Based on the picture I think it’s common for logs like that to not be pinned. I’m thinking of other fences like that and I can’t think of one I actually HAVE seen pinned? The big ugly ones at the original Carolina water aren’t pinned. Nor are any of the hanging logs at the top water.
I’m more irritated that Boyd regularly removes his helmet while riding (victory lap/award ceremonies) when his own wife had a very significant traumatic head injury. No one seems to want to cite him for that, since it’s against FEI/USEA rules.
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The H&H article you shared about WFP asking riders at Badminton to boycott the frangible rails into water cuts to the heart of the issue IMO. William makes a fair point, that a good xcountry horse will take a conservative jump when dropping into water, often brushing the fence with their back legs. They shouldn’t be penalized for that if they trigger a frangible. At the same time, I think Eric Winter is spot on when he says:
“This is where the sport is going. We are, as much as we possibly can, making the pictures of horses sprawling across the water at Badminton a thing of the past. The last time I had a log into that water, there were two horse falls at it. If we want to maintain this sport for the future, we have to put it in a context that is acceptable for a wider audience, not just people that think that eventing used to be one way and that’s how it should remain. There were a lot of things that were acceptable 20 years ago, that nowadays we feel are not acceptable anymore. It’s a risk sport but as much as we possibly can, we need to mitigate that risk.”
So my question is, why not make such fences frangible but assess penalties more fairly? A horse that triggers a pin by dragging his back legs over it shouldn’t be penalized, but a horse that hits it hard enough with the front legs to trigger it should be.
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Frangible pins are a safety feature. Why is a safety feature penalized when an unpinned fence may be reduced to matchsticks but no penalty applied, so long as the horse gets between the flags? Because riders do not consider pinned fences the same way they consider unpinned ones. The “It’s OK, it will fall down” mindset does not make for safe cross country riding. It is precisely to prevent such a cavalier attitude by riders that penalties came to be applied by the FEI. National Event organisations may or may not apply penalties for activation of frangibles.
Tables were once one of the more risky type of fence and riders were very careful. Often they were used as a slow up fence around a course. Then, as a result of research and data, the design rules were changed to make them safer. Now table fences must have a clear ground line and the rear edge must be slightly higher so the horse can read the dimensions. Result? Riders now see table fences to be galloping fences. My heart remains in my mouth because I remember the old days.
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I wonder if they could add some sort of LED technology that shows the horse cleared the fence regardless of whether the pin triggered or not and be able to get the penalty taken off if it shows the horse cleared the height. Something like they use in the strike zone in baseball.
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So now you want them to run power out to the fences? Or some way to make sure batteries at all fences are working properly?
If the horse “cleared the height”, it wouldn’t hit the fence.
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This. I was a bit alarmed to see how many horses and riders completely made a yard sale out of the Huntsman Close open corners at Badminton. Had those not been frangible multiple horses and riders would have serious injuries, or potential fatalities. I am of course thrilled there were no injuries. But imho frangibles should be used as an ADDITIONAL safety measure, not the ONLY safety measure that is used on top of an unfair or hard to read question.
Course designers should be asking "if I did not have frangibles available would I ask this question? " and if the answer is no then the question shouldn’t be asked EVEN if you do have access to frangibles.
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Yes great example of just because you can doesn’t mean you should. People are already realizing how dangerous eventing is for both horse and rider we should make changes to make it safer not using the safety measures to make it more dangerous.
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It drives me crazy how common this is from male riders in general. Karl Cook took his off immediately after crossing the finish timers in his recent win, and I don’t get it. I understand men take their helmets off during (unmounted) awards presentation as a sign of respect, but it seems like a victory gallop is someplace you would really want your head protected…
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I don’t believe the poster was singling out a particular rider, they were just referencing, in general, the lack of fitness and training that is lacking. And also mentioned the opinion of Wofford. So there was no personal attack meant.
Georgies death has hit a lot of the news sources you don’t usually see reporting on eventing. I actually got an email from People Magazine with it as a headliner today.
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I think it would be respectful if riders didn’t post on social media for a while about competing at events, I was shocked this morning to see a perky post from a British rider heading to Ireland to compete. Instagram has become such a reflex for many of them it maybe didn’t cross their mind not to post. We lived before Instagram and it’s a tiny gesture to Georgies family to have a blackout for a while.
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Same-- it was reported on CNN. This really goes to the whole social license concept.
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It is also the riders responsibility to not rely on the frangibles. One or two more strides in Huntsmans Close would have been safer but riders are trying to make time. Perhaps 11 penalties for taking a frangible with a hind leg and 19 or 21 for a front leg would get riders respect. One can argue slow front legs on a questioning horse are more dangerous than a run out.
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@AmmyHour926. Course Designers do not want horse falls. Never ever. They train, they learn, they closely observe their courses as they are jumped, they think, they teach, they even compete with each other on their safe completion stats. Course Designers also do not work in isolation. The Fence Builders, quite often CDs also, have opinions and experience to add to any design, there is the Health and Safety person doing a risk analysis, the Technical Delegate has opinions as a person outside the organization, the Riders Rep has many opinions to feed back to the organizers, even the Event Organizers are frequently experienced horse people and at an FEI event the international Ground Jury inspects the entire course and may request changes before the competition can even begin. There is a huge amount of effort made to keep riders and horses as safe as possible - most of which is totally invisible to the riders. The data (published annually by FEI and BE) shows the progress made.
Using Badminton, one of the two toughest 5* events as an example of the need to pin everything doesn’t really work. With the exception of probably fewer than 100 riders in the world, most of us need not be troubled by the corners in Huntsman’s Close. But probably most of us would benefit from more lessons, more cross country training, having experienced eyes on the ground helping us and (being very bitchy here) perhaps even reading the Rule Book to find out what to do when facing a black flag alternative or being held up on course by an official.
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You’re wanting electricity run to fences?
Pretty, slim, anglo, horses in the background?
Beauty sells. If Camilla and Diana switched seats…hmmm…
Eventing Nation posted that they’re going to be doing a media blackout for the next week in respect to Georgie: https://www.facebook.com/eventingnation/posts/pfbid02QFLvC51yCQtzKuwu8mp61jNVwq7T8ud5bvj15LtALLieVeVVQieLZkESx2iCg4iVl
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oh ffs. Camilla is a perfectly fine-looking woman who has had the dire misfortune of being 14 years older than Diana and not dying young.
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