A search showed me that this has been posted before, but it’s been almost a decade. It’s a wonderful documentary about what was truly the endurance phase of the three day competition.
Well then, that was fascinating. But doesn’t it make one really appreciate body protectors, MIPs helmets, frangible pins, decent ground lines, fences dressed to help horses read the questions, ‘unjumpables’ to guide horse and rider through a complex, a prescribed maximum depth of water, improved medical resuscitation techniques, better knowledge of head trauma so concussion is treated with the respect it deserves. And dare I say it, horses less tired?
And they were hauling around lead weights!
5 Likes
I quit watching when Mike Plumb said that he was glad that his horse got hurt.
2 Likes
Yeah that was some garbage.
I still cried though, cause everyone was so young!!!
1 Like
What a coincidence - I was just googling around for Torrance Watkins. I think of her every time I see a post from @poltroon.
3 Likes
As you can guess, I loved that pair so much. 
4 Likes
An iconic pair, for sure! Do you know if she’s still actively riding? My research turned up a sort of sad story of difficult divorce, fire, loss of horses, etc. I hope she eventually had good luck because it sounded like she had a rough few years.
3 Likes
I must have missed the part where M. Plumb said he was glad his horse was hurt. The video just kind of stopped and didn’t come to a real end, just ended with the ambulance going off with Karen Stives.
Is this the competition preceeding Karen Stives stepping down for a few years? I recall someone mentiioning she had a bad fall in late 70’s/early 80’s and stepped back to reasses her riding style/skills/etc.
@16 Hands - I didn’t hear that either and it also cut off after Stives was taken away. I think I remember watching a longer version of this some time ago.
1 Like
Yes, Michael Plumb said he was glad his horse seemed to be hurt, because he’d be more careful next time. It’s not an uncommon sentiment, but it’s so so much different when the game is a horse whacking itself on a pole that falls down versus killing itself and its rider over a fence that doesn’t break, and I also just think it feels so much more tone deaf and gross to us in 2020 with now a couple decades of what feels like a meat grinder in eventing, for both horses and riders.
4 Likes
Karen Stives was pretty much killed in that fall. She was very lucky to be brought back with CPR because the stats on that aren’t good and there was no ambulance AED back then. Would have made for a very different day and a different history.
My only surprise was that she didn’t get off the stretcher and get back on the horse.
Very interesting to watch the falls though - the outcomes seemed quite good for the horses in some cases. Like when that horse leaves a leg, the rider falls off and then the horse lands on its feet but over the rider (then kicks the rider’s head.). What would the outcome have been if the fence was pinned?
1 Like
I noticed a lot/ most/ all of the horses had no leg protection at all. Kind of surprising. I remember using polos back in the early 80s but then, there was no water complex either.
Torrance and her partner had a large farm in Massachusetts for many years, I believe it was several hundred acres and they used to hold an annual event there. This was long after her divorce and it sounded as though she was leading a fulfilling life. I seem to remember reading that they discontinued the event quite a few years ago, and I haven’t heard anything since then. COTH should do a “where are they now” article on some of these people, although maybe they prefer their privacy.
3 Likes
A lot of the footage was in Sylvester and I believe International Velvet. I had most of the vhs tapes from 84-94…watched those non-stop. The scariest fall was when I went in 92 I think it was and Stephen Bradley got airlifted from the Lynch’s Leap. Oh the old days.
1 Like
Yeah, I started not caring much about him after I saw that (when it was a new film), then I took a clinic with him and that solidified my distaste. I know he has had substance abuse problems, but damn! I got a heckuva lot more help/knowledge from one lesson with my regular coach (who had been at one time long-listed for the team) than I did from three days with Plumb. I think part of the problem was (a) I am a woman, and (b) I was riding an off-breed. That off breed horse was nationally ranked at intermediate before I acquired him and never put a footd wrong throughout the clinic, but MP devoted all his time and efforts to the two boys in the clinic. He actually insulted my horse because of his color, and when I got up the nerve to challenge him, he backed down and apologized! Jerk!
”‹”‹
4 Likes
Mike has never been what you’d call a people person :lol: but I do think his attitude changed for the better after he quit drinking.
I’ve had several off-breed horses with him - he loves my two Akhal-Teke crosses - and I’ve seen everything from Lusitanos to Dutch Harness to odd mixes in his barn.
Whatever people think of him, the horses love him. He gets on a horse, the horse - even if it’s green or difficult - relaxes. It’s a security thing and you start wondering what it is about him that makes a horse say ‘Ok, I can tell you know what you’re doing so I’m listening to you.’
I worked as a volunteer at Radnor 3 day as one of 2 people weighing in the riders. Well he didn’t hit the minimum without his tack. He looked at me and my friend and said “do you know who I am?”. My friend said, no, which passed him off royally. He said , do I have to go get my tack. I said, you don’t but I can’t initial the paper otherwise. So he weighs in, hits the minimum, then left the ropes off area, which made his weigh in invalid. He had to weigh in again. He was a mean mf’er. I have hated him ever since.
4 Likes
Yeah, but sometimes that, “I’m happy to work with off breeds,” goes out the window when it’s a 1 5.3+ a little, very loudly marked Appy. As I said, the horse had been nationally ranked 4th at Intermediate, but MP didn’t know that and virtually ignored me when he wasn’t being insulting.
3 Likes
Um, one of my Akhal-Teke crosses is 14.2hh. Got a pony card too. Competed to the ULs.
He also really liked my fat pinto Friesian Sport Horse. Last time I was there (2019), I rode a Belgian-Welsh x.
I’m not questioning your experience with JMP but his barn is usually a festival of odd breeds.
Off subject sort of to JER: A long time ago you acquired a chestnut OTTB that Mike Plumb was working with for you and you had mentioned that he had virtually taken him away from you. You also had an OTTB broodmare from Colorado that had at least several foals for you. Curious about updates on both of them, since both seemed like interesting horses. Thanks.
2 Likes
