Ooops - Beezie Madden.........

Don’t forget their Olympic-quality horses as well.:lol:

May the best horse and best rider on a given day win. I liked the Olympics a whole lot better before Atlanta, when it became us, as in USA, against the world. The 1984 Olympics were so much more exciting than Atlanta because people were cheering for great horses and great riders of all countries. (Plus we had Touch of class and Abdullah back then.:cool:)

Anyone remember how great Phillipe Le Jeune was at WEG? He rode every horse according to the horse’s abilities, and got best rider. And Hickstead even carried everyone around in good form, despite some riders’ errors.

[QUOTE=jumpingmaya;6484827]
Ok- I’ll take a step back… I apologize if I came across the wrong way… Didn’t mean to insinuate even though reading it (without hearing a possible tone of voice that went with it)- I can see how it came across that way.

I only meant to voice an opinion… Hope I was wrong…[/QUOTE]

Hello backpedal, meet fail…

[QUOTE=MyssMyst;6484857]
Hello backpedal, meet fail…[/QUOTE]

HAHAHA… thanks for that laugh :lol:

[QUOTE=jumpingmaya;6484827]
Ok- I’ll take a step back… I apologize if I came across the wrong way… Didn’t mean to insinuate even though reading it (without hearing a possible tone of voice that went with it)- I can see how it came across that way.

I only meant to voice an opinion… Hope I was wrong…[/QUOTE]

Fine. You really do need to be more careful when talking about things you know nothing about.

Even the great have bad days. I think we all know that deep down, but it’s not fun to see a visual reminder.

Horses have a way of making even the best in the world humble. To Beezie’s (and Via Volo’s!) credit, they managed to pull it together and put in some decent rounds for the rest of the team competition.

Last time I checked… it is against FEI rules to use your whip after being eliminated from a course. So the FEI lets her get away with that and eliminates Tiffany Foster for hypersensitivity… does anyone else not see the issue with this??

[QUOTE=MissM;6485756]
Last time I checked… it is against FEI rules to use your whip after being eliminated from a course. So the FEI lets her get away with that and eliminates Tiffany Foster for hypersensitivity… does anyone else not see the issue with this??[/QUOTE]

Nope, not really. They’re not related except for the fact that both rules were written to address issues of potential horse abuse and that abuse did not occur in either the Tiffany nor Beezie situation. (I feel horrible for Tiffany btw).

In my mind Beezie was schooling. Unfortunately it was in an Olympic arena after a DQ. Everyone needs to quit hyperventilating over her use of the whip - rule or no rule it was not abusive.

[QUOTE=MissM;6485756]
Last time I checked… it is against FEI rules to use your whip after being eliminated from a course. So the FEI lets her get away with that and eliminates Tiffany Foster for hypersensitivity… does anyone else not see the issue with this??[/QUOTE]

It’s also against the rules to use your whip after the last fence on cross-country, which Mark Todd did as well.

Of course the horses wouldn’t be prepped there at the Olympics…tis why they were in Holland a month or so before the games.
The mare was over-jumping but she may just be very careful or may have been poled. You never ever know.
For me, when I watched, I just saw that Beezie had a bad day. I don’t blame her and I don’t blame the horse. I just love to read the articles that state that the horse refused the second fence…lol She didn’t refuse. Her rider pulled her up cause there was no way in hedes they were making it out of that combination! Oh the things non-horse people don’t understand! :lol:
I’m not so sure we should be critiquing such a rider as Beezie. We all have our days in this sport, even the best of us. It sucks but we are not dealing with poles in the pole vault or a balance beam. We aren’t dealing with THINGS to aide us in our sport we are dealing with animals who have feelings and are alive! Unlike a kayak or row boat…
I think it puts us above most sports. What we do is very unique!

I think both were fantastic the second day.