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[QUOTE=Peggy;
There is another medal final in that ring, with the last round at night, in August, with many of the same riders, so many have seen it. There are other classes in the ring before the Maclay, though none at night. But still a scary …
[/QUOTE]
Some of the horses and riders were invited to a two day clinic given the first of the week and the Maclay riders rode at night.
not sure when a TD became eligible to dictate in an Equitation class! There should have been 2 stewards there. Where was the other?
I think it should be set next year with really easy low fences as that zone seems to have loads of difficulties. That wY the “right “ people will go to KY.
SO SAD!
???
Also, it’s a region not a zone.
I don’t know what the Maclay regional rules are, but most of the regional medal finals out here have a person designated as as a technical delegate who isn’t part of the regular show management team, a judge, or a steward, but is there specifically to coordinate the medal finals and represent the association behind that medal finals, e.g. PCHA.
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Very interesting. Thanks for posting it.
Yes. Thanks for posting. Not sure if there was a fair thing to do WRT the order. The people right after #12 in the order had already been sitting around waiting for a pronouncement and probably didn’t want to wait while eight horses went and some of the horses had probably gone back to the barn and hopefully not gotten unbraided. The lunging thing is more troubling–but again I’m not sure what the right choice was. Glad I didn’t have to make it.
I do wish that Geoff had gotten his facts straight, but I don’t think there was anything nefarious. He probably just remembered a bit wrong. But three made it around the course before the first stop. One rider fell off at fence 2 while another fell off at fence 3 as a direct consequence of fence 2. Two riders who were eliminated, one for two stops and one for a fall, were eliminated again in the do-over.
I concur. I would guess he was watching the class, but not marking a card or taking specific notes. So he may not have had the exact numbers right in front of him, but he knew the gist of the situation.
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However facts are important, especially in this situation. He was trying to justify a decision that many believe had no merit, unless of course you were one of the lucky ones to get a do over.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and it just seems like it was a no-win situation.
The jump was clearly causing an unusual amount of issues. This is an important class that affects a lot of juniors’ future, and I don’t disagree that the results of Regionals should reflect the best executed course rather than a crapshoot of which horse happened to not be spooked on takeoff at a legitimately and unintentionally scary fence. Not to mention there is a safety component - and a horse welfare component. As horsemen, we’re supposed to give our horses confidence; not have a jump that truly scares them, and it sounds like at least one horse was pretty undone by the experience.
On the flip side, the do-over seems quite unfair, particularly for the riders who didn’t have an issue at that jump and were allowed a second shot at it. The horse that was additionally prepared before it’s second change really bothers me.
Probably the best solution would have been to stop the class, adjust the jump, and set a new course for everyone to start fresh with. But that’s not practically possible, and rescheduling it altogether wasn’t either.
I think any way you slice this once, it’s unfair to someone, and while to some degree that’s horseshowing, it seems like this falls outside the ordinary realm of things.
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@Mac123 As someone who was there and took notes, I agree.
I will say that some of the horses came out of the corner and started to back off, so it wasn’t a last minute decision for all of them. But maybe that was all the VIP area stuff catching their eye and then they saw the fence at the last moment? I kind of wonder what the outcome would have been had that jump not been it was was probably the least-friendly portion of the ring with respect to outside distractions.
I bet you’re right - I bet a lot of them were a bit distracted on the approach and didn’t really study the jump, making the shiny black surface at the base extra shocking.
It sounds like a case where the fence placement was enough of a challenge on its own, and the combination of the placement and the weird lighting on the boxes just pushed it over the edge.
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As horsemen, I think it’s important to remember and emphasize that the safety of horse and rider is our most important priority, more important than the competition being fair, more important than getting the “right” results out of an important national qualifier.
Any horse or rider suffering permanent damage from a horse show class is not okay. Sometimes it is going to happen despite our best efforts, but when we see a dangerous situation occurring, I’m completely in favor of stopping the class and removing the issue, even if it is “unfair.” I’ll take unfair over broken bones or creating a lifelong fear for horse or rider any day.
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