Riders and trainers would find a way to abuse the horse even without a bit.
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To get super white socks, you clip them short right before competition. Youāre removing any excess hair that you may not be able to get as white as you want with shampoo.
IMO, seems silly on these dressage horses as itās not like they get turned out or see dirt or ever have their legs uncovered until theyāre in the show ring. 
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Check the boots after the ride when they do equipment check.
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Implementing a boot-check systems as part of a tack check system wouldnāt be hard - thereās already a protocol in place in the showjumping phase of eventing at the FEI levels. Hind boots must be removed and checked by a steward before the horse starts their jumping warmup (and boots are put back on under watch of the steward)ā¦and after the round, the horse is escorted to a tack check area where boots are all removed, checked, legs inspected, and boots weighed (eventing has a maximum allowed boot weight to prevent use of performance-enhancing weighted boots)
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I doubt that a one time incident is going to lead to a rule change!
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You never know.
The one time incident at Tokyo seems to be leading to the elimination of horses from the Pentathlon at the Olympics.
I mean, it was long overdue. But nothing had changed for many years until that one very public incident.
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Itās a shame, for sure! I was rooting for the team.
But IMO we (the horse community) canāt have it both ways. There were so many complaints about horses with blood not being eliminatedāin eventing and SJ tooāthat the absolute blood rule was implemented.
Trying to go back now and impose some sort of relative judgement about what amount of blood, and where it could be located, is OK just opens the door to massive confusion among competitors and officials and less āsocial License to competeā among the general public.
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The thing is, is that you can achieve this with a #8.5 or #10 blade and you end up with a nice, bright white sock after washing.
However, they used a #40 (surgical blade) or, at least, #30 and the result is that sunburned pink look we see in the photo. It just seems so unnecessary. But perhaps thereās a reason ~ for example, if sheās prone to any type of skin condition.
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Donāt they also clip them short to make washing and drying them easier when they live in Florida and can get fungus or are worked in the fibre footing a lot?
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The incident that brought riding in the Pentathlon under general public scrutiny was indeed one-time, but there have been a lot of problems with the event for a long time. Plenty of people on this board have said that long before Tokyo. That was just the tipping point where something was actually done because the public outcry was so great.
While Marcus and Janeās elimination was extremely unfortunate, I donāt think that will change the rule. And I donāt think it should change. This is one horse in how many this happened to? I think the welfare benefits of saying āblood=eliminationā outweigh the once in a blue moon freak accident eliminations.
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Clipping white legs really short has been a thing for as long as I can remember.
It removes the stains and makes it much easier to have clean white legs, all while easily removing the ring dirt and such.
???
Are you going to call body clipping abuse too?
That is a weird leap.
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Sure clipping the white to get and keep it clean is a thing, but Janeās legs looked shaved. Having her sun burnt skin showing vs white hair was odd (to me).
Give me a solid bay and Iām in heaven. 
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I agree with you BUT in this Olympics another horse, (Italian), was eliminated for blood in the mouth because he bit his tounge. Not abused, but eliminated. I know the Italians were devestated, but at least they could put in another horse. For dressage, we were not allowed to do that. I understand the reason, and I am OK with that, but it still sucks when it happens to you. And since they are busy meddling with the formats, why not allow a sub in dressage? The horse and rider are there. I think they should look into that.
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Horseās skin is typically pink under white hairs, so I doubt her skin was sun burnt.
That said, I do not agree with shaving them down so close unless there is a medical reason to do so.
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Thereās pink and then thereās pink. Iām not there to see in person but after having a horse with a lot of chrome but never clipping the white and still having him get sunburn Iām a bit ājudgyā on clip jobs. 
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Thereās considerable difference between a #10 and a #40 blade wrt the hair left on.
And donāt come at me with the white socks argumentāI own grey horses and can keep them clean without a surgical clip job.
But this is largely irrelevant.
Horse likely would have bled either way.
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I guess it is an individual horse thing.
I have had more than one horse with high whites and a big blaze and no sun burn issues.
Kyrabee is referring to the use of a surgical blade (#40). You donāt need to clip that close. You can achieve a perfectly fine close clip with a #10.
It is unusual to see a #40 used. It removes all the hair basically, just leaving skin behind, hence why itās used prior to surgery.
Having shown in Florida, everyone I knew used a #8.5 or #10. Body clippers usually use a #8.5 for the body.
This is the use of a #8.5 at Devon this year ~ you can see that itās a close clip but you get that bright white effect.
ETA: When I said sun-burned pink earlier, I didnāt actually mean sun burn. I was speaking to the appearance. Sorry if I caused any confusion!
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Wow, lucky you! (Iām not being sarcastic). Every horse with a white nose at my horses barn has to wear a long fly screen. And there is a pinto that only gets turned out in the evenings, her shoulders and withers burn.
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-So ā¦ hereās a horse whoās been trained through GP dressage yet has not been trained well enough to behave under saddle in the presence of another horse?-
Have you ever shown in an atmosphere like the Olympics?? Even big dressage shows cannot compare to that kind of crowd & atmosphere- and theyāre dealing with an animal not a machine. A very unfortunate thing and I believe the mare is fairly young. Sad for everyone involved with the mare.
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