Equestrian course designer Mike Etherington-Smith threatens to quit

a) i don't think she did have a point.
b) her timing to point out her feelings was at totally wrong.
c) It undermined his position, and that of the ground jury etc.
 
and i take all that in to account..

But at the end of the day, she thought it could pose as a threat to the safety of horses and riders, and if she had not said anything and a horse had been injured.. this would be a diffrent post now wouldnt it!


This is an example of people caring about their reputation more than the safety of competitors.
 
If she hadn't said anything, and there had been accidents Mike E-S would have taken the rap, and would have moaned that he had had no complaints.

Better safe than sorry IMO, Princess Haya [who I like] was just covering her, Mike E-S' and the FEI's back.

Em
x
 
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If she hadn't said anything, and there had been accidents Mike E-S would have taken the rap, and would have moaned that he had had no complaints.

Better safe than sorry IMO, Princess Haya [who I like] was just covering her, Mike E-S' and the FEI's back.

Em
x

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But isn't that why they have the Ground Jury etc...
 
Yes, but obviously Princess Haya thought they had missed something. We don't know, the ground jury may have voiced concerns but decided not to change it.

Princess Haya is a talented and experienced horsewoman, no accidents happened - we don't know if the staying of the boulders would of changed that, but better safe than sorry and IMO this an discussion about 'what-ifs'

Em
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Wonder what she made of all those boulder like sprinklers? I think ME-S made use of those too because of the way he positioned the course. He could have placed everything away from them or roped the course to curve round some of them but he didn't....
 
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Yes.. but i still think she was well within her right to voice her concerns.

Lou x

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Fair enough.. but i think she could have done so a little earlier than the night before the XC was due to start?!?!?!
 
but maybe that's the first time someone approached her with their concerns.
i posted this on the other thread about it, i think it's pertinent:

tbh she did have a real point, if the stones were close together (can't tell from photo)... there was a fence at Bonn-Rodderberg in 2000 iirc which had stones all along the front, a British horse stopped at it and got its fetlock caught between two stones and wrenched/fractured its fetlock, had to be pts.

perhaps those who were concerned knew about the incident at B R.
 
Hmmm.. true!
The same thing happened at Blair in 2001.. there was a skinny fence at 3, with a king of skirt of poles around it.. these were a wide gape at the bottom, getting narrower at the top.. one horse slid, stopped, got his foot stuck and in pulling back broke his leg.. very sad and tragic!!!

However, i'm sure the Blair and Bonn-R accidents haven't been the only ones along those lines!! Therefore i'm sure a XC course designer of his experience would have thought about something like that
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???
As you say, you can't really tell from the pic, although from a blury pic they look ok to me..
I'd be seriously worried if she wasn't making a fuss about nothing tho
crazy.gif
 
He needs to get over himself to be honest.
It wasn't like an entire fence was taken out and it was done out of H&S, does it really matter when it was changed? I don't think he would have been too happy for it to have been changed a week ago. I can understand why he was annoyed but threatening not to work for the FEI again because they altered a ground line? It would have been a different story if it had been kept and an acident had happened.
I think he needs to swallow his pride a bit and accept that the fence was changed for the safety of the competitors.
 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2000/09/19/ohorse.2.t.php

Never takes comments about his courses from anyone in good heart. Rather grumpy and un-techincal reply to riders concerns here, bit of blame the riders not the course.

Princess Haya had every right to comment. Often one person may spot something that hits them in the eye as obvious when others may have looked at a fence in a completely different light. If he had not sulked off muttering no one would have thought about it again. But of course now he has made it an issue and talking point. Only himself to blame.
 
Definately agree
He could have just agreed to alter it, and that would have been the end of things, but instead he managed to show himself in a very bad light by having a tantrum over it. Surely one of the main aspects of a well built course is safety? And if one person doesn't see something which could prove hazardrous, yet another person does, it should really be changed without question.
Hands up to Princess Haya for bringing it into the light in the first place - perhaps we overrate MES as a course builder? (Or is that maybe a little harsh...?)
 
