Guaranteed to. Look at those eyes. And it’s by her Agana vh Gerendal. Practically family already 
Nice. Maybe they can have father and son stalls next to each other.
They had that arrangement at Coolmore America with a father and son who were standing at stud there.
I believe it was Uncle Mo and his son Mo Town.
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Horse people wonder why are sport is ridiculed. Flying over a braider.
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If they’re flying over the horses, the owners, the riders, the trainers, the grooms, probably a couple of vets, maybe a farrier…
Why draw the line at the braider?
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So it depends but some of the grooms are the braiders. Very dependent on the barn. But if you’re paying a true full time groom (meaning they don’t muck stalls, drag the arena, etc) that groom probably braids and clips at a professional level.
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I noticed Nick and so many others are no longer going there either. Kind of interesting. It’s all so dumb I just laugh. Real top European show jumpers think American hunter riders are a complete joke. Yes they will make a profit off of them for horses that “aren’t good enough for the sport”, but that’s where it stops. The overall feeling in Europe is that the hunter sport in America isn’t horseman and that it’s insane the amount of lunging, riding, and drugs that are used.
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Jan Tops has measures in place to re-awaken the spectators if they are lulled to sleep by the hunters:
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Why?
At this level they know what their horse needs so if their horse needs lunging they will get it scheduled for a lunging time.
Seems very simple to me.
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I wouldn’t go that far. The lower levels and local hunters can be a bit scary to watch in Europe so people do acknowledge how well schooled the horses are and how nice the equitation is for the sub-1.0m crowd. A lot of lower levels people in Europe could use some polish. The style over larger fences is widely regarded as a bit dangerous though, no impulsion.
It’s the seriousness and the way it’s an end to itself that people find baffling; especially since no one breeds their own so you aren’t showing off your breeding program. And very few people hunt. The money and the extreme lengths some go to are kind of understood but not really.
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I’m telling you all there is a reason the lists are not being made public. Down to 5 teams if that as of yesterday. Why not make something showcasing the hunters in this way take place on US soil? So much less risk and logistics involved.
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Let’s set aside for a moment that I would not be flying my horse across the ocean for 3 days of horse showing for pretty much any reason.
I would definitely not be doing that with my nice hunter the month before Derby Finals.
And since the pro hunter rider is accountable to supply the pro jumper rider with a suitable mount, that’s two nice hunters getting their passports stamped the month before Derby Finals.
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I’m wondering if there could be some wiggle room on that last one.
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I have to imagine that if, say, Lillie Keenan got recruited for a team and said “I have this nice young horse over here already who would be good at this class,” there would be no basic problem with that.
It seems like it could be a reasonable provision to make sure that the jumper riders are suitably mounted for a hunter class, if not for the fact that the hunters were not already in the vicinity.
I love the team format and the general premise but this seems like something you start at Wellington when you can recruit Rodrigo Pessoa to ride your nice horse who’s already on the grounds. Just as a matter of sheer practicality.
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I admit, when I first saw this I thought some European breeder had realized they’d accidentally developed some really solid hunter lines and the whole thing was a marketing ploy. They’d take a few of their horses, some top-notch, big name euro showjump riders and perhaps a couple American hunter riders, fly in a panel of true American hunter judges, run the class under USEF hunter rules, and let the entertainment begin.
But this premise, flying a handful of shiny fat American Hunters overseas in the middle of the summer show season so they can jump around a stadium in Europe for 2 days is just ridiculous. For so, so, soooo many reasons.
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The concept of nubile Dutch horse dealers leaning over your shoulder in the lounge and whispering sweet nothings in dulcet lightly accented tones can be very seductive, ngl.
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But don’t the Brits have show hunters? I have an old book from the 1960s filled with beautiful photos of British show horses and ponies and many of the photos were of champion hunters wearing big ribbons, but never any photos of them jumping. There seemed to be various divisions as there were champion middle weight, heavy weight, ladies hunters etc. as well as “hacks.” None of these horses were pictured over fences though and yet the Brits are great foxhunters.
They absolutely show hunters over fences in the UK. The courses often include ditches, water and brush fences because it’s still designed to evaluate actual hunting horses. They also have show hacks which does not exist in the US.
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That’s what I had thought as well. I had assumed it would be the solution to mounting the jumper riders, at the very least. I can see a breeder not wanting some random junior rider to catch ride their nice young horse, but a partnership with a good local jumper rider could be another story (and be a mutually agreeable business development.)
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