‘A’ rated show – late 1960’s – pony hunter class – boy rider gets dumped, stands up and throws a screaming/crying temper tantrum – furious mother stomps into the ring, grabs him by the collar and spanks him.
Now that’s not something you see everyday. :lol:
Sports of all kinds are rife with temper tantrums – especially pro tennis. Players beat their racquets to death – or hit themselves in the head.
I think Boris Becker had a ‘good sportsmanship’ lesson for everyone: After loosing an important match to a nobody, his explanation afterwards in an on-camera interview was. "I didn’t lose a war. I lost a tennis match. Nobody died. "
So I think any rider who is about to lose it, should remember: It’s just a horse show!
The difference between poor sportsmanship and abuse? She missed with her belly kick. She missed. Abuse was intended…but since she failed to connect, it’s downgraded to poor sportsmanship.
The reaction from the horse said it has clearly seen that move before and wanted to get out of the way. Yes, the horse has known issues and yes, she knows them. Which is why it puzzles me that she didn’t really RIDE…assertively RIDE… to that fence in the first place. Maybe if she had, she’d have been tight enough in the tack to not pop off during a tiny little prop.
I’m not sure picking apart what you would have done or how you would have DONE SO MUCH BETTER than Jazz is really helpful here?
She fell off, horrors! I know, she must be just a poor rider and your as SO SUPERIOR. Sometimes I am ashamed of the behavior seen here.
(I’m not talking about the kick here, that was totally out of line, but I love how COTH thinks they know this situation best and are making all sorts of assumptions…)
I think it’s time to move on, she said she was sorry, at some point you have to trust those responsible to deal with it,
Sorry, the “apology” was too little, too late IMHO. And I call BS that she had “never done this before”. Maybe not in a public venue, but the way she immediately jumped up and ran at the horse, and the way he backed away, …seems to me she’s had this “reaction” more than once. Again, no matter how mad or scared I have been after I’ve fallen off, or the many times I have seen other riders fall off in worse circumstances, the thought to run at a horse and kick it in the belly is so over the top that it would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. Shame on her and the people who let her get away with this behavior all her life.
Totally my own point of view. But I just want to see the hunter world stop laying on their horse’s necks over tiny fences in an effort to enhance the appearance of the horses jump. It’s a poor jumping position (period). Sure it looks dramatic, and makes that horse look oh so much more scopey. But it’s not real, and it’s not centered, balanced, riding.
I am not defending the rider’s behavior, but there has been so much speculation and nastiness about the rider and horse. She is an excellent rider.
I posted a video on my fb page of the horse doing a similar move and offing a professional. I am not sure how to share it here - my name is Barbara Carry and it is public.
Meh. HRH GHM far, far out-rank “mvp”… in lower case letters no less, lol.
As to the question about what goes into a satisfying apology. I’m OK with the rider’s “explanation” as to what (inner state) caused the crazy outer state-- a boot to the belly. I’m good with it because she names and owns her mistake. There’s no moving the responsibility to anyone else or to her horse. There’s no apologizing for the wrong thing (e.g. I’m so sorry to have done that in public!) Plus there’s acknowledgment of wider harm done, plus the in situ attempt to rectify things with the horse (schooled a fence or two; and by other peoples’ reports coming back for another uneventful round). And really, there is a display of contrition.
I do think the “I apologize for doing X,” full stop shows integrity. But this more baroque genre works, too.
And PR firms have perfect the art of the non-apology that undermines the certainty that hurt was caused (“sorry if I may have offended anyone”) or moves the locus of the perp (“I’m sorry you feel that way.”) Those suck, for sure. This one isn’t bad in comparison!
Just watched the video. I am shocked that they actually fell off. I guess that my first clue should have been the fact that their hands are not independent of their seat and that this was obvious when they were rising to the trot.
So, I watched the video from a year ago and that horse was clearly off once he picked up the canter. He may have dumped his rider out of pain and self defense.
Now, I have experience with a 'dirty stopper ’ or as it was called, a proffessional stopper that could stop at a fence and throw his rider over the top…every time. I bought this horse from a jumper rider,( I ride dressage) after the horse made the local news ,with video, dumping his rider at a big show. It was very fast and quite spectacular.I rode this ruined jumper for many years, he was a great ride for me, very sweet. After I retrained him as a dressage horse, a friend jumped him once with no problems, no stopping.
What this horse does to his rider, in my opinion, is very kind …almost gentle. From what little there was of the recent video, I would not be surprised if this wonderful horse is sore and insisting that the ride stops. I bet he would make a great dressage horse!
Okay, so what’s really wrong with this whole picture? Not about the rider kicking the horse – but about the ‘riding’ in general RE and including the other video?
It looks to me (from my armchair perspective – so shoot me) like these ‘good’ riders have been huntering around on ‘made’ horses for far too long. They have either lost any muscle memory they once had from riding horses that ‘do stuff’, even a simple prop – or they never had any experience riding un-made horses to begin with.
However, the painfully slow cantering, and the jumps (mere bumps in the road for these horses) and the ‘hunter’ riding style – ALL combined – are a recipe for falling off like a sack of potatoes when a made horse acts un-made. But still…
Either retire a horse like that or maybe give him something interesting and big to jump – outside a ring.
could be, but it doesn’t matter if the horse did it before, or how you would handle it, or what you have seen before. That is not relevant here.
It’s not our deal, or really our problem how someone else rides. I’m glad the investigation is happening, but I think people are taking this projection a little too far. The sport is fine, it doesn’t have an image issue because of one rider. I think we need to give the sport more credit that that, sorry.
No, I’m not saying this should be swept under the rug, but she apologized. I think to be a decent person back to her and move on would probably be a good call here.
At first I was very taken aback by the video, but I became more taken aback by this thread, it’s a lot worse behavior than Jazz showed (overall, remember she didn’t actually hurt the horse- hope her trainer has a real chat with her about this). Stick to the situation, not conjecture.
I’m comparing this to the Marian Little bleeding horse- that is something to TAKE UP ARMS for, I’m still mad about that. The horse was bleeding, over and over. Not ok. That is a real image problem and a real failure to keep the horse safe.
Usage. In standard use nonplussed means ‘surprised and confused’, as in she was nonplussed at his eagerness to help out. In North American English a new use has developed in recent years, meaning’unperturbed’—more or less the opposite of its traditional meaning—as in he was clearly trying to appear nonplussed.
I am with you on this. I am not saying that we are on a feeding frenzy but CotH does tend to get all frothymouthed and circling in for the kill on issues sometimes. THE ML bleeding horse event deserved a shark feeding frenzy and I think/hope that we drove her away from eventing for good. Let’s hope.
But this event, while certainly deserving sanctions, has resulted in the most outlandish accusations/suppositions/assumptions/theories/conjectures about motives, background, personality characteristics, and more. There is something about the online, anonymous milieu that really can and does turn us into sharks.
So many horses are in pain out there, so many are neglected and abused and frightened. I see this as a pampered horse who decides he just doesn’t want to play sometimes, and he figures that if he stops and ducks, then he gets a big fat reward.
But I don’t trust those responsible to deal with it. And their failure to do so at the horse show is a red flag for many things that are very wrong with the sport. Very wrong.
The social media feeding frenzy and call out culture is a bit crazy. It’s easy to dehumanize someone very quickly and to refuse forgiveness - which is disturbing. When someone apologizes and an investigation is opened I feel like we are headed back in the right direction. I hope she’ll take whatever punishment is meted out and change her ways, but I’m done discussing it,.,
and hence: [h=3]