Oliver Townend whip abuse continues

[Jealoushe]

It looks like there is one from the current list (the one the post is about) which this list dates back to December 2020.

Not sure if they get removed from the list ever? Will have to dig a bit more to find the old lists.

Looks like the previous two were Badminton 2018, and then Blair Castle 4 months later in 2018.

This article is from 2014 and mentions some verbal warnings; https://e-venting.co.uk/2014/06/mary-kings-yellow-card-at-bramham/

If you compare this to Oliver Townend who has recently received two verbal warnings within the space of a month for Badminton and for Tattersalls. It appears that Oliver Townend at Tattersalls was given a verbal warning because he apologised and then afterwards made every effort to find out how the unmonitored child who was in the middle of the galloping lane was when he got off his horse. The ground jury accepted that he had slowed down as requested to do by the official but not enough care was taken. The Badminton verbal warning for abuse of the horse with whip and spurs. Though Oliver Townend admitted on Badminton radio that the horse was lighter in weight than he had wanted and this might have impacted on the horses energy levels at the end.

Just doing some googling I never heard about HMs horse getting stuck on a jump and getting a red card. Poor horse.

https://equusmagazine.com/blog-equus/good-news-bad-news-from-uks-burghley-horse-trials/

[BigMama1]

@beowulf

I’m not a fan of Indoor Eventing. I wish it was called something else and was removed from our sport. I wonder if that’s how the Dressage purists feel about Eventing dressage…?

It’s how we feel about Western Dressage lol. (And yes, I’m kidding. Mostly.)

[endlessclimb]

I do cringe at WD riders in curbs with full blown contact on them.

[Marigold]

@endlessclimb

@Jealoushe

Ollie

Can we please stop using cutesy nicknames for horse abusers? It makes my skin crawl.

I’m not taking a position on most of this right now, mostly because I don’t feel I have enough information in any direction. But it’s not a “cutesy nickname” - just a shortened form of his name that he goes by fairly often. Ollie, Jeff, or Mike can abuse horses, or not abuse horses, just as easily as Oliver, Jeffrey, or Michael. I’m all for holding people to account as the situation warrants, but I don’t think it matters which version of their name you use when you do it.

[ACMEeventing]

If this is the same as the Sweden Indoor Festival I watched it live on my computer. Some of the horses were young and “getting experience” in a big atmosphere. I’ll say it was a big atmosphere!

There was a combination that included an up-bank (I seem to recall that some bounced the top, some did a stride, some peeked hard and did an extra shuffle, but don’t quote me on that). OT’s horse looked overwhelmed the minute he set foot in the arena. He stopped on top of the bank and would not jump down off any of the sides. He eventually backed up enough that he fell off the edge and OT popped off over the neck.

If this was a different event, than I don’t know what happened.

[Blugal]

It’s really not good horsemanship for these events to run this way. Why does someone want a famous rider to jockey their horse, in a huge atmosphere,? Then when it gets scared, instead of knowing what to do based on your relationship to the horse, you cause it to fall backwards off a bank.

[endlessclimb]

Maybe. But this poster uses cutesy nicknames for nearly all of the top riders. In this case, it’s not the place. No one else shortened it to Ollie.

If someone is warned by officials for a serious allegations, it should be with the formality that requires - their actual name. It doesn’t say Ollie on the FEI document.

[Jealoushe]

Yeah, it’s not the first time they have fallen off the banks in these events either.

Now want to see a masterclass catch ride at Indoor eventing? Check out Michi at Royal Winter Fair riding that incredibly special OTTB.

He was schooling the horse, not trying to win, but still having a good time. He really is the gold standard to me.

I will watch Ollies video tonight on H&C TV tonight when I get home later. Can’t comment before seeing it.

[BWP]

I knew he had received a warning at my local event so did a search, this popped up on the live LK3DE thread last year as part of a post by Blugal. Any formatting issues mine!

