This is another post to Chron of the Horse from a former upper level event rider:
“I am not a regular poster on this forum, although I visit it on occasion. I have been quite amazed (and dismayed) at some of the comments I have seen posted on this thread. As an upper level event rider for nearly a decade (now retired), I have competed widely around the country, including Rolex. And in all those years, I have never observed anything as heartbreaking and indefensible as Amy Tryon’s continuing to GALLOP and JUMP
a horse in such obvious distress.
You can be absolutely sure that she knew she was riding a very, very lame horse. You don’t make it to that level without being able to feel the most subtle of gait irregularities. And my goodness, LS was virtually 3-legged lame at the canter! And generally, 3 legged lame at the canter is hardly ever just a shoe or a grab. (In fact, in all my 20+ years in competition with dozens of thrown shoes, I have never even known a shoe was gone until I dismounted at the finish. Any lameness as a result always showed up later in the day, probably after the adrenalin wore off. No doubt someone will write in to say that a thrown or wrenched shoe once caused the exact same symptoms in their horse as LS’s, but I just have never seen it. I have, however, seen horses break legs and rupture tendons who suddenly went lame just like LS did.) In any case, I cannot imagine that Amy was unaware that the horse underneath her could have suffered a catastrophic injury of some sort, as opposed to just a grab or a shoe or something minor. It seems to me that she was playing the odds, very long ones, that he just might be OK. And surely, can anyone seriously maintain that to continue galloping and jumping on that leg would have had no affect on the severity of the injury? And, to those of you who are thinking that way, are you saying it was OK to gallop on because it was a fatal injury anyway????
As for Amy’s behaviour at the finish line, I have a different take on why she acted as she did. There are always officials at the finish line, and she stood to be eliminated and sanctioned for riding in a lame horse, and so she could hardly advertise that that is exactly what she just did. And, of course, it is well ingrained into every rider not to draw undue attention to any possible lameness issue. Otherwise the vets may give your horse extra scrutiny at the jog on Sunday. (Perhaps she was still in “diehard eventer” mode hoping she could somehow ice and laser LS through the problem and actually present him for the jog. Who knows?) The point is that she committed herself to a plan when she did not pull him up, and so I suspect she played it all the way out including at the finish line.
Another point: LS did not look fit enough for this competition. I would have considered pulling that horse up even before he broke down. And once I felt him stumble and take the one or two bad steps, I would have been off. I am sure that horse would have been no problem to stop. He was trying to stop for goodness sake.
I do not know Amy personally, and, no doubt, she has many excellent qualities. But the bottom line is that she did NOT make a bad MISTAKE. She made a bad DECISION. And it probably cost LS his life. And I think that unless significant consequences are forthcoming, we are sending out the wrong message that it’s OK to ride irresponsibly as long as you don’t mean to hurt the horse, or that it’s OK because you are a nice person who loves horses and works hard, etc., etc....
When you compete at this level and on horses with this much heart, you have the moral responsibility to go the extra mile to ALWAYS insure the safety and wellbeing of the horse. What I observed was sickening. And so unnecessary.
If Amy does not deserve our condemnation, then who does? What would a rider have to do to merit a suspension? I am having trouble imagining anything much worse. I ask you, what if the horse she was riding was your horse? Would it not tear your heart out to watch that video then? Would you still defend her? I can assure you she knew she had a very lame horse under her, she was well able to pull him up, and she did not.
Personally, I think that if she is allowed to compete in Hong Kong at the
test event and at the Luhmuhlen ****, then the FEI and the USEF have failed in their responsibility to protect the welfare of our competition horses.
To paraphrase an old saying, the only way that evil can triumph is if good people do nothing. While I do not suppose Amy is “evil”, what she did was horrific. And I think we, as horseman, owe more to our horses than we do to Amy. Amy needs to step up to the plate and take responsibility for her decisions (and as one poster pointed out, she was making multiple bad decisions - one for each additional lame stride he took after his initial breakdown.)
Finally, I am sure I will be beaten up over this post. So be it. However, since some of you expressed an interest in an upper level rider’s opinion, here it is. However, even my little novice student would have hopped off that horse. I do not think you need to have ridden at Rolex to assess what happened on that course. In fact, the lower level riders can help provide some much needed perspective to the “win at any cost” mentality of some of our elite riders.”
Another with some sense of accountability.
Becky
There was a report by an acquaintance of Ms. Tryon’s of an old bow on one of Le Samurai’s front legs. This begs the question of suitability for the sport.
There is no question that horse was one talented jumper and amazing athlete.
As eventing has come under international pressure to give more thought to the safety of horse and rider, have we learned anything of lasting value?
Is horsemanship our priority?
If so, have economics or a sense of ‘national pride’ overshadowed our good intentions?
As a competitive rider, those questions trouble me at major events everywhere.