Badminton - irresponsible riding

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emmajames01

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Now I'm not a big fan of Touzaint's rein-dropping, but does anyone else think Frenchman Pierre Marie Dubois should have been stopped on the course yesterday?

After his appalling gallop into the Quarry (which left his horse crumpled on the floor) he continued to ride very erratically and irresponsibly - and it was only the horse's generosity that saw him finish at all. It was no surprise to see that the horse was withdrawn today after his punishing round.

Should the Ground Jury have stepped-in?
 
I didnt see Pierre ride but i thought a few riders should of pulled up as Mather Wright did as towards the end of the day the horses were looking absolutly shattered, think maybe the muggyness affected them??
Also not a fan of OT riding....sack of spuds IMO!!
(not that im any better hehe)
 
Absolutely...some of the riding there yesterday was real kamikaze style...granted a few of the top ones had some "should have gone to specsavers" moments both xc and sj but not at every fence and they recovered beautifully!
 
Just watched the footage on BBC - must say that I was cringing a lot at the state of some of the horses, I really did think a lot of them were *lacking fitness* towards the end (not saying the prep wasn't good enough, just that they were looking everso tired).
 
I saw Dubois on TV and he was awful. I hope they kick him down the levels until he proves that he is competent to ride at 4**** level again (if ever). If he regularly rides that badly, he will end up as a statistic before he is much older.

He was the worst, but there was at least 1 other (a British rider) who really did not seem up to riding at this level either.
 
I was at the quarry when Dubois galloped his horse into the fence and it was shocking. Common sense dictates you don't gallop at a fence like that. Appalling riding.
 
Was it just me or where there alot more tired horses than you would usually see? I know they said the ground was a bit sticky but I've seen it much muddier some years. I would have thought that it shold be less of a problem now that they have removed the roads and tracks and the steeplechase.
 
We saw some appalling riding (and some very, very good riding). I thought it might just be seeing only one fence per rider (generally) but the tv coverage sadly shows that for some riders it is a definite theme.
 
I'm not an expert on eventing and I don't want to be over-critical.

The one thing that really stood out for me during the day was the camacaze (sp) Frenchman. The way he rode the quarry and a lot of the other fences was horrendous.
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I felt sorry for the poor horse that was trying it's heart out for him, no matter what blunders he made. A good case for having the ground jury be able to step in and disqualify.
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Was it just me or where there alot more tired horses than you would usually see? I know they said the ground was a bit sticky but I've seen it much muddier some years. I would have thought that it shold be less of a problem now that they have removed the roads and tracks and the steeplechase.

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I agree, so many horses looking knackered, and lots and lots retired. Quite strange really, don't know how to account for it!
 
It is odd. I don't know what the problem was, maybe the ground didn't help - a lot of riders said it was very 'holding' which I guess must tire the horses more. Was the time tighter this year?
 
I think the French rider was definitely a case for enforced pulling up by the ground jury. The commentator kept saying "lets hope he learns from his mistakes", well Badminton ain't the place to be learning, by mistakes or otherwise, its supposed to be for expert riders. Even the best make the odd mistake (take WFP!), but the difference with him was you could see them coming and it was painful to watch. He shouldn't have been there and when it became obvious his riding wasn't up to that level he should have been stopped.

There's also been a fair bit of criticism of Oli Townend. I'm not particularly a fan but I'd just like to say, in spite of one or two risky leaps, I thought he did bl**dy well getting round with his broken collar bone, but he did look a bit done in at the end. A couple of the riders did make me wonder whether more emphasis needs to be placed on rider fitness. Determination and courage are very important but they can only get you so far. The horses deserve a rider in top condition who can do their best to help them out IMO.
 
I also thought Glenbrook should have been pulled up, I know its important to finish but the horse should always come first.

The French guy who dumped his horse in the quary was shocking. There is so much in the media at the moment about falls being rider error and lack of eduction and this guy is a very bad role model.
 
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Quote:
Was it just me or where there alot more tired horses than you would usually see? I know they said the ground was a bit sticky but I've seen it much muddier some years. I would have thought that it shold be less of a problem now that they have removed the roads and tracks and the steeplechase.



I agree, so many horses looking knackered, and lots and lots retired. Quite strange really, don't know how to account for it!

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The people were saying they thought it was due to more people riding warmbloods now... also it was obviously a really tough time so I expect they were all going for it from the start.

Was it Zara's first ride that looked knackered then? I thought the second one finished quite well.

Oh and MR did do the right thing pulling up, but I'm not sure he had much choice!! It was that tired it was struggling to canter by the time it stopped at that fence!
 
Was it just me but I thought the 'small' riders (as in not large numbers of horses) horses were far fitter than some of the big yards in most cases? It certainly seemed that the Scottish contingent were on top of fitness as a whole, while Lucy, Sharon and Polly all seemed to finish well too (perhaps Shaabrak was the tiredest of those). It was interesting that they are still saying that TBs still have the edge over the warmbloods too.
 
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