Anybody know anything about Izzy Taylor? That was an ugly fall.
Third hand I hear she broke her arm is all.
I got this from the Horse & Hound forum:
From the H&H comp report.
'Technical delegate Gillian Kyle gave an update on Izzyās condition at the post-cross-country press conference.
āIām pleased to say Izzy is fine. She is conscious and has been taken to hospital for further observations,ā she said. āThere doesnāt seem to be any really serious damage, but we will know more later. I would like to wish her well and hope that she makes a speedy recovery.āā
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Ollie Townend withdrew MHS King Joules either during or after the 2nd horse inspection. Was anyone watching? The way EN reported, it seems like maybe he was sent to the holding box and withdrew there, but itās unclear. Apparently he lost multiple shoes and banged his knee near one of the finals combinations.
H&C is misbehaving but they are live streaming on FB https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=406863604271070
Thanks for the Facebook link - I watched the final 8 go, which was fun.
Does HandC Ever work or answer their customer inquiries? Another frustrating attempt.
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Sad I didnāt catch a single piece of the action, was too busy this weekend. Hopefully some of it ends up on Youtube lol
Now that we know both she and the horse are alright, that fall is fascinating to me (in all the wrong ways). She fell at fence 29B (photos can be seen at the link below) - an incredibly skinny brush-topped rolled wedge. It wasnāt frangible, but Iāll be the first one to say I wouldnāt ever think a fence like that would need to be frangible. The runout is so easy/inviting in the event of an issue, and itās so narrow that youād think it would be quite difficult to catch a leg on it. The brush and the rolled profile only adds to the list of reasons why it reads as a very safe fence to me.
Yet this horse managed to catch not one, but both front legs on the jump, and rotate so hard that (luckily for him) his head and neck barely even touched the ground when he landed - he landed back-first and essentially continued rolling up onto his butt. He landed ever so slightly off to her left, but two inches to the right and I donāt want to know what might have happened.
Photos of the fence (29B): https://app.crosscountryapp.com/pau/5-u8cl?base=satellite&feature=jump-29AB-l57f
Footage of the fall at 3:27: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=586654789321487
Iām not a course designer or an expert of any kind, but I am truly at a loss as to how that fall could have been prevented. That was an incredibly experienced rider, on a horse who has been produced by nothing but the most educated in our sport, at a fence that appeared quite safe to my eye. I would love to hear more thoughts if anyone has them. It was scary and could have ended so much worse. Falls like that are definitely number one on the list of what we need to prevent.
From photos, I believe she was wearing an air vest, but I canāt tell whether or not it inflated in time or not in this instance, which I can know can be an issue when horse and rider fall together.
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I cant watch the video on this computer at the moment, did she jump it straight or did she angle it? Usually on a line these can be taken at an angle. Wondering if thats what happened because the sides are fairly square. I think rolled edges or more brush would be better.
But thatās the second bad fall at that exact fence type in so many days.
To my eye, she jumped it straight. Unlike the Lion fall, the fence was properly secured to the ground (and did not move), was placed on flat ground, and did not appear shadowed.
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Sometimes accidents do happen, despite the very best efforts of course designer, course builder, TD, GJ, ridersā rep and the individual rider and the horse to stay safe. It really looked like a straight forward jump.
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Absolutely agree with you. I think discussion is always important, because it can often bring forth ideas to lessen the number of accidents in the future, but this oneā¦at least for me, I have no ideas. I was just hoping someone else might.
Having watched a lot more of her round, Issy and her horse were not having a particularly good run. In my view, they appeared to lack the usual harmony and rhythm that Issy has with her horses. There were a lot of hand and body adjustments going on. Perhaps the horse disliked the course, which certainly required a lot of twisting, turning, adjusting, ups and downs: it didnāt look fluent and focused. It will be interesting to see the pair over a galloping track like Badminton.
Izzy Footage here; https://youtu.be/Icp-VMoS7mY
Her ride was just not going well, and the horse failed to lift his front legs when he fell. The footing could have been a bit slippy, as it rained the night before.
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/france/pau/historic
you know, you just donāt know what will bring someone down. Look at Phillip at Maryland 5 star. He was having a nice round, and then a most innocent looking fence and he went down in a heap.
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WFP summary;
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I agree that the ride was going badly, the bellying over the jump in the water was a clue! I snapshot each frame of the fall I could just to see what was going on, and for me the rider just never let the horse settle at any moment in the strides between the elements, her hands were quite high, so the horse never was able to place his feet, hind end seemed to not coil enough and the right front appeared to be looking for balance at the penultimate takeoff point and never left the ground under its own power. That leg was straight under his body as he rotated. The rider appeared to be going for time despite the fact her horse appeared to be behind her leg most of the way round the course. Itās tough when you are on top of the leaderboard to decide today isnāt a good day in the heat of battle and I wish her fast healing. They could have as easily skidded over that jump with some minor change and won on another day so hindsight is 20-20. Zero to hero is a very small margin.
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