And, when one searches the rider’s record, see below. No more experience than the horse has.
If you were referring to a horse competing Advanced, I’d be in full agreement. But it’s Training level, not the Olympics. Training Level infers the horse is in training, and no fence on course in Training level should be so unforgiving that a mistake results in death. It’s not a big fence height, and it’s not a technical level yet.
A simple google search shows this horse has unrecognized mileage. A USEA record is only part of the picture. I’m withholding my judgment about this scenario until more information comes to light, given what I’ve been told by witnesses who watched the crash. YMMV.
Maybe he does, but the rider isn’t on their 10th horse they’ve campaigned at this level. They don’t have the ability to “bail the horse out”.
This is unnecessary. We don’t even know what happened yet and there are conflicting reports even on this thread. This rider just lost her horse and was injured herself, and now she has to deal with her competition record being publicly criticized by someone that has no idea about her background or what happened in this particular incident. There’s nothing to be gained here by placing blame prematurely.
There’s also a whole world of unrecognized events out there so the USEA record doesn’t tell a rider’s whole story.
It’s a 5 year old horse.
Running a recognized training in its first recognized year.
Under a rider who is also in their first recognized year.
That’s too fast. There’s no possible way a horse is ready for that in that time, unless the rider is jumping the everliving snot out of it.
Maybe it’s different for you all, maybe I am just a total sissy. But a 5 year old is still a baby to me.
They haven’t seen enough to be asked “big” questions that don’t fall down.
I don’t totally disagree with you but you’re not helping your case by how unsympathetic you’re being. There are very few hard and fast rules when horses are involved and again, you have no idea how much unrecognized experience this rider has.
It still seems like there’s more going on here than just a horse that was unprepared for the level. The A and B elements don’t look that close together on the course map so I don’t get how the horse could have had a rotational fall at A and crashed directly into B. Something else must have happened in between. No amount of experience will make this sport 100% safe at any level, there are always going to be factors beyond our control.
Goodness gracious, show some tact. There’s a time and place for constructive criticism, and this is not it. Someone just lost their horse, and is hurt. It’s really unsettling the lack of sensitivity you’re showing here.
FWIW, the public USEA website (as seen in your screenshots) does not keep a long history of event results. Maybe a couple of years. For example, I have a gap in my record from October 2018 until September 2021 when I took time off from competing. So if you looked at my record in October 2021, you could have made a similar assumption about me even though I did my first recognized event in 2009 and have competed up to Prelim.
The USEF person search has way more info. Toggle the dates for the time frame too. Also have some patience because it’s kind of a kludgy
I’m not trying to be unsympathetic, but if we don’t look at these things from a “blunt” perspective, how will things ever change?
I hope the rider is ok, and I’m sorry for the loss, but what can be done to prevent this from happening next weekend? What went wrong? Why is a 5 year old running a training under a rider with equal recognized experience under her belt?
If it’s “too soon” to analyze what happened, when is it ok? What if this same thing happens again next weekend?
It keeps it back to 2021, I think. Not entirely sure.
I’ll try the person search, thanks.
I get what you’re saying, and I totally agree that we need to be critical of certain things, willing to talk about tough stuff, and we should always work toward making things safer for the horses and the people who pilot them. But the way you’re choosing to address this right here and right now is coming across as disgustingly unsympathetic, at least to me. Enough so that I felt compelled to write this when I typically am more of a silent lurker here.
Maybe I don’t know how to use it (possible), but I see no additional results using USEF. Just the same ones that USEA has.
EDIT: Yup, was doing it wrong. Rider took a 6 year sabattical. That’s a long time to then come back and hurry a brand new horse up the levels.
Tact has never been my strong point. I am outspoken and blunt, through and through.
When are these types of questions ok? After a week? A month? Because at some point they do need to be asked.
We don’t know what happened, so of course it’s too soon to analyze it. No one has provided an official report and the eye-witness accounts that have been relayed on this thread tell different stories. There’s no way for us to tell what changes would help based on the information provided.
You’re not being blunt in advocating for change. You haven’t proposed a single actionable suggestion to prevent this kind of incident going forward. You’re just criticizing an injured and grieving rider for no reason.
First off Id like to offer my condolences to this poor girl and her horse. I was there right after it happened, walking my course…it was very a traumatic sight. Heartbreaking!
Second, this could have nothing to do with this particular rider, but some of the coaching I heard was absolutely horrendous. We need more ECP opportunities in our area
I was asking the more experienced people here “what is a 5 year old doing running this level?” and the response was that a pro can get away with it.
Next up - well, shouldn’t there then be age restrictions or MERs for amateurs trying to move up too fast?
I think beowulf gave a really solid answer to this question, with a lot more information beyond “a pro can get away with it.”
It might not be big compared to a 5*, but it can sure be big to a horse with limited scope or cattiness.
I think the young event horse series doesn’t help