Oli Townend....horse falls

And lets be honest here. Oli's round looked brilliant until he came off, unlike Pippa funnells who looked like she would have done better to get off and carry the horse round.
why she was not stopped on that poor horse I will never know.
 
I think you will find all these eventers are pretty lean at this stage of the year, they are easily doing two hours work a day, and there is no fat carried. They are all about performance and athleticism, they just are so..... NOT dressage types
 
lannerch said:
Race horses too are often lean and definatly the time of year for lean eventers!
Have we had a pop at oli's tack yet or perhaps what he was wearing?
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Pretty sure that <shock horror> he would have been wearing his own Team Townend branded apparel and tack. How terribly pompous of him (if I knew how to I'd have inserted a "rolling eye" face here!).

It's Team Townend, much like it's Team Fredericks, for marketing. People are more likely to invest their money into something they can feel a part of and in a way they are a part of it. By putting their money into the brand they are continuing to help fund the rider/team.

I think it's also a nice acknowledgement that it's not just the riders but the whole team (owners, grooms, riders, farriers, vets, physios, trainers, hay delivery man, etc) that have had an input into getting the horse to the level it's at.
 
Kiribati_uk said:
Bang out of order!!!!!!
When has he done that, oh in kentucky when he was carted off in an ambulance!!!!!
I hate this Jockey bashing last year it was Georgie Strang and Master Monarch, do you think these riders go out to put the horse on the floor?
No its called a mistake, and at 4star level the margin for errors is very slim!!!
WFP last week was bloodly lucky But had Cool Mountain of fallen would he be being slated for being reckless/careless?? No because its WFP!!!
Bit of respect for these riders wouldn't go amiss, I take my hat to ANYONE who can get to 4star level!!!
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Couldn't agree more.
Well said!
 
The horse is looking a bit lean? Jesus christ i've heard it all now.

Look at the marathon runners, not an ounce of fat on them, why? Because they are endurance specialists, hence why TB types are favoured in eventing over any other breed...
 
Chloe..x said:
The horse is looking a bit lean? Jesus christ i've heard it all now.

Look at the marathon runners, not an ounce of fat on them, why? Because they are endurance specialists, hence why TB types are favoured in eventing over any other breed...
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4* horses are supposed to be as fit as possible, and you REALLY don't want them carrying excess fat. The horse looked fine to me. Nobody says that Grand National horses need to look fatter, and they're doing about the same distance and if anything don't need to be as athletic!
ffs, I'm wondering what else we're all going to criticise next...
 
I am now rolling on actual laughing floor at the comments that a fit 4* horse is too lean.

Seriously if this is what people think then there is never going to be a chance of the horse world ever wiping out the gross obesity we see in the showing world.
 
OneInAMillion said:
This... :mad:

I neither love him or hate him. This isn't Oli-Bashing, it is a hate thread. Why don't you send him an email ( oliver@odteventing.com ) or maybe give him a call: 01691 690822 and tell him exactly what you've written?
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Hahaha you must REALLY REALLY hate him... i can just imagine legions of HHOers ringing him up!

"Hello Oli, I'm Little Miss Nobody who has never ridden bigger than a minimus (and then I crapped myself) but I think your horse is too skinny, you're too fat, and you ride like crap. Oh, btw, I get frightened just sitting on the sofa watching Burghley, and wouldn't dare ride to one of those fences for a billion pounds..." ;) ;) ;)

fwiw that is NOT me... I thought he was doing a really good job until he got a horrible misser!
 
kerilli said:
Hahaha you must REALLY REALLY hate him... i can just imagine legions of HHOers ringing him up!

"Hello Oli, I'm Little Miss Nobody who has never ridden bigger than a minimus (and then I crapped myself) but I think your horse is too skinny, you're too fat, and you ride like crap. Oh, btw, I get frightened just sitting on the sofa watching Burghley, and wouldn't dare ride to one of those fences for a billion pounds..." ;) ;) ;)

fwiw that is NOT me... I thought he was doing a really good job until he got a horrible misser!
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I will agree. Normally I'm not an OT fan but his riding has improved a lot over the last few years and up until that fence he was having a good round. He rode for the long one horse said no chipped in a short and the rest is history! He is far from the only pro that that has happened to! there were numerous alone on saturday but the majority of the rest got away with it ;)

As for IM napping I think OT was actually very very professional. When a horse naps like that there is very little you can do and he just sat quietly and let it do its thing before retiring. It has a history of napping and it's not something that can be instantly fixed so credit where its due to him there.

As for DS i challenge anyone on here to not act similary for it all to go wrong at the very end after a very good round, and sorry but what is wrong with throwing his whip to the floor in frustration? rather that than at his horse!
 
