Right. And anyway, only one team—the best in the world, arguably, and the one sitting in gold medal position—finished with no xc penalties. How is that too easy? That’s as it should be.
There is plenty in our horse industry that I don’t care for, but it takes all to make it work for all.
Want to complain about some of it, fine, but realize that some may just not agree.
That’s all I was pointing to, obvious here, so many working to make eventing better and safer, but not wanting to just junk it because of the risks involved.
Different strokes … worth mentioning that also, along with the criticism, I think.
My heart is breaking for MJ, who said the pin fell when he was three strides away from the fence and his horse hardly hit the pin. The frangible there needs some real investigating.
14C deformed six times, but it had been up for around 20 riders before it deformed on Jung. It seemed to be pretty sensitive.
I do wonder about having to rebuild it so many times so quickly - I’m sure that to some extent it’s designed for that, but is it really the same fence for all riders? I don’t know enough to know.
I am watching the replay, and Seigniur (sp?) is my new horse crush.
The accident today gives us cause to evaluate all disciplines of riding. I ride hunters and frequently think about how much most of them are “prepared,” lunged, shown week after week only to stand if tiny tent stalls most of the day. My horses don’t require much prep, but they are constantly on the road and away from their turnout. This is inhumane if I am being totally honest, no matter how much I say “they love showing!”
And I nearly threw up watching the Tokyo cross country, seeing some of the horses (and riders) exhausted “rub” jumps, getting there at the half stride to enormous solid obstacles. Honestly, I wish it were not televised, for the sake of equestrian sport. It only takes a few jumps to make the whole thing look horrific, no matter how many clear rounds there are. I had non-horse houseguests and they couldn’t believe how awful it looked for the animals. At the same time, I myself had the same impression with much of the Dressage and I’m sure the Showjumping will give me a similar feeling. Shame on many of us, me included.
I thought the cross country didn’t seem unreasonable in terms of difficulty. I did not see the first (and only?) horse fall but the rider falls and refusals I did see seemed to allow the horse to preserve themselves. I think the biggest issue was fitness and it definitely showed. Hard rubs or having to use a fifth leg at times don’t bother me, but some of the horses were definitely being pushed beyond what their fitness would allow.
Also super bummed about Jet Set I was watching him and thinking what a cool horse. I haven’t seen anywhere that he fell though (someone on the WTF are we doing thread said he fell), sounded like he just landed wrong and was pulled up shortly after completing the effort in the water. I don’t know how much that risk can be reduced. (said as the person who had a mare break her pastern in a manicured turnout while bombing around)
Before the EventingNation website went down, the live blog said that Godel/Jet Set fell. But I think they were just repeating the rumors going around from folks on the course. From the FEI press release, it doesn’t sound like he fell.
I’m not sure what they can do about any of that now. Unless they have it on video falling before he got to it? Honestly, I kind of think that frangible pin technology is sometimes going to malfunction and perhaps fall when it shouldn’t, but the trade off (preventing catastrophic falls) is worth that price. It’s not going to be perfect, and if it serves the primary goal it’s better to have it than not.
The questions being asked at 14 was to be bold to jump a b and then bring your horse back for the CD element. Most the writers I saw that deformed it had plenty coming in at AB but just couldn’t get the horses back in time for the CD element. It was a tough question.
It sounds like Jet Set didn’t fall, just pulled up lame after a jump. Which is really truly sad, but is not anyone’s fault. That could have happened in a hunter derby.