There was a lot of brush on course, I definitely noticed that when walking it.
A lot of people were in the tents watching the big screens
This is part “risk management” by the course designer.
Brush that goes high on the sides (like a scalloped fence, shoulder brush, etc.) provides a visual for the horse as to where they should takeoff and how high they should jump.
Max height of brush at 5* is 4’11 for the back of a spread, that’s a huge fence.
Big fences command respect and encourage riders to come with power. If they don’t, the horse may run out (it’s a huge jump) or if it jumps, it’s jumping higher than the solid part of the fence. Brushing through is safer.
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Sat in on an interesting webinar from FEI last week? In which one of the segments addressed horse falls. The overall statistics presented indicated a downward trend (decrease) in the number of horse falls. This trend was attributed to several factors including increased use of brush fences, more frangibles (new frangible trakehner on the way)willingness of riders to retire when things were going well, willingness of officials to alter tracks due to conditions (as is happening with Pau right now) and to award penalties when needed (two DRs given at Maryland). I believe the webinar is available somewhere on the FEI website.
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interesting. I just watched all the cross country at Pau this morning. There were two falls by Frenchmen and one from a German off camera. There might be more, but that is all I am aware of. One of the falls was at the last big fence. It was a giant oxer, and it was a frangible. he hit the back rail, and it was an almost slow motion fall, horse and rider went down. They cut away quickly so I don’t know how it turned out, but that was a giant jump at the end of a very muddy tiring track. They fixed it quickly and didn’t even have to stop the next horse. Another rider was jumping badly, and after awhile, it was clear the horse was very tired. I think they were about to pull him out when he retired.
The other one was at a jump in the water. It looked like a corner, but it was big and wide. the horse somersaulted over it, and they both fell.
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I see that Ariel Grald got one in the 3*. I don’t see a second one?
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Two recorded warnings for pressing a tired horse both in the 3*. Ariel and Caitlin O’Rourke
Didn’t watch the live feed but read they removed quite a few jumps from the course. Seems like a lot of riders also chalked up over 100 penalty points. Happy Boyd and Federman had a good trip and withdrew his 2nd horse. I’m also amazed at the number of British riders who have 5* horses.
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I only searched the results - Ariel is recorded as 25 penalties for dangerous riding. Caitlin was eliminated, so in the results that’s all that’s showing.
It’s the FEI warning cards list that shows a Recorded Warning for both riders,
I’ll add this to my conspiracy theory about courses designed to sabotage OTTBs.
?? can you elaborate on this?
Two TBs finished out of 8 finishers at Maryland.
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Sorry, what? TBs are the backbone of eventing in North America. They eat up the cross country and lots of them are competing at the top of the sport. Riders and spectators love them.
If anything they are losing in the dressage.
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Sorry. To clarify, that was tongue in cheek. It’s not a conspiracy theory.
Obviously, a jump or xc course with turns primarily (or exclusively) in one direction will handicap horses who had prior careers where their brain and body were extensively trained to turn, almost exclusively, in the opposite direction. That’s not a fair playing field. Two thoroughbred horses having made it to jumping doesn’t mean that the jump course was equally fair to OTTBs. Only one of those horses is OTT anyway.
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And later in the course there were combinations where you were required to turn left.
The sport is not about fairness. It’s about good riding and training and some luck. If it rains in the middle of xc day and you’re last to go and have to run in the mud, was it not fair? Should they have made the jumps smaller for Teddy O’Connor?
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This is rather silly. By the time an OTTB reaches FEI level, they should not be “handicapped” by one sidedness or a turning preference. There are plenty of TBs who prefer to go right.
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Multiple false equivalencies at work there!
What a strange thing to say. No part of me believes that course designers and the teams that run upper level events are trying to prevent OTTBs from being successful at the top level of the sport. There’s no motive there.
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I understand your sentiment but have not found that their previous career has jeopardized their success as eventers in that capacity. There are other ways I think racing does no favor to TBs restarted as eventers, but that is not one of them.
Both my current eventing TBs (31 starts, 78 starts) are better going to the right.
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It would also only impact TBs trained and raced in North America. Nowhere else to my knowledge only races in one direction.
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9 jumps were taken out, weather was a disaster
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