Santa_Claus said:
As for DS i challenge anyone on here to not act similary for it all to go wrong at the very end after a very good round, and sorry but what is wrong with throwing his whip to the floor in frustration? rather that than at his horse!
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Completley agree with this. If I had ridden a horse for years, brought it up from the lower levels, managed to get to 4 star level (thats never going to happen) and then have my horse jump one its best ever XC rounds. Get it over the more complicated fences (IMO) to have my horse fall 3 fences from home then I too would be pretty fustrated. He threw his whip at the floor, not at a person or horse and from what I can see he was also struggling with his point 2 which wouldnt help the situation.
 
Daniel Sibley is actually very nice and very personable. I 'met' him a few years ago at an event where he and his Mum were debating one of the moves in the dressage - he rode over and asked me what I was planning to ride! I had similar times to him all day, and every time I passed him he asked me how I was getting on (badly it is fair to say!). I then hacked down to the XC start with him and had a chat about horses with ulcers. When I finished he congratulated me on a nice clear. I am sure he doesn't remember at all, but he gave me some good advice and was thoroughly pleasant to me.

He patted the horse as he walked off, and when the crowd clapped acknowledged them (I was sat in the stands), and TBH I've been that frustrated at the ridiculously low level I go out to do, so to be so close to finishing Burghley and to have a mistake like that must be horribly frustrating, he doesn't deserve to be vilified for it at all.

The bad press Oli gets on here makes me embarrassed to be a member - and someone on here thinks it is odd I didn't reveal my username in front of a whole load of pros, well that's why!
 
SpottedCat said:
Daniel Sibley is actually very nice and very personable. I 'met' him a few years ago at an event where he and his Mum were debating one of the moves in the dressage - he rode over and asked me what I was planning to ride! I had similar times to him all day, and every time I passed him he asked me how I was getting on (badly it is fair to say!). I then hacked down to the XC start with him and had a chat about horses with ulcers. When I finished he congratulated me on a nice clear. I am sure he doesn't remember at all, but he gave me some good advice and was thoroughly pleasant to me.

He patted the horse as he walked off, and when the crowd clapped acknowledged them (I was sat in the stands), and TBH I've been that frustrated at the ridiculously low level I go out to do, so to be so close to finishing Burghley and to have a mistake like that must be horribly frustrating, he doesn't deserve to be vilified for it at all.

The bad press Oli gets on here makes me embarrassed to be a member - and someone on here thinks it is odd I didn't reveal my username in front of a whole load of pros, well that's why!
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As someone who personally knows DS (I didnt admit to that in my previous post) I completly agree with how you have described him. He is a very friendly chap and by no means spoilt as someone previously described his behaviour. What he is is passionate and emotional and I dont think he should be criticised for that. He always takes the time out to ask me how my horse & I get on even though we are playing around at unaffliated level. He even got enthusiastic for me and genuinely happy when I got placed in a W&T test. Horses are his life and I know how gutted he felt falling at that fence.
 
kerilli said:
Hahaha you must REALLY REALLY hate him... i can just imagine legions of HHOers ringing him up!

"Hello Oli, I'm Little Miss Nobody who has never ridden bigger than a minimus (and then I crapped myself) but I think your horse is too skinny, you're too fat, and you ride like crap. Oh, btw, I get frightened just sitting on the sofa watching Burghley, and wouldn't dare ride to one of those fences for a billion pounds..." ;) ;) ;)

fwiw that is NOT me... I thought he was doing a really good job until he got a horrible misser!
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Don't forget Kerilli, that Little Miss Nobody also spotted that NZB Land Vision was too tired at the end of the XC at Badminton and Mark Todd should have pulled him up. It doesn't matter that he went on to win ;)
 
kerilli said:
Hahaha you must REALLY REALLY hate him... i can just imagine legions of HHOers ringing him up!

"Hello Oli, I'm Little Miss Nobody who has never ridden bigger than a minimus (and then I crapped myself) but I think your horse is too skinny, you're too fat, and you ride like crap. Oh, btw, I get frightened just sitting on the sofa watching Burghley, and wouldn't dare ride to one of those fences for a billion pounds..." ;) ;) ;)

fwiw that is NOT me... I thought he was doing a really good job until he got a horrible misser!
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Well, how very dare you! I'll have you know that in my 15 years of 4* competition, during which I've been to all the major championships, I've never made a mistake, missed a stride or rolled a pole whilst riding my faithful stead 'Sofa'. So stick that in your pipe and schmoke it! ;-)
 
Oli actually rode for the 5 strides that there was supposed to be but lost his line a little and got there on 5 1/2. On a left handed curving line a horse may well drift a little right, it happens. At that stage of the course it is at a time where the horse tends to go a little flat on you and his reactions can go a little slow. In this situation most horses find it easier to come off a forward stride than shorten like a fresh horse can. With hindsight I am sure Oli would have ridden it slightly differently but he didn't have that luxury.
 