MES is a highly respected member of the safety commitee on the FEI as well as being incremental in the running of the sport here in the UK. Since the death of CP at Burghley there are now several ways for people to voice their opinions through 'official' channels. A similar thing happened at Pratoni but nobody heard about it where several team managers did not like a fence and they got it pulled so there was a precedent set in place for this at a championship event.

It is ridiculous for a president who is effectively a figurehead to act like this. It undemines the sport, the commitees and the national federations in place.
 
Funny that because we commented yesterday on how many weird obstacles like rocks and pieces of wood with flowers in front there were around the course.
Some of them were quite tight to the corners and if a horse at speed had slipped sideways it would have slid sttraight into them.
I don't like the use of rocks stuck in front of fences either, yes you jump stone walls out hunting but not often with huge fences behind them.
I think she was right to mention it, as it was obvious some of the team managers felt she could put their point better than they could.
Do we really want a person as the president who is scared to speak their mind?
 
Princess Haya did exactly what a President should do - use her executive powers. That is the definition of the term PRESIDENT.

If she saw something that nobody else had noticed or that someone had mentioned to her (but themselves had been reluctant to approach MES about or had approached him but got the "you know nothing" attitude) it is her right and duty to step in. Why have a president if they are only there for decoration. If it was Princess Anne nobody would be griping about it.

And yes MES is on the/a committee blah de blah but he also always takes offence whenever ANYBODY dares to give the slightest hint of criticism over his fences. He is very quick to voice an opinion over another designers course but god help those who dare to raise an issue with his.

He is starting to sound like a school boy whining to matron about so and so did this to me. So far it has been a good games for equestrian sport and he is dragging it down with some issue that could and should have been kept out of the public press to be discussed in privaTe with the FEI Ground Jury. Not go winging to the public press even before the xc started.

If he had not have blathered out the boulder moving no one would have cared, or even the majority of public noticed but now he is going on and on and on and it has gone from Pricess Haya did this, to someone put her up to it, and my wife had to go out to a garden centre and buy trees. No one generally really cares - it happend, so what. The main thing was the course rode as it was designed to do and there were no horrific falls, no major injuries, no fatalities end of story.

Now lets move onto the Dressage and SJ. And hope he does not keep getting the press to report his constant whinging about something that is in the past and should not dominate the rest of the equine events in HK.
 
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Funny that because we commented yesterday on how many weird obstacles like rocks and pieces of wood with flowers in front there were around the course.
Some of them were quite tight to the corners and if a horse at speed had slipped sideways it would have slid sttraight into them.
I don't like the use of rocks stuck in front of fences either, yes you jump stone walls out hunting but not often with huge fences behind them.
I think she was right to mention it, as it was obvious some of the team managers felt she could put their point better than they could.
Do we really want a person as the president who is scared to speak their mind?

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I thought similar too, I couldnt understand what or why there were those rock things stuck in the middle of the course.

Its always better to be safe than sorry regarding the safety and welfare of the horses and competitors.
 
The "rocks" scattered about the course were covering grass sprinklers! As the course was actually laid out on top of a golf course (I'm so jealous, I've always wanted to gallop oer a gold course!
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) these were already installed and could not be moved.

So they were covered up and made very obvious to the horses/riders so they were able to avoid them. I'm not sure if they were real rocks or a special plastic/similar made to look like rocks, but they were very obvious and I'm sure the riders were well briefed on them.
 
It was rider concerns that promted the Princess to ask them to be removed. According to the interview with her last night on the telly.
 
AmyMay- that was the alteration to the Stone Forest fence (which had a ground line of rocks spaced out in a row replaced by greenery), I was replying to the post above mine which said;

"I couldnt understand what or why there were those rock things stuck in the middle of the course." - these were covering the sprinkler system.

Back to the original ME-S topic, I can see both sides of the argument but ME-S seems to have over reacted and behaved a little unproffesionally.
 
Having walked the course, it was beautifully presented and certainly there were no dodgy rocks or things to stumble horses up. No jumps were huge, it took its toll through the heat and the technicality.

This is before. I will upload the after later
no18.jpg
 
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