The sun was brutal and it felt much warmer, especially after most places have had a taste of cooler fall weather.
I don’t think the horses were under conditioned. I just think they were tough courses. I heard a lot of murmurings that the 3 star rode more like a 4 star, although I cannot confirm that.
I don’t think this is valid as we sent six horses to Paris and a couple of them had never run a 5*. So where are the rest of them? How come the other 5* on either side of the Olympics had much larger entries? Bughley had 65 entries. Pau has 80 entries. Luhmuhlen had 42. Badminton had 82.
I thought the course was a good stiff 5* course. Making excuses over entries (e.g. Olympics, World Championships, COVID, etc.) just gets in the way of really solving the problem.
I spent almost all day in the riders tent at the finish. Watching every camera view, you see more of the course than what’s shown on the live feed.
The footing was great, thanks to the hard work by the ground crew. It was hard and slick in the unwatered YEH field, but the CCI galloping lanes were like a golf course in many places, and thoroughly spiked and aerated everywhere.
Too many horses looked tired, hit the wall with 3 minutes to go. That’s disappointing. The climbs were long, but not unpredicted for this venue and the level. The TBs that finished looked much fresher than most of the others.
Comments among the riders included complaints about the lighting, sun reflection and jump placement for time of day. Frustration with flags; felt horses are making honest efforts and unfair to get flag penalties, expecting the horse to go straight on nearly impossible line.
I walked the course yesterday and thought it would take a Murphy Himself to go around clear, inside the time, and make it look fun. This was a difficult course with no room for a single mistake, and even horses who finished probably wouldn’t call it their favorite 5 star. I’m glad it wasn’t a dressage show, but I felt really bad for spectators who paid good money for tickets and saw very little.
Can confirm the footing inside the gallop lanes was great. Both my horses pulled up without any signs of foot soreness thus far, and one lost a shoe in the beginning of the course.
So, both of bucks flags where removed, moving him into 5th. 2 of lillians removed as well. Just as an update to the scores.
yeah and I watched the video about the watering they made! Sinead commented they almost over watered it, so wonder if it was just something going on? Or maybe riders were just mentally not on it today.
I feel like some at Lion might be wishing they came to Maryland instead 
Amazing! Well done to them!!!
That’s not a fair retelling of what she said.
I overheard one rider who could have competed more horses this weekend, but didn’t, say that they opted to run their horses elsewhere because of the drought/footing concerns. Which really ended up being a non-issue.
Interesting!
I confess. I enjoyed watching the 3*: the 5*, not so much.
I did appreciate Sinead’s comments, especially about horses being polite and well mannered. Reminded me of the time I told a classroom of high school students that I knew horses that had better manners then they did.
He looked fabulous!
It’s just mind blowing that this place ran such an incredible competitive 4*, yet the 5* keeps getting smaller. It’s not that they are not putting the effort in, but it’s trying to hard to be visibly appealing and not readable for the horses.
The fact that even the best of the world didn’t jump the direct route at those weird water corners should say everything.
Interested to see what will change next year with the new course designer
First of all, it’s a 3*…
I’m referring to when they ran the 4*, on the other half of the property 
The vets will have to close their eyes and let all 8 in!
Does anyone know what this bit is on Twilightslastgleam?
(not for judgemental purposes, educational question only)
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