The vets will have to close their eyes and let all 8 in!
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Does anyone know what this bit is on Twilightslastgleam?
(not for judgemental purposes, educational question only)
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Can’t tell mouthpiece, but something like this?
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Thank you guys! I knew CoTH would know… so much knowledge here 
Next question, has anyone tried this particular one?
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I thought it to be a good five star course, from watching online (which certainly is never the same as walking a live event). 5* is supposed to be the ultimate test. Times past, horses would do one competition at this level and that was the pinnacle of their career. Now we have horses winning multiple 5* which says a lot about vet care, nutrition, course design etc - all the unseen things, as well as relentless hard work, that underpin a great cross country run. I suggest that the lack of runners indicates a worrying lack of depth in American and Canadian Eventing: there are just not enough riders able to run at this level. Without the European-based riders it would have been a non-event. There were plenty of runners in the 3*.
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well, since I was out jump judging here locally all day yesterday, I wasn’t able to follow at all, as I had horses coming at me thick and fast all day. I get home and see Boyd had two falls! And had to WD Thomas. I have not been able to find out who fell and how. Even EE doesn’t have details. Did Connor fall, or only Boyd? And which 3* horse fell?
the 3* fall was on his first horse, I think at the 2nd brush corner late on the course. it was not shown on the live feed, but I think it was “only” a RF, the commentators said it was quite a hard fall and that they were relieved to see that Boyd was able to get up and walk, after 5 or 10 minutes, to the vehicle that drove him back to the stables.
He withdrew his 2nd 3* horse.
the 5* fall was a horse fall at the first water. Boyd got up quickly but sat down as soon as he was out of the galloping lane.
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We watched a video someone got of Boyd and Connor’s fall—they jumped the running water log into the water and fell in the water. It was a pretty ugly fall but neither had any immediate major physical injuries and walked away okay. Boyd did sit down in the grass shortly after.
Final day is here 
we’re heading over to watch the jogs. The schedule says they don’t start until 9:30 which seems much later than usual but we’re so happy about, no rushing out of the hotel super early.
We’re going to watch some of the 3* SJ and then head home. It’s been a really fun weekend, but it’ll be nice to be home.
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I am curious to see how many people do / don’t go back to watch the final day in person.
I will say even if there were a ton of 5* entries we wouldn’t stay for it. We live about three hours away and are always eager to get home. If we were staying overnight and going home Monday like we do for Kentucky, we’d stay for the 5* SJ.
We are planning to stay for the 5* SJ, but it’s annoying that they pushed the times back an hour on everything. I guess it gives us more time for shopping.
This is the link to the 5* XC fence report https://results.hippodata.de/2024/2486/docs/elkto_010_ergelfence_abst.pdf
and the 3* https://results.hippodata.de/2024/2486/docs/elkto_020_ergelfence_abst.pdf
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No more outriders. That is a good thing. Over the years they caused more problems than they prevented.
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The vets don’t have the say. They only make recommendations to the ground jury. Ground jury gives thumbs up/down.
We saw Boyd walking around after fall #1 near the warm up area and he was limping pretty good and seemed to be trying to walk it off. I heard from a volunteer that he lost consciousness after that fall but recovered well. I was surprised they let him continue. Then I saw the 2nd fall from behind at a distance and it appeared rotational but we quickly saw Commando up and trotting around and appeared to be sound. We couldn’t see Boyd from our location so I was glad to see his update that horses and rider are okay…I think the horses fared better than he did for sure…he has to be feeling it today (and maybe longer if concussion occurred). It was a gnarly day, I saw two horses leaving in the ambulance (precaution, one looked a little off but okay and one seemed okay) so my hope is that all horses make it safely through any injuries. We had a lot of new people at our tailgate and kids so it was kind of a bummer of a day for sure trying to explain everything to adults and kids who are not eventers. I know people who were hanging out up at the Sawmill area didn’t see much at all in the 5* due to so many issues on course, so I’m glad I didn’t make the long trek.
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One horse was trailered out for expediency, he appeared to be fine. It was in an area it would be difficult to walk to the stables from. The other was quite sore with a pulled shoe.
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He was adamant, but polite, about getting water to cool his horse before putting it on the trailer to go to the stables. It was a 20 minute + trip with all the traffic so he wasn’t wrong. Buckets were wrangled and water located so the horse could be cooled. He loves that horse!
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What happened on XC yesterday? I didn’t get to watch, just checked the scores and over half the field retired or eliminated. It doesn’t LOOK like any particular jump or combination was causing problems, the refusals and falls were spread out through the course. But again, I didn’t get to watch.
It’s a lot of terrain, there are some big hills that seemed to drain horses once they got to the top. Plus some stops, falls, etc.
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