SpottedCat said:
Daniel Sibley is actually very nice and very personable.
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I know a top showjumper who's a well known name who is the lovliest guy you could wish to meet. Charm personified in fact. He also happens to beat the living bejesus out of his horses, training at home, if they don't perform.
 
CRIKEY
I think that the person who said the line was off a bit and then he could not get the 5 had it...

and I think rather than all this he is too agressive or too competitive...or now even TOO FAT (That is getting a bit!!!!!!!!) I think that it was just about this horse being ridden out of its rhythm a bit which was why it did not look a smooth as say
Primitive Pistol, or AN's horses or Lenamore etc

I am no big fan of OT but this thread has now covered stuff it has not needed to. Think it could be left...but sure it will carry on
 
This thread is ridiculous.....


Has anyone here actually ridden 4 star??? brought horses on to that level and competed them??


no thought not.......

oli has only got that far due to sheer determination, and yes we all make mistakes but ffs he wouldnt be there if he was that crap.... would he?! :/
 
CalllyH said:
Polarskye that's sad that people didn't applaud him. He had a good partnership with quest and he needs to find a horse he bonds with like that again
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I agree with both of these points, but it does raise the question of how he gets his rides.... Maybe he needs to get back to basics and bring some horses through the grades and bond with them in the process. Its always difficult on other riders horses..
 
annabel2009 said:
I have met him and yes he is ambitious but he is not as bad as people think, I think alot of people are unfair on him and as others have said he has had HF's at high profile events so people notice it more.
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I agree with this - I competed against him in pony club, and he's actually quite a nice guy. He's never made any bones about being ambitious, and this is what I think gets people's backs up.

SusieT said:
Ollies fall today and Mary's fall at the euros were pretty much caused by the same thing, no stride, and horses that were a bit too keen to take a long one when they shouldn't have. Ollie's horse should have put another one in, he maybe should have sat on it a tiny bit longer, but it was not by any means a massively obvious error.
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this ^^ Burghley is a notoriously tough course, requiring a lot of stamina from horse and rider. Most of the falls happened in the second half of the course (if i remember rightly) and could easily be put down to tired horse and/or rider making errors of judgement.
 
I think you will find oli is bringing up his own horses through the ranks he has some lovely up and coming youngsters he's a local rider and is always in the be100 upwards at our local events.
He is now even trying with the harthill stud to breed his own , you can't bring them on from younger than that!

I admire oli and Mary for managing to be what they are and what most of us dream by pure ambition and graft they started with next to nothing.
 
PoppyAnderson said:
I know a top showjumper who's a well known name who is the lovliest guy you could wish to meet. Charm personified in fact. He also happens to beat the living bejesus out of his horses, training at home, if they don't perform.
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Then IMO he cannot be a lovely guy! Just because someone is nice to speak to, the fact they beat their horses certainly puts them down as scum in my eyes.

I dont like the way OT rides, never have done. He pushes his horses too hard and doesnt seem to care if they're tired etc. He is out to win, but thing is he wont be given top horses to ride if he keeps riding the way he does. Having 4 horse falls in one season is extremely worrying.
 
PoppyAnderson said:
I know a top showjumper who's a well known name who is the lovliest guy you could wish to meet. Charm personified in fact. He also happens to beat the living bejesus out of his horses, training at home, if they don't perform.
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I really have no idea how or why you think that is relevant to Daniel Sibley. No-one was commenting on how he treated his horses, behind the scenes or otherwise, they were saying he behaved like a 'spoilt brat' or words to that effect. I was merely saying that when I met him, that could not have been further from the truth. I don't understand at all why one person you know is nice to your face but horrible to their horses implies that others are the same :confused: It's a bit unfair to post something like that as it really does give the impression that you think the same is/could be true of the person under discussion.
 
noodle_ said:
This thread is ridiculous.....


Has anyone here actually ridden 4 star??? brought horses on to that level and competed them??
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Yes I have, I have refrained from commenting on this and the other thread re Pippa so far but I have to say there are some people on here who are spouting opinions they no nothing about. To produce and ride at this level takes a lot of skill.
No one is perfect and we all make mistakes - except maybe the HHO's who sit in judgement ontheir sofas.
Have an opinion, yes but educate yourself first so you have some idea of what your talking about before airing those views on a public forum.
I love F1 and have lots of opinions about what goes on, but am I qualified to judge their decisions in public, no I am not I drive a road car not a racing car and the difference between normal and top level horses is probably the same.
 
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