Rolex Live Stream/Results/Comments thread

[runNjump86]

@OverandOnward;8643399

Fwiw … the live stream showed only a few of Avery Klunick’s jumps since she was on at the same time as a leader. But IMO her round is well worth a look, keeping in mind that she’s the youngest rider in the field, this is her first 4*, and she’s on her Junior Rider mount. Except for just a couple of minor blips, she looks like a Rolex veteran! Oh well, that last fence was nearly a disaster … has to have one major learning experience out of it, I guess.

Mackenna Shea also had a nice round! Is this her first time? Somehow her horse’s name seems familiar.

This was Mackenna’s second go, first completion. They fell at a corner (I believe) last year. They had a beautiful dressage test last year and were pretty high up the leaderboard. XC was going great until that jump. It looked like he just didn’t pick his legs up enough.

Both she and Avery are naturally gifted riders. Avery’s ride was amazing today. Watching her come out of the “new” water was so fun. She rode it just as well or better than some of the veterans!! Both of these Young Riders have bright futures.

[CaitlinandTheBay]

[QUOTE=blackwly;8643629]
Just watched Jung’s round again. He is a league above everyone else. Words I would use to describe his riding are “fluid” and “forward.” His contact with the mare is amazingly soft. Honestly, I like her but I dont think she is especially flashy at all. She is a bit flat by nature and her stride is economical but not huge. I don’t think she is as athletic as half of the U.S. horses at Rolex. But she is superbly trained, superbly ridden, and has tremendous heart (perhaps in part due to outstanding training.) don’t get me wrong - she is a very cool horse. She just doesn’t have the movement/flash of many at this level. She has amazing self-carriage and confidence, and I think that is largely trained in from very early on. Makes me wonder about all the horses our pros buy at the top levels. Jung clearly makes some of his success by bringing his stars along himself.

It strikes me that Jung rides D/SJ like a German and XC like a kiwi. That is tough to beat. He went out to win today, not stay safe and get just enough time penalties to maintain his lead. It works.[/QUOTE]

See, and I feel like LK is creeping up on him, if not in the dressage perfect, certainly XC. Her rounds were lovely to watch- smooth, accurate, consistent. Both her horses looked happy and fit.

I just finished watching the entire replay. I agree with others here- some horses seemed very obviously not fit to run today.

Also, Donner! :love-struck: He’s so great.

ETA: Is “mud in the tail” some sort of euphemism? I’m unfamiliar with that phrase.

[drsmcc]

I posted this elsewhere, but it does answer your question?

Here are the stats for all cross country starters this year at Rolex. Keep in mind I did this by hand. There could be errors, but not too many as I cross checked most of it pretty well. Frankly, if there is an error, so what.
64 starters. 8 were either withdrawn or eliminated. Of those:
Age range: 10-18 with a fairly even distribution between 10 and 14, but there were 12 between 15 and 18
Color: I don’t separate bay, dk. bay, brown, etc as people are too inconsistent about defining them. (So with an agouti gene.)
47 of 64 were in the Bay series, there were 12 chestnuts, only four greys, and one black.
The heights ranged from declared 15.3 to 17.2. I am always a bit dubious about accuracy. 16.0 to 16.3 gets you 50 of the 64 starters.
There were 8 mares and the rest were geldings. No stallions this year.
Good old Thoroughbreds out number all the rest with 21, and Irish Sport Horses were second with 16. Those two account for half the field. There were also 10 declared TB or ISH crosses. That accounts for a total of 47 of 64 starters. Of the top ten, at least 7 had one or more TB parents, with only 2 pure TBs.
So if you have a 16.2h bay Thoroughbred gelding who is about 16.2, he fits the profile of a Rolex horse.

[anon38350891]

This video of Michael Jung’s entire ride: I get the sense this horse would ride straight into Hell for him. And: I’m not very smart about cross country riding but he seems to be so flexible for the horse.

http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/watch-why-they-won-michael-jungs-rolex-kentucky-cross-country-round

[FitToBeTied]

I was watching the videos this morning and I wish they would either use more cameras or get somebody that knows how to place a camera. So often the view is obscured by trees, vehicles or the crowds.

For the olympics, I think it was a given that B< and PD were going to be on the team. I think Maya Black should be there. She and her horse have been the most consistent and good pair in the US this year.

[Fred]

[QUOTE=drsmcc;8643694]
I posted this elsewhere, but it does answer your question?

Here are the stats for all cross country starters this year at Rolex. Keep in mind I did this by hand. There could be errors, but not too many as I cross checked most of it pretty well. Frankly, if there is an error, so what.
64 starters. 8 were either withdrawn or eliminated. Of those:
Age range: 10-18 with a fairly even distribution between 10 and 14, but there were 12 between 15 and 18
Color: I don’t separate bay, dk. bay, brown, etc as people are too inconsistent about defining them. (So with an agouti gene.)
47 of 64 were in the Bay series, there were 12 chestnuts, only four greys, and one black.
The heights ranged from declared 15.3 to 17.2. I am always a bit dubious about accuracy. 16.0 to 16.3 gets you 50 of the 64 starters.
There were 8 mares and the rest were geldings. No stallions this year.
Good old Thoroughbreds out number all the rest with 21, and Irish Sport Horses were second with 16. Those two account for half the field. There were also 10 declared TB or ISH crosses. That accounts for a total of 47 of 64 starters. Of the top ten, at least 7 had one or more TB parents, with only 2 pure TBs.
So if you have a 16.2h bay Thoroughbred gelding who is about 16.2, he fits the profile of a Rolex horse.[/QUOTE]

I am wondering if A Little Romance is the smallest of the Rolex horses?

https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixEquestrianTeam/photos/a.1079954008729342.1073741868.153720458019373/1080612468663496/?type=3&theater

I think she might be only 15.2

[jcraig10]

Never Outfoxed dismissed at the jog…huge bummer.

