Have you heard of pentathlon?
It might not be what most of us consider a “horse sport.” But it is (or was) a sport with horses involved, which is probably pretty much the same thing to the general public.
It took one controversial video from a major competition to completely change that sport.
The other thing I see “those” pages going on about is the backs of the 5* horses in the jog. I don’t really see how any horse could work at that level with the “atrocious, atrophied and undermuscled backs” they claim all the upper level horses have
But they have pictures to prove it. 
In some cases, I think they are a bit thin and I just want to feed them, but they are fit athletes that work much harder than the average horse.
I think it’s a fair statement to say that anyone who competes at that level has to be almost unbelievably driven and competitive to get there in the first place.
These are not people who got to the point of galloping around a five star by giving up on the idea of competing at any point, much less in the heat of the moment.
This is the same type that would climb back on the horse after a fall and finish the course with broken bones or a concussion or what have you. That went on for decades until the rules changed regarding falls.
With that in mind, it might be time to look at the rules again.
If they can hold a horse on course to check for blood and then let him continue after being checked out, they can do the same thing in a case like this.
Especially when the whole thing is going out across the world on a live stream, and everybody is concerned about the social license to operate.
The post that really gets me is the cropped photos of Boyd’s horses and this fitter who only evangelizes for Stubben saddles was supposedly “sickened.” By Boyd’s horses. Who is sponsored by Stubben.
I too thought this was odd since they had no issue with pulling up Tims horse.
As for why not pull him up at the head of the lake, I think it’s kind of like pulling someone up for Dangerous Riding. It’s incredibly hard to make that call and the moment had already passed. Plus, the officials at the head of the lake would not have seen the “fall” after that white skinny in person or know what had contributed to it.
The horse portion of the Pentathlon has been horrific for years and was well on its way out as an Olympic sport. Pentathlon still exists.
Trying looking up cliff racing. It’s where you man from snowy river race horses up or down massive inclines. Still going strong.
Eventing did not die when we had televised horse deaths at Kentucky. It’s not going to die when someone may or may not have made a questionable horse welfare decision.
I think that’s a very tricky component of the issue. A lot of stuff can happen over a four mile course, and the results can be cumulative, even if each official only sees one part of it.
It’s not like they are going around in the show jumping ring with one set of officials seeing every single jump.
I think there’s no way of knowing what the officials or vets said behind the scene. Perhaps they talked to him back at the barns. Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps his riding improved afterword enough they thought he learned his lesson. Perhaps we will see the horse fall rule to change to include the horse’s head making contact with the ground.
Anyone who knows me knows I am all about optics and social license.
But where do we draw the line between maintaining optics and letting the professionals do their jobs and make the judgement?
I am not just saying this about this situation, I am talking about the big picture. I mean, the crowd currently complaining was equally irrate over meaningless still photos of toplines, claiming the horses were unfit to ride when anyone with two brain cells knows that isn’t true. So do we fatten up our eventers to look like rotund ponies for the optics even when we know that isn’t what’s best for the horse?
I’m not attacking anyone here on COTH. This is something I think about a lot and I don’t have an answer.
In this particular CB instance, I feel very strongly that all the existing protocols worked and welfare was upheld. But I am also not opposed to the idea that yeah, maybe they could have stopped the horse on course for a quick check before letting him proceed. It’s a tough call. We can’t get to the point where we are stopping every horse every time it doesn’t look “pretty.” I get that this horse was more than just “not pretty”, but I’m referring to the potential for this to get out of hand.
Nothing changes. Until the day when it does.
And on that day, the people who have been doing things the same way for years and years look around and wonder what happened.
First I am glad the horse is okay. Do I think he should have continued? No- but that is water under the bridge now.
Something I think that we all need to remember is that every horse sport, even if your horse enjoys it, is 100% about human ego. There is absolutely no purpose to them other than human entertainment. Are there countless jobs etc that revolve around the horse industries? Yes. But when you boil it all down, there is no reason a horse has to do any of this.
The horse was not spun. We can introduce ourselves next time, as I have been at every jog on the vet team for this event for years. The veterinarians associated with the event have limited opportunities to inspect these horses close up.
But things have changed. There have been significant measures taken to make the sport safer for horses and riders. They just didn’t help in this particular case, and no one died or even needed medical attention that we saw.
@alyssaequestrian Was the horse not held?
In this particular instance, it seems as if the horse turned out to be OK afterwards. Thank goodness.
But it would be smart and strategic to use this opportunity as a way to think of a better approach going forward.
Something similar to stopping the horse to check for blood, which seems to be a perfectly efficient system that did not offend anybody on Saturday.
Both for the welfare of each individual horse, which should be a high priority for anybody, and for the optics of the sport in general.
It was HELD.
It was not SPUN.
It went on to compete in the SJ portion.
Look, I’m just saying that people’s outraged responses to this incident on FB and the corresponding outraged responses that how dare anyone say this rider didn’t love his horse and keep your mouth shut are not going to KILL Eventing.
This sport has progressed in safety and rule changes in leaps and bounds. If that process was effective with THIS incident I think that’s a discussion that might be happening behind the scenes and is certainly happening online. It’s entirely possibly this incident and the response to it behind the scenes/lack of response in public/etc may result in a change next year. We specifically have a rule about blood (which ended up not being blood it seems) we don’t have a rule about “horse wallows across ground but appears sound galloping” Perhaps they will Yellow card him later. Perhaps not.
I think being outraged that people are arm chair quarterbacking on FB is ridiculous because that’s a lot of what FB is and people have been doing that for millennia. For better or for worse.
Got it, thanks for clarifying. So he did not have to represent the horse. How long was the hold?
I know he finished the SJ.
Sadly, for having watched this pair numerous times, I was not surprised at this young rider’s poor horsemanship.
Phantom is a saint, whose rider has very often displayed some dangerous riding with very low consideration for his horse’s welfare.
In fact, I no longer watch him on xc.
Since I believe he was under MJ’s “supervision”, I’m surprised he was not advised better…
I do hope they (especially Phantom), remain unhurt throughout their career.
And, yes, this is not what eventing needs.
He did have to present again and passed. I didn’t even know about the XC fall when I saw him at the jog and said to my friend it looked like the rider was masking something. He jogged very slowly and the horse def looked off. He did look fine the second time to my non veterinarian eye.
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