Yes, that’s the debate, whether she just thought he “stung” himself or could plainly tell he was already injured. Some say he tried to break to a trot, but she kicked him on.
They were just moments from the finish, although this is 3-day eventing, so they still had the stadium phase to go. So finishing with a lame horse would get her nothing.
Prior to the jump he looks like he slips and crossfires a bit... Those kinds of things can be hard to interpret.
I’d hate to dump on a rider without cause... it can be pretty hard to tell definitively what’s going on in just seconds. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt, in terms of accusations of abuse or negligence, and hope that the horse can go on to recover.
What is the extent of the injury? She speaks of his career in past tense at the end.
That's exactly what happened. You can see it. She even looked down obviously trying to see what he was doing, and the whole time his head was bobbing because of an obvious lameness.
Becky