As a most-of-the-time Florida resident, I am absolutely obsessive about keeping the legs super clean. For some that means keeping them clipped, I have one of mine who is super sensitive to bugs that I don’t, but everything gets scrubbed obsessively and any tiny nick etc cared for to try to avoid summer sores. Boots are kept super clean too and the sand washed out of everything. Something about the swampyness down there just breeds every gross thing that can attach to a leg.
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I think the issue here is that unlike eventing, only the top 10 teams move on to the team final. Unless they give a sub a base score of 65 or something to compensate (and even then, the other 2 scores would have to be doubly good to make up for it), the team wouldn’t be making it through anyway. So the sub still wouldn’t have anything to do. The only real way to solve this would be to bring back the drop score.
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Yes, but a t84 can achieve the same result while leaving more hair. Signed, owner of a horse with 4 white stockings who constantly comes in from turnout with cuts/blood…
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No…that was surgical clipping to the skin. You can clip without getting down to skin. Again…for vanity/appearance not anything functional. Most likely, she would have still marked herself. We will never know.
I suppose abuse does not apply. A little too strong a word. My bad.
I think sometimes grooming is done way over the top and not for the good of the horse at all.
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I can promise you that my horse thinks all baths are torture and should not ever happen. So clearly that is not done for the horse.
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Don’t forget that the Grooms have a single horse to look after over several days of Olympic preparation and competition, unlike life at home. Fiddling around with brushes and clippers is probably an occupational hazard.
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None of this negates the fact that the “blood rule” needs modifying. A horse stepping on themselves on the way to the ring causing a nick that bleeds momentarily should not be automatically eliminated, especially in a team event with no way to drop/substitute. Investigated, yes, but this strict liability standard is too high.
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But if you don’t automatically eliminate, you’re leaving veterinary and welfare choices up to judges. There is no doubt that it’s a tough rule to stomach when one is on the receiving end of it for something minor, but it’s solid, leaves no question, and is the absolute best to align with the face horse sports need to show the public at this late date.
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I bet though, if it happened to a German rider, (do they ever ride greys?) they might seriously look into it.
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I bet if it had happened to a German rider at this Olympics we would have had a couple of people post that it was a shame but rules are rules and the discussion would be long dead.
Add on a couple of really super rides for the US and there would have been practically no discussion 
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The discussion is here on a forum, and I am guessing that would happen in whatever country had this problem. The people (general) want their team to do great. Our team had a problem, we are discussing it.
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Absolutely. 100%
But I do believe that my point was missed and that’s ok - folks are likely to feel a little raw and ripped off and not necessarily want to see the bigger picture when it is so fresh.
my point is that I do not like the system of a 3 person team. It should be 4 persons. And the other point is that if the big stars had this happen to them, it might make a difference. But no one cares if it is just the US who probably wouldn’t medal anyway.
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Many of us don’t, but it’s the Olympics and the Olympics had reasons to change it up and we don’t get a lot of say in that - it’s not our $$ paying to either house extra horses or our consciences that get to say, only the best of the best and be damned the rest who would love a once in 4 years chance to show up on the world stage.
Or probably not. The reason for the rule is pretty important.
Aaand, there it is 
lol
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