“it is very dangerous to pull up a galloping horse on XC in front of a fence.” from post # 16.
Given that horses are bred for jumping, and that some are injured or killed jumping, is it possible that your attachment to horses may have resulted in your having lost awareness of the obvious fact that horses are more expendable than the riders?
They are animals, after all. The rider in question has an exemplary record and I am curious as to why you are so condemnatory of her.
My experience with horses was limited to saddle horses in the mountains of Colorado, back in my prep school days. I am afraid that broom polo was as competitive as I got. Oops! I forgot a bit of barrel racing, which thanks to the horse, I won.
She was a good distance from the fence, she had plenty of time to pull up. And besides the horse was trying to slow down on it’s own, she wasn’t going to have to pull him up from a gallop.
I am condemnatory of her because at the level of horsemanship she should be at to be competing at that level, she should have, and I feel did know something was wrong.
I’ll say it again, when you are riding a sound horse, and it suddenly goes lame, you stop immediately and check to see if you can tell how serious it is.
Becky
You are right. Race horses are bred to run. And horses such as Le Samuri are bred to jump. They love their jobs. If the lameness occurred just before the jump after they were committed and it was either the rider is injured or the horse, I say save the rider. BUT, the question is, whether Tryon had (1) the knowledge that the horse was injured and (2) had time to pull the horse up. And granted it IS in the heat of the moment during the biggest Horse Trial in the US. Tryon IS a very knowledgable and talented horsewoman who has worked her buns off to get where she is. And I think she DOES care about the horse.
That’s why there is such a debate on this issue.