badminton 3DE - non OT comments

I think there were 2 stallions competing this year as well.

I think the modern courses suit fast maneuverable smaller horses especially now they've removed the co-efficient.

Totally aside people often ask about coloured horses at the top level and I am pretty sure Charlton Down Riverdance is a lovely minimally marked coloured (tobiano).

His passport has him as bay/brown, but I would lay money you are right and genetically he would be tobiano
 
I think there were 2 stallions competing this year as well.

I think the modern courses suit fast maneuverable smaller horses especially now they've removed the co-efficient.

Totally aside people often ask about coloured horses at the top level and I am pretty sure Charlton Down Riverdance is a lovely minimally marked coloured (tobiano).

And Glenhill Gold, ISH coloured stallion who’s won at 3*
 
I have done 'Roads and Tracks' and the steeplechase for the RC championships and there was some about it that made it a bit special. Not sure it actually made any difference to any scores but it was fun to do.
 
Was only thinking about Murphy Himself and Glenburnie the other day. What amazing horses they were.

Think they’d struggle with how technical the courses are now, they were def big galloping & jumping horses.

Didn’t Murphy just take strides out everywhere
 
Interesting watching the old coverage. You can see the Dot Willis 'long arms short reins' training - it does look much tidier than some of the flappy stuff that happens sometimes now.Blimey Stark must have been brave!
Some of those courses did look pretty technical and I though Badminton this year had a lot less of the hauling around tight turns that has made some pretty unpleasant watching at 4* recently.
 
Interesting watching the old coverage. You can see the Dot Willis 'long arms short reins' training - it does look much tidier than some of the flappy stuff that happens sometimes now.Blimey Stark must have been brave!
Some of those courses did look pretty technical and I though Badminton this year had a lot less of the hauling around tight turns that has made some pretty unpleasant watching at 4* recently.

They were technical and big and needed brave horse and rider combinations, but they were reasonably straightforward. Nowadays I think the questions aren't so clear cut, which requires far more planning from the riders and is IMO not always fair to the horses.

Ian Stark must have been mad :)
 
More like racehorses less like show jumpers. Some look quite lean. Probably didn't have the dressage capability that a lot do now or the muscles that develops.
 
Some of those courses did look pretty technical and I though Badminton this year had a lot less of the hauling around tight turns that has made some pretty unpleasant watching at 4* recently.

I agree, I suspect that TV coverage comes into the decisions fence builders make now.
 
I am in no way an eventer but know the format, do people think the horses were a lot fitter when they had to do roads and tracks, steeplechase before the cross country than now where it is just the three phases? Just watching the video and some of these horses looked still full of running after the cross country compared to a few rounds I have seen in the last few years at various events.
 
1min 50 in on here and you can hear Tucker going 'Murph's in control' https://youtu.be/2xrxWAasR6U

I haven't seen this before, and I will admit that I had no idea that cross county jumps used to be like that!

I actually prefer those jumps, some of the water set ups, bounce distancing, and use of ditches and banks and huge drops looks like great fun, and would be a test on both horse and rider. (Especially the last clip on that video, they are FLYING). Big bold fast riding.

I think that the 90 degree angles, jumps out of line with each other, tight turns etc are all a bit boring after a while. There are only so many jumps that you can watch that require that before it begins to feel like watching a show jumping round with a bit of a gallop in the middle. Ian Stark would have laughed in the face of that pathetic attempt at a ditch put in the course this year. Yes they are incredibly difficult to ride and require a hell of a lot of skill, but I do think that a lot of the gung-ho has been sapped from the cross county. One of my favourite jumps to watch this year was actually the big 4 bar they *mostly* took a flying leap at and seemed to enjoy.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy watching it however.
 
The course in the video looks like it flows really nicely. The horses look very different. I wonder were most of them thoroughbreds
 
It's like the xc version of 70's formula 1:eek4:

It’s not even that long ago, 1986 :o
Some riders are still competing now!! Those fences are proper scary, not like now where everything is dressed - it’s more like a world champ version of a hunter trial :o

Ian stark on at 16.04 - horse slipped in the sand between fences & fell :o
 
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It’s not even that long ago, 1986 :o
Some riders are still competing now!! Those fences are proper scary, not like now where everything is dressed - it’s more like a world champ version of a hunter trial :o

Ian stark on at 16.04 - horse slipped in the sand between fences & fell :o

It looks a bit like he's pretending his foot didn't touch the ground:D

I think I'd be braver racing cars than riding a course like that. At least a car will do what you tell it to. A horse has a mind of its own. A lot of mutual trust must be necessary. Even if I was brave/ talented enough to ride like that I wouldn't have enough trust in a horse to ever do it.
 
We don't see many bounces about currently, there was one into the lake a fairly recently iirc but generally on course not a lot?
 
Im curious if anyone can tell me what other horses have jumped round Badminton/Burghley and have also SJ at Grand Prix? I guess Charisma is one? Plus my friends lovely horse that I groomed for, Figjam, who sadly passed away this year. Does anyone know any others? (In Figjams case he went from eventing to Grand Prix SJ successfully and then back to eventing where he made it to Badminton twice (tipped up in the lake once!) and Burghley once)
 
Im curious if anyone can tell me what other horses have jumped round Badminton/Burghley and have also SJ at Grand Prix? I guess Charisma is one? Plus my friends lovely horse that I groomed for, Figjam, who sadly passed away this year. Does anyone know any others? (In Figjams case he went from eventing to Grand Prix SJ successfully and then back to eventing where he made it to Badminton twice (tipped up in the lake once!) and Burghley once)

I don't think Charisma jumped at GP, he was an event horse all the time he was with MT although MT jumped at the Olympics as well as eventing it was on another horse.
 
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