[enjoytheride]

Bummmer, he looked sound to me.

[OverandOnward]

[QUOTE=FitToBeTied;8643711]
I was watching the videos this morning and I wish they would either use more cameras or get somebody that knows how to place a camera. So often the view is obscured by trees, vehicles or the crowds.
…[/QUOTE]

Actually, I thought it was worlds better this year than last year. I think they had more cameras, because there were fewer gaps in coverage when no riders were within camera range, even though several were on course. (They also did a far, far better job of choosing which shots to display.)

I think the views through the trees and crowds are because cameras cover one obstacle with a close clear view, and also covers other obstacles that are farther away.

Camera coverage is always a challenge for sports broadcasting. Both the cameras and skilled operators are incredibly expensive. A network only has so many cameras to allocate and distribute to all of the sporting events they cover on a given weekend.

And cross-country not only covers a huge outdoor space, the sight lines are often obscured by rolling terrain, trees & brush, and crowds. Completely thorough coverage would require far more cameras than NBC probably feels is cost-justified, given what other events they are covering that weekend.

We will hope that they give us plenty of cameras for the Olympics! Eventing will be competing for cameras against a LOT of other popular sports. And it isn’t located near the main competition complex, making it harder to shuttle more equipment back & forth.

In all honesty, we are lucky NBC covers Rolex KY live, with their quality cameras that have such good pictures. I am hugely grateful for the job they did on Rolex cross-country yesterday.

As always, everyone - let the sponsors and those who helped provide a livestream broadcast know how much we appreciate having it!

[alicen]

5 E’s, 3 R’s, I think that’s the smallest number of non-finishers I’ve ever seen on a four* x-country course.

[Larksmom]

the only problem with the cameras yesterday was the bumbershoots! Umbrellas block a lot, especially when clustered around the jump.

Concerning Shammie and Madison Park, MP’s legs looked sound to me, but his eye didn’t look happy to me, and I sort of got that with Shammie. Hope I am wrong about that.

[OverandOnward]

[QUOTE=alicen;8643825]
5 E’s, 3 R’s, I think that’s the smallest number of non-finishers I’ve ever seen on a four* x-country course.[/QUOTE]

Noticed that as well. A tribute to both course design and the better quality of the competition, I’m thinking. Especially considering the conditions.

I am wondering if the footing overall is not quite what it was just after WEG in 2012. I know they poured resources into the footing for the WEG, just in case the weather turned out as it did this year. Suspecting that it hasn’t been kept up to that high standard, probably hard to get the resources to do it.

[Montanas_Girl]

Whew. I was holding my breath for Boyd and Shamwari; it seemed like the judges took forever to pass them on that re-present.

[alicen]

Event horses’ shoulders are to die for.

[ACMEeventing]

[QUOTE=mareslave;8643459]
she didn’t look tight in that tack, face planted into mare’s neck a couple times before she finally came off. Legs were definitely not as fixed as other riders’ legs.[/QUOTE]

I know this conversation is from yesterday, but I think being there vs watching the live feed gives two different impressions. That horse looked absolutely exhausted from when I saw her over the curvey brush, on the jump through the hollow, and then right past me at the pond. She was knocking jumps and looked head down and sullen.
They absolutely climbed over the horse park barns at the Normandy bank. I thought she was going to come off or have a horse fall the last 4 fences before she actually did. It was not good.

Poor Allison. The footing at the end of the day was sucking the life out these horses. She looked to be doing her absolute best in horrid conditions and came into the park question a little underpowered, he peeked, and there was just nothing to take off with (obviously all my opinion from where I was standing). If she would have had an early ride time this might be a very different outcome. Sucks.

Veronica? Frigging adore her

[Lord_Helpus]

Alicen, I noticed that, too. There is certainly a ‘type’ for upper level event horses; an incredible # had the same proportions, the same neck set, the same hip angles and the same length of body cf. legs.

Even though they do dressage and show jumping, they do not look at all like dressage horses or show jumpers. Each discipline certainly calls for horses with the physical attributes that match their jobs.

[BEARCAT]

I was very happy with the FREE live video coverage! Yes it’s not perfect (lots of umbrellas!) but they were noneless able to capture rare footage of Yoda crossing the field 3 mns into Michael Jung’s run

[annikak]

If I was a mare, running around jumping the biggest fences I would face in my life, in mud, cold and rain? I’d look sullen and heads down too. Really, yesterday proved the benevolence of the horse. Those conditions sucked. Period

[Simba27]

EN’s website says a rider was mandated to retire…anyone know who that was?

[Auburn]

I watched the last few horses jog. After standing for seven hours, in the rain, as a crossing guard, I slept in this morning.

What I noted was the way the horses were jogged. If the rider had a borderline soundness problem, he/she held the reins much closer to the horses chin. When MJ jogged his mare, he held the reins at least a foot away from the chin.

Is there not any rule that addresses allowing freedom of the head, in the jog?