They no longer have outriders. Many but not all of the outriders were a hinderance rather than helpful. I was a steward for years and had riders on excited horses that they couldn’t control or even get on, riders who chatted with their friend but did absolutely nothing when they were needed. The exception was the local foxhunters. They could have run the whole section!
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I missed that comment.
Oliver Townend said it was as tough as Badminton or Burghley.
I don’t think it was unfair, but it was tough.
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The EN article notes that Away Cruising had clean radiographs 
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Is the jog livestreaming anywhere? I don’t see it on CMH at the moment, but goodness knows they are not the easiest to find things on.
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I’m looking, as well. The Sunday jogs are not listed as being covered by CMH. I was hoping for FB or YouTube but can’t find anything. 
I can’t find it either, and it’s not listed on the CMH timetable.
Buck’s comments… where did you see them?
Buck was on a TB and probably has the biggest advantage out of just about anyone when it comes to training over similar terrain. I can’t help but wonder if that influenced his opinion.
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Nope- I was an outrider for 20 years for the International but we were pretty obnoxiously told we were unnecessary for the 5 star
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1-3 on the leaderboard, Oliver Townend, David Doel, and Tim Price, do not agree with Buck’s interpretation.
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if he did lose consciousness he shouldn’t have been allowed to continue.
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With live scoring, the fence judges immediately radio in the score for Control to enter into their computer to show on the live score viewed online around the world… The physical paperwork can be collected up at the end of the competition. The outriders and score collectors become redundant.ine
Outriders weren’t score collectors, at least they haven’t been in many many years.
They did crowd control and also were there to catch any loose horses. Both of those are still advantageous from horseback, though it all depends on how capable the pair is.
They still use outriders at the Kentucky 3DE.
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I’m rooting for David Doel - I drove him in a golf cart while volunteering Wednesday and he’s sooo nice! I had no idea who he was, we chatted about nice weather and nice venues. I finally asked if he was riding, or owning, or otherwise. He said he was a rider so I asked his name, didn’t recognize it, and asked what division… 5*! Well then! I wished him good luck and so far he’s done great! Must say I’m his new biggest fan and I hope he does well today and we see him in the future!
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All are through the final horse inspection!
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Genuinely seems like the nicest guy ever!
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I also had super positive interactions with him yesterday. And his horse is HUGE.
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It’s been a long while since I’ve given much credence to anything Buck says. Not being mean, I just sometimes don’t know what planet he’s on.
The terrain at Fair Hill is really tough. I used to live there and rode it daily. It’s hard to prepare for it unless you can recreate it, which most riders can’t. Even the Brits, who have public hill gallops, say that it’s tough terrain. This is one reason why I believe riders don’t want to ride this 5*. It’s an old-style course in a sport going fast in the other direction.
Another reason is the calendar. Someone above said that horses should be fit by October, but I’d say the reverse is true—horses are usually sore by October. Many need a break in the summer because they can’t keep galloping on rock-hard footing all season long, and then they don’t have time or soundness to leg up again, especially for the most severely terrained 5*.
Often riders are this time of year are more focused on the young horse championships and don’t have tome to leg up a huge-terrain 5*. Others spend their season abroad training with Europeans; they’re not going to fly home early with one horse to do a domestic 5*; they will stay and do Burghley in September or Pau in October; Boekelo and Le Lion.
Finally, an advantage for Americans traveling abroad for a 5* is to see how their horses handle long airplane travel and huge, loud crowds, if the rider is one who would reasonably be vying for a spot on an international team. You don’t have huge loud crowds in Maryland.
I love Fair Hill. I was not a fan of the decision to turn it into a 5*. While I nevertheless don’t want to see it fail, I don’t think what they have done makes any sense.
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