- Kate Conover is AMAZING.
- IMO they need to change the format to either a) do away with ride-overs, or b) give every horse the first round as a “warmup”. Every year something like this happens and as a spectator it is so confusing.
I’ve watched a lot of years, and I’ve never seen anything happen like this year’s green behavior from the horses! The commentators referred to it as unprecedented, and I thought did as good a job as you could explaining on the fly what was happening. Giving Brady Mitchell a re-ride on a replacement horse made sense, there was nothing that he could have done, that horse just wasn’t having it. Where I agree it got a bit confusing was what options Geoffrey Hesslink had, and whether it was simply that he made the (unwise) choice to try the same horse again in lieu of a different option. I’ve certainly seen them have one horse that gave some of the riders more trouble than the other horses, but I don’t recall anything quite to this extent happening in recent years.
Regardless, all’s well that ends well because Kate Conover truly is amazing and was a very deserving winner. And I want to ride the pinto!!!
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For those of us who weren’t watching… what happened?
I read the COTH article but I’m not clear on the details of what sounds like a dramatic class.
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I missed the first part of the class, but it should be up on the replay on CMH, I’ll check later. Apparently one horse didn’t want to play and was stopping (?). The riders were getting 30/40s and a substitute horse was brought in.
Later in the class a rider elected not to continue on a horse that was playing after the jumps but the other riders were able to get it around and got some high scores for doing so. I was surprised that the rider gave up that easily.
Quite frankly, I was too. 
I can understand not wanting to navigate something that’s dangerous or rank, but to “give up” on a fresh young horse when you’re arguably one of the top up-and-coming hunter riders in the country didn’t sit well with me. Of course, Kate rode the hide off it and was awarded accordingly, score-wise.
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Who was that?
Geoffrey Hesslink
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I was there. Brady’s first horse spooked a bit at something in the line going away from the in gate. Maybe the camera? Maybe the jump? Regardless, he opted to circle and continued on.
Geoffrey’s first ride - Actionable - looked a bit tricky to ride. Putting his head down after the jumps and getting a bit…hoppy. Not bucking, but maybe a bit wild or green. It didn’t stop at any fence, if memory serves.
Brady got a re-ride on a backup horse - Lifestyle. Geoffrey got the chance to re-ride Actionable around the first round again. He jumped a few jumps and the horse played again before he opted to retire that round. I think he kept his score from the first attempt.
Actionable went around to have better rounds with the other 3 - maybe it was riding style, maybe the horse was settling down after being a tad rambunctious - only those riders know. It was a blast to watch in person, but we did miss out on the online commentary.
Thanks.
I just think it’s a little silly that these “best of the best” riders should get a re-ride, unless, as noted above, the horse was downright dangerous, comes in NQR, or far too green, which honestly should have been sorted out long before the class started. OR (maybe a better idea) another pro, someone showing at CC but not in the finals, should take each horse around a practice round earlier in the day. Then they would know if they needed to bring in a backup. It’s just hard to follow for us not there, and does leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Like, horses spook. I’ve never gotten to redo my first round at a new venue because my horse shied.
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If he knew he could opt to keep his first round score, and he felt a few jumps in that the score wasn’t going to be better even if he nailed the rest, it makes sense he’d pull up.
He did have a stop on the first attempt. The horse put its head down in the middle of the judge’s line and he kinda had to pull out or risk crashing the out of the line. The horse tried the same thing on his reride but he got out of the line and then bounced pretty hard in the corner and Geoffrey retired. It wasn’t clear why Geoffrey opted to reride the horse - maybe the second alternate horse wasn’t available?
It was interesting that the horse was quieter for Kate and Shelley - some people were cynically wondered if it got some “help” before returning - but was spicy again with Brady in the last round. I wonder if it prefers female riders over males riders.
I actually found the troubles with the horses to be a very interesting look at how the pros dealt with it. Geoffrey was very quiet with the horse and even stroking it’s neck down the lines trying to relax it.
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He did have a stop on the first attempt.
You’re right. I should have fact checked before posting that.
I will have to try to watch the video since it sounds like a pretty interesting group.
Obviously it will vary a little bit from year to year. But I have been involved in supplying horses for that class a few times in the past, and people usually try to bring a horse that will be a consistent steady Eddie for every rider.
Nobody wants to take a chance on their horse getting hurt or looking bad in front of God and everybody else who is watching in person or online.
But still. Horses will be horses. 
He did not keep his score from the first attempt.
https://www.equestrianlive.com/class.php?showid=7391&classid=42477&HorJ=H
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Yes, I was very surprised that he threw in the towel. The horse shook his head a bit and engaged in a little “porpoising”, but nothing you would expect that a big time rider couldn’t handle. It was odd.
That’s interesting. I agree with another poster who said they shouldn’t have allowed re-rides but it was a fun class to watch regardless.
It was not up to him which score would be counted (the first or second attempt.) The second one counted. That was why it was surprising that he quit.
If you saw what happened with Brady Mitchell’s first ride, it seemed like there was really nothing he could have done, it appeared to be a green moment and the horse went sideways and was having no part of going to the oxer out of the line. Those moments are why they have the backup horse available, IMO.
The part I didn’t catch was what GH’s options were - did he think he could fix the round with Actionable if he came back in and pass up an alternate horse, or was there no second alternate and his choice was re-ride that one or nothing.
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