Belton today, the 'word on the street' is...

kerilli

kerilli

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Apparently Rodney Powell lost a horse today, which collapsed after finishing. V V sad. Huge condolences to R and all connections. (Not sure which horse, not Zinzan though.)
Lots of withdrawals, allegedly because riders were not very happy with the ground, which was very bumpy in places, not least in the SJ arena.
A certain rider was not allowed for some reason to move horses between sections and so packed up all 10 of her rides and went home. Really not great for her, her owners, or all the public who go there to see such top names competing. :( :( I have not heard of such a request being denied outright before...
Because of all U.K. flights being grounded, both WFP and OT are driving down to Barcelona to get a flight from there out to the U.S. We had visions of them, Thelma and Louise style, sharing a car... ;) ;)
 
unreal how many are W in some of the sections (looks like only half started in the OI's)

pmsl thelma and louise - now thats one of those fly on the wall moments you'd love to be at ;)
 
I didn't get the impression that it was a strop at all. From what it was told, it sounded as if the Secretary (or whoever might have been able to move horses to different sections) was being a bit unreasonable.
However, this is all hearsay, so I am not accusing anyone of anything...
 
Gosh, that's a real shame that the ground was causing so many to W/D. :( And condolences to RP and crew, very sad. :(

V. odd about the pro "walking out" of the event, surely there should be no need for that problem in the first place, since sections/times are given out in advance, so any swapping of sections/times could (or should) have been done in advance? :confused:
 
OMG Rodney Powell,heart goes out to him and his connections of that is true. Just got back from Belton, not a good day for me either- my horse tripped badly in the showjumping and now has a few stitches in her fetlock so w/d before xc. Ground was a bit hit and miss to be honest and not the same Belton as I'm used too!
As for OT and WFP thats hilarious, can just picture it now!
 
I had heard a couple of people were cross about not being able swap sections...one person had hers on the lorry to sub but they wouldnt let her run it, also heard it was her owners that were as cross and said they were never going there again - only hear say aswell though!
Ground got harder over the wk end and couldnt really see they had done much to soften it.
Gutted to hear they lost the horse, very sorry for all involved.
 
tripped onto her knees just about coming into the double at fence 4 went crashing thru both parts it I nearly came off crossed my tracks hundreds of times... blinking nightmare! Somehow god only knows I stayed on and she jumped the rest clear! Amazing horse but she sliced her fetlock, clean cut thank god, just a flap of skin. stitches in for 7 days so shouldn't miss much work hopefully. Bit of a bummer though! The course was lovely but the ground was dubious.
 
Oh heck, that's not good publicity for them.

So sorry to hear that about RP's horse... thoughts are with him and the connections.

Surprised to hear said pro packed up and left, surely if one couldn't run they'd have been better off running the others anyway and keeping 9 out of 10 owners happy... or guessing there's more to it than that.

That's dedication for OT and WFP, quite a drive for them... guessing the horses must have been flown out already?
 
oh no I loved Langarth Darcy :( bet he's absolutely gutted. Heart goes out to him, owners, and everyone else involved.

Sounds like it was a bit of a nightmare?

Lets hope OT and WFP make it...and that their horses come home safe too...
 
We were there today too, heard about the horse collapsing at the finish but didn't know who - how very sad.

There is a comment on the BE forum re the bumpy dressage arenas stating how upset some owners are with the ground.

I would ask though - as it's National Trust owned are the organisers allowed to do lots to the land, there are all sorts of rules about Heritage Parkland?
 
Knew Darcy from when Lizzel Winter had him- she produced him to 2* then finally had to give in as he got too strong for her. Really really sad for all concerned, that horse had SO much more left to give :(
 
MegaBeast said:
That's dedication for OT and WFP, quite a drive for them... guessing the horses must have been flown out already?
Click to expand...

Think there's a 2 week quarantine flying into the States, possibly only a week, so at the latest horses would have been flown at the beginning of last week.

Such a shame for RP and his connections :(
 
Just been thinking about the ground.

At Belton the soil is quite light and sandy, so never really gets hard, all the bumps are fairly soft and forgiving, if you kick them with your foot, there is some give, so I imagine over 1/2 ton of horse would sink in.

The ground appeared to be marking and breaking uo/crumbling slightly so I can see it would become a little uneven for the horses.

However an event is the test of a horse generally on grass and the ground is always going to be variable - that's part of the 'sport'

Belton always has lots of withdrawals and non completions XC as many riders are just giving horses a short run prior to Badminton..

I watched most horses go XC on the 3 star and also many of those SJ.

I just wonder, are riders expecting perfect flat 'magic carpet' on every outing, above a certain level? I would say that in the uK that would be pretty hard to arrange with the variable weather we have.

From a spectators view today, yes it was dissappointing not to see every horse go XC, but I would love to know just how much can be done in such a National Trust setting.
 
I that too thought thistle, I commented to my dad how sandy the soil was in some places the hooves cut in but not too much from what I could see.

The horses that ran looked like they finished well and didnt struggle on the ground, I noticed some of the big names withdrew, which was a shame, but many are heading off to badders in a few weeks.
 
very sad for RP, condolences to all involved :(

Question here, as Ive always wondered this - At most BE events do you showjump on grass or do you mostly showjump in an arena?
Just wondering because all EI events showjump on grass!
 
only_me, almost always jump on grass, i've only ever sj'ed on a surface about 3 times at BE events. Bishop Burton at the end of the season moved to an indoor on a surface sometimes, BB spring was on an outdoor surface, A le W is on a surface occasionally, other than those i can't think of any others.
 
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