I’ve seen this video before, and I wondered if the horse was being naughty in some way, or if it was just hideous horsemanship, or what. Can someone who is more knowledgeable explain what we are seeing in this video?
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I’m honestly shocked that horses actually jump for him. The way he flails around, misses distances, takes their teeth out and thwomps on their backs over and over is so hard to watch. I hope he is seriously sanctioned for continuing to kick that poor thing around, he is lucky they both weren’t seriously injured or killed. That luck will run out eventually.
I also hope his owners pull his horses and that he gets out of the ring and stays out so I never have to watch him ride again.
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I couldn’t watch the entire round. That was awful. Poor horse.
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Is there a mechanism (e.g. yellow or red card, or DQ) to penalize riders in showjumping, or make them pull-up when there is concern for the safety of the horse, or dangerous riding during a round? I have never seen anyone called out for this in showjumping (mind you, a lot of showjumpers seem to have the good sense to retire when the horse is struggling).
ETA: So there have been yellow cards issued in showjumping for ‘abuse of horse’ and ‘incorrect behaviour’. It seems that ‘dangerous riding’ is an eventing-specific rule.
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I wondered the same thing so I looked at the results for every year since 2010… not only did the same horse never win… the winner of the QE was never even entered in the derby…
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That was absolutely disgusting. I thought the way he continued in the jump off at Devon after totally crashing at the second jump was bad, but this is deplorable. This isn’t a case of one poor judgement call. This guy has a history of horrendous horsemanship. The first bad choice this past weekend was entering the horse in the derby in the first place, the second was not pulling him up after he racked up several rails. I wanted to puke watching that. Surely there must be something the FEI or USEF can do. It’s embarrassing that this man is representing the United States. That horse deserves better, so much better. He is so game and honest to continue like that. I can only hope if the owners don’t pull him, that someone offers them a boat load of money that they can’t resist saying no.
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His WCF horse literally DIED jumping the Hickstead derby last year. You would have thought he would have learned his lesson. Apparently not.
How he still gets top mounts is beyond me. I hope Eye Candy pulls their support of him. Their horses are too nice to end up like poor Navalo De Poheton.
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I can probably find the results to confirm, but some are saying on the FB post that the horse he rode in the derby jumped in several big classes all week at Hickstead (I think the nations cup as well) and he still entered that the derby on the last day after that. Just gross. Idk how anyone can defend this guy.
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Same ol’ Andy. Before he became “famous”, this is how he made his living. He showed horses into the ground, overfaced them, sold them broken. He was a hack and a bit of a joke. Then he got a little success on a saintly horse and gained some backers and now his antics are on full display worldwide.
I know so many kind, hard-working, horse first, talented women who never get a backer. If you’re a dude, rich ladies fling money at you. There have actually been studies done on people not trusting women with investments.
Now that this is out, can we stop allowing him to announce on live feeds?! I want to throw up anytime I hear him trying to act like this humble, all American good guy. Biggest scam going.
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I’m actually surprised Spruce let him start the horse for the Derby on Sunday. Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a new rule in place next year. The horse did amazingly well for being exhausted, there were lots of entries who were eliminated this year.
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Yep! I knew Andy back in the day too… I’m also seriously shocked he hasn’t had a safe sport violation but that’s a whole different topic
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OMG. This horse looks green broke at best and the constant pulling on his face is appalling.
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Good lord that was hard to watch…
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And let’s not forget the recent Noelle Floyd article, in which the amount of hardware on the horse in the accompanying picture caused quite a stir…
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I’m surprised that article is still up on NF, given that every single commentator was horrified by the photos (rare unanimity on a horse website).I have no idea how it even passed editorial review in the guise of a kind of puff piece about treats and mane combs in a grooming bag. It’s a sad commentary that the people writing or photographing the piece didn’t take a step back and say, “wtf is going on with this setup.”
Speaking of puff pieces, I remember seeing an interview with him after he won a big class about his struggles to make it in the industry in which he talks about some of the things he did just starting out. In light of recent events, even this starts to seem rather dark as well, although it’s given a positive spin in the way it’s presented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ8WS4bzYaU
Edited to add–I just noticed the link no longer works, though it did last night, so Heels Down has apparently taken the video off its YouTube site.
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If I recall correctly classes like the derby and at Spruce used to have guaranteed prize money for completing (something like 3500) and people used to enter in the derby if they’d had a not so great show and needed a little prize money. So basically that’s why he didn’t pull up even though it was obvious that the horse was absolutely exhausted (and it’s not like the horse didn’t win huge $$$ the day before). Basically the exact opposite of good horsemanship
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If that is the case, they might need to rethink that policy. It should not have to be spelled out in the rules that you should not plow through the course with seven rails just to get a consolation prize money check. Even on a fresh horse, much less one that did three rounds the previous day. But obviously, it needs to be clarified in the rules for some people.
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The way he treats his horses in public makes me shudder to think what is happening at home.
There’s a reason that completely exhausted horse kept jumping, and it’s not just because he wanted to be a good boy.
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How is that legal??
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