CIC3*|Blair Castle|23.08.2018|Townend Oliver|Tregilder|Verbal warning|Abuse of horse / excessive use of whip

CCI4*|Badminton|02.05.2018|Townend Oliver|Cooley SRS and Ballaghmore Class|Verbal warning|Abuse of horse / excessive use of whip

CCI4*|Badminton|02.05.2018|Townend Oliver|Cooley SRS and Ballaghmore Class|Verbal warning|Abuse of horse / excessive use of whip

Floors Castle|2017-05-12|Townend Oliver||Verbal warning|Abuse of horse / inappropriate use of whip

Osberton|03-10-14|Townend Oliver||Verbal warning + fine|Incorrect behaviour towards a Steward

CCI3*|Ratoath Tattersalls|27-05-14|Townend Oliver|Sandiman III|Verbal warning|Dangerous riding / careless riding after finish

CCI4*|Badminton|08-05-14|Townend Oliver|Armada|Verbal warning|Abuse of horse /use of whip and spurs

CCI3*|Bramham (GBR)|2008-06-05|Townend Oliver|Flint Curtis|Verbal warning|Finished on very tired horse

CCI3*|Bramham (GBR)|2008-06-05|Townend Oliver|Golden Hue|Verbal warning|Finished on very tired horse

[Djones]

@Blugal

I admit I was ready to be offended by Boyd’s remark. But after watching his discussion with the owner at the beginning, and then the round, and then the context of the remark, I can’t be offended by it. He rode to the owner’s orders, it looked sympathetic as there didn’t seem to be arguments with Boyd’s hands/horse’s mouth. Boyd was full of praise for the horse at the end, patted him, and the crocodile remark was in line with Boyd’s sense of humour.

I’m not offended by it either. I brought it up because they are discussing in the warm up if he will turn or not in the arena, then it follows that the horse has a mouth like a crocodile and he was “doing the old elbow thing” and “doing it old-school.” Someone was commenting at how lovely boyd’s horse and ride was and I was sharing that maybe he made it look that way, but it was perhaps darn close to a(nother) mess.

[Blugal]

Just watched the Swedish arena eventing.

Boyd’s horse definitely looked difficult in the mouth, and he was riding it very sympathetically.

You could tell Oliver’s ride wasn’t going to go well when the horse wouldn’t go near the liverpool before he started the round (he wasn’t the only one, it was a very spooky jump).

The horse was going green; he was stuffed over the liverpool, but he took out the rails hard with his hind end. When the bank line came up, it was a very sharp turn at the end of the ring, a couple strides to a combination: skinny, 1 stride to bank, bounce off the top (over a log), 1 stride to a skinny shoulder brush.

Poor horse was overwhelmed, green, it was too much. It didn’t have enough time to process the questions… exactly the problem with this kind of course.

I don’t like to see these young/developing horses being used in this way for the “entertainment”.

Oliver wasn’t carrying a whip during this round… I wonder if he had it taken away after his warning. He also didn’t have his airvest clipped to his saddle.

[Jealoushe]

@Blugal

Oliver wasn’t carrying a whip during this round… I wonder if he had it taken away after his warning. He also didn’t have his airvest clipped to his saddle.

oh interesting, were you able to see the round with the whip?

[Blugal]

No. From something the commentator said, I thought there were 2 rounds… but what I saw seemed to be the final.

It’s possible he was warned about the whip during warm up or schooling.

[Jealoushe]

Interesting, I wonder if they scrubbed that video from the playback.

[Larksmom]

I haven’t seen it but they seem to have two rounds on this arena eventing. Ollie fell during the first round So he was eliminated and didn’t ride the second round.

[Jealoushe]

I wonder if it was 2 rounds over 2 days then?

[Blugal]

2 rounds was my understanding, the one I saw was on Friday I think. So I thought there was a 2nd round on Sunday. Will look tonight.

[Larksmom]

they were several days apart. I kept looking for the results, and couldn’t find them. But finally they appeared in EN on Sunday. I think it went from Thursday to Sunday.

[beowulf]

I’ve said this before about Oliver but I am amazed his horses go so well for him. He is a talented rider but I hate seeing the whip abuse. We don’t deserve their generosity, truly.

I wasn’t quipping with my thread above when I said at least ten instances as far as I remember. Thanks for taking the time to search.

I’m assuming he is on the Watch List.

[Meshach1]

especially when the professionals describe their rounds as “turn and burn” ugh