Whoa!!! Nice horsey!! ~ The Equestrian Thread

[AragornElessar]

Congratulations to the Kiwi Team!!!

Those inflatable vests have made such a huge difference to the safety of the Cross Country portion of the Three Day Eventing competition. As they were saying about Hawley's fall the other day, a Concussion and Cracked/Broken Pelvis is nothing to sneeze at, but it could have been so much worse if she hadn't had that vest on.

[Hanna]

Eeek, there's a massive rain shower bothering the dressage at the moment. How awfully unlucky for those who have their turn right now.

[AragornElessar]

Sigh...You know it's a funny thing. I was so happy to see Equestrian listed on the guide for OLN tonight. I thought that *finally* I'd get to see some of the action from London longer than just a brief packaged clip.

What did I see when I changed channels though? Whitewater Kayak and Canoe.

I don't think that's Equestrian coverage from the Olympics, is it?



Heads up for Cdns though...Hawley will be interviewed by CTV on the National News tonight to talk about what happened during the Cross Country portion the other day. Remember how I said from the little we knew, things could have been much worse w/out the new vests they're wearing? Well, that fall took place in a spot not covered by the camera and Hawley's horse actually rolled on top of her.

In the brief clip I saw, she said if it wasn't for that vest, she'd have massive internal injuries along w/the concussion and broken back/pelvis.

I've said it before, but Thank God those things have come along for the riders and the sport.

[Alixana]

Hawley's horse actually rolled on top of her.

In the brief clip I saw, she said if it wasn't for that vest, she'd have massive internal injuries along w/the concussion and broken back/pelvis.

I've said it before, but Thank God those things have come along for the riders and the sport.

What a fabulous invention that vest is. I ride my sister-in-law's part quarter horse, part Belgian and it was bad enough when she stepped on my foot!!! (The horse, I mean, not my sister-in-law )

[Aussie Willy]

Dressage is one of those things that I have absolutely no understanding of but I love watching it.

[suep1963]

My niece used to ride a 16 hand horse--German warm blood. He almost rolled on her once during a fall. Yeah--those falls are scary!

[maatTheViking]

I watched a bit of the day 1 dressage - very happy to see the replay on nbc olympics.

I found the Maroccan rider very cute - first African dressage rider qualified for the Olympics . He was so happy to be there.

I was dissappointed when I saw the scored from day 2 - I suspect the day 2 riders got better scores (day 1 they were quite conservative), and Denmark had 2 of the team members go on day 1.
I didn't watch the day 2 yet, so maybe the scores were all fair .

I hope we can catch the Dutch, but I doubt it Anky and Salinero will probably do better in GPS.

If you want some comments and analysis, my favorite site is Eurodressage

[AxelAnnie]

I tried to watch some of the after the fact video performances in dressage. If you are going to advertise a performance could you please show the entire thing? It is not like dressage is difficult to film. Geesh.

Steffen Peters (who I always think looks like Scott Hamilton) put himself and US in medal contention with his ride in the second phase of the dressage today. Whooppee!

[Garden Kitty]

Controversy surrounding Swedish rider Patrik Kittel

[danceronice]

Translation regarding Patrik Kittel: There are pictures (I've only seen stills, allegedly there's video) showing him using a training technique called "rollkur", overflexing the horse until the chin touches the chest. Thing is, overflexing that far can happen legitimately, the question is how long was he doing it (riding a horse like that for ten seconds is fine, for twenty minutes without release would at minimum be very uncomfortable.) The stills APPEAR to show his horse's chin well behind the vertical, but because they're just still pictures, there's no way of knowing how long it was there or whether he was really RKing the horse.

And I do understand what's going on in Dressage, but I still find watching it kind of like watching paint dry...still, go Team Great Britain!

BTW: Christopher Reeve didn't die because he was eventing, he died because he was riding a horse who was too small for him and not suited to his skill level (and he had been told this) over fences also beyond his skill level and his luck ran out. A man his size who was that top-heavy on a shorter-bodied horse was an accident looking to happen. In any case the vests wouldn't have helped the way he landed. They are better for things like cracked ribs.

I'm looking forward to Show Jumping, which will feature the long and the short of it--US teen Reed Kessler in her first Olympics at 17 (almost unprecedented in horse sports) and new all-time record holder for most Olympics, TEN-TIME Olympian Ian Millar riding for Canada.

[AragornElessar]

Guess what Gang?

After last night I thought about what would be the point of checking out OLN, when obviously there wasn't any Equestian shown last night even though that's what the on air guide claimed, but decided to do it anyway. And...

FINALLY!!! I'M FINALLY WATCHING SOMETHING IN THE OLYMPIC EQUESTRIAN COMPEITION!!!!



This absolute disgrace of the way CTV's treating our Three Day Eventing and Dressage Teams is one thing I will not miss w/CBC taking over things for Rio. At least if they can't show us anything, we'll at the very least be told how the teams did. CTV's not even doing that!! Not to mention even telling people it's been on OLN. Oh...It's not one of the big three channels. I forgot that.

If I was anyone on the board at Equine Canada, I would not be very happy right now w/how this is being handled.

Off to watch Dressage!!!!

[gingercrush]

Wow Canada has had it hard haven't they. Major problems in the eventing and then the dressage

I've never quite worked out why New Zealand doesn't feature in the show jumping. Dressage I can understand but we use to put individuals and teams up in the show jumping. I can't wait for the show jumping too as it's always dramatic.

[AragornElessar]

What exactly *did* happen? All I know is that we had to w/draw due to one of our riders having to bow out, but that's *all* I know.

[gingercrush]

What exactly *did* happen? All I know is that we had to w/draw due to one of our riders having to bow out, but that's *all* I know.

The horse refused to continue. Didn't seem as if the horse had much experience.

[AragornElessar]

That explains that then.

Thanks gingercrush!!

[Dragonlady]

The individual show jumping competition started today with 74 horses and riders competing. When I looked at the course, I thought it looked very easy. The jumps are high, but I didn't see any wide triple rails or any jumps with much width to them and most jumps have clear ground lines (a rail on the ground, or a plank which reaches the ground) which makes them easier to jump. 32 of the 74 horses went clean and another 9 horses had no rails down, but they were slightly over the time allowed which confirms my initial impression that the course was way too easy.

In all 63 horses in the 74 horse field, qualified for round two. I hope the course designer has set a more challenging course for round two and for the Team Event.

[Alixana]

Just watching qualifying from this morning .. Eric Lamaze is riding a beautiful mare but it still seems strange not to see him on Hickstead.

[liv]

Good for you, finally AE, to see it on OLN!!!

Miss Hickstead very much but nowhere near as much as Eric misses him. A horse in a gazillion.

[professordeb]

Watching the team jumping and came a bit late to the part to hear that Canada's woes continues. Apparently one of our horses is "hyper extended" (think that is the term) so horse and rider are DQ. What I really don't understand is the process of appealing. We launched an appeal immediately and it doesn't get dealt with until AFTER the event is finished so ... she can't compete and her appeal won't get heard in what I think is a timely manner. I understand that the officials believe they are doing what is right for the animal but to wait until everything is over before an appeal can be heard -- well I find that stupid. What if this was someone who was in medal contention? Seems like the Equestian event has a different set of rules compared to ... say ... almost everything else where appeals are heard usually within 24 hours.

[Parsley Sage]

Show jumping on SportsNet this morning. Nice to see it there as I don't get OLN.

Deb - they said the horse was hypersensitized.