with cut-outs and optical illusions, sudden movements, noises, etc. This was different. I could hear everyone buzzingâŠwhat IS it with this jump affecting the horses to this degree? the flowers? the fact that the jump was situated was near the rail with people sitting at eye level to the horse? No, that didnât explain it.
I didnât have a good vantage point, so went to look closer at the jump before the decision was made to change things. The lights were trained down, flooding the dark boxes at the base. Am guessing it looked like a weird abyss/hole or something to the horses. Seemed like some pretty seasoned horsepeople officials made the decision to remove the boxes. Goes without saying that they were fully aware that do-overs arenât something thatâs done on a whim. Spectators around me had mixed feelings about the decision, but no one seemed to think it was flat-out wrong, even though they hadnât seen it done before. Some of the horses who went back for the do-over had residual issues; something obviously registered way wrong in their horsey brain. I really hope that these horses arenât set back too much confidence-wise or ruined and can regain their mojo quickly.
I went away thinking, weird, but well, this is an equitation competition thatâs supposed to have general equitation conventions employed to see whoâs qualified to represent a region in Finals, not a Who has a Sorta Unusual Horse who didnât React to a Weird Anomaly Light Trick Contest. Seemed to me that you couldnât have this simply be a contest to see who was left standing at the end of it and send them to Finals. If that were the case, you could have just drawn names like a lottery. And then I was thinking furthermore, this was an ASPCA competition after all, and it wouldnât be compassionate to keep sending horses over this weird jump once you determined there was a problem. So here it is, the humble opinion of someone who generally sits in the back and watches/overthinks stuff but doesnât offer commentary in generalâŠ
