Oliver Townend - warning for overuse of the whip at blair

lannerch said:
Totally agree with all the above. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink , additionally you can’t get a leading dressage score on anything but a relaxed happy horse.

I was helping out with a farm ride recently by a collection of small jumps, the standard of riding in about 80% of the riders was horrifying, the horses were kicked , slapped kicked again, asked to jump from no stride pulled in the mouth , and this was the majority of riders! And funnily enough the horses frequently refused to jump.

How many of you posting here , baying for OT blood if your honest with yourselves fit into the catagory above?
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Was it an Oliver Townend Fan Club day out? Riders copying their idols and all that...
 
I've just watched the Silvia round and it looks horrendous?! He uses his whip a number of times, and the horse looks barely capable of clearing the fences near the end and yet that's hailed as being a great round? Does make me wonder about some posters judgement.
 
Wouldn't class myself as any ones Fan but also do not think it is right to throw stones in a glass house even if Horse and Hound are not there to report it
 
lannerch said:
The rider I saw at Burghley certainly didn’t this is OT your still talking about?
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No, it's not the rider I saw either! It is ridiculous to suggest that he is misusing his spurs, if he were, the horse would be marked and sore and wouldn't pass the vetting. I am also neither a fan or otherwise of OT but I hate this social media witch hunt. Go and have a look at his BE record, his horses try for him, he rarely has a XC fault and I don't think he always gets the easiest horses. If he smacked a horse in the warm up that stopped, I don't blame him, pretty much any eventer/SJ I know would have done the same but he is in the spot light ATM. I've seen plenty of top professionals finish on a tired horse, give it a smack when it's stopped or run out and I wonder how many with a huge cash prize within their grasp, would have not ridden like OT at Badminton. Eventing is a tough sport for both horses and riders and you have to be a highly competitive person to get to the top and you have to be very determined to get round a 4* track. I see far more horse abuse at local low level competitions and no, they are not copying OT they are just rubbish riders who know no better.
 
shortstuff99 said:
I've just watched the Silvia round and it looks horrendous?! He uses his whip a number of times, and the horse looks barely capable of clearing the fences near the end and yet that's hailed as being a great round? Does make me wonder about some posters judgement.
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Quite a lot of riders used a whip 'multiple' times...

He never used it more than once in a row, and the horse jumped confidently and cleanly all the way to the last. She wasn't hurried or chased and whilst yes, clearly tired, was not pushed or punished to give her all.
 
oldie48 said:
I see far more horse abuse at local low level competitions and no, they are not copying OT they are just rubbish riders who know no better.
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Sadly I have to agree. I hadn't been to an unaffiliated show for about 20 years but was at one recently helping a friend and was horrified at the standard of riding in the show jumping which seems to have really detiorated. Horses bitted up but being socked in the mouth whilst being pony club kicked with spurs.

I personally wouldn't send a horse to OT but then there are a fair few riders I wouldn't send a horse to and I don't see them being pilloried on social media.
 
He had belly bands for XC on Cooley and BC.

I'm not a fan but thought he rode well on all three rounds, he struck me as a bit different to at badders and it made me wonder how much effect the possibility of the grand slam had had on him.
 
shortstuff99 said:
I've just watched the Silvia round and it looks horrendous?! He uses his whip a number of times, and the horse looks barely capable of clearing the fences near the end and yet that's hailed as being a great round? Does make me wonder about some posters judgement.
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I agree!
 
lannerch said:
The rider I saw at Burghley certainly didn’t this is OT your still talking about?
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I thought this thread was about the warning he received at Blair not about Burghley?
He clearly can ride without using his whip and Spurs but on occasion choices not to.
Some of his horses wear belly bands to prevent marks from spurs.
Maybe they should be banned.
 
Sandstone1 said:
I thought this thread was about the warning he received at Blair not about Burghley?
He clearly can ride without using his whip and Spurs but on occasion choices not to.
Some of his horses wear belly bands to prevent marks from spurs.
Maybe they should be banned.
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I watched his ride on live stream at Blair as well and my comment still applies here as well. Looked a lovely smooth ride , which I believe he won the section on.
Admittedly the warning was given for an incident in the collecting ring, where the horse ran out on the practice fence, which of course I did not see.
 
oldie48 said:
No, it's not the rider I saw either! It is ridiculous to suggest that he is misusing his spurs, if he were, the horse would be marked and sore and wouldn't pass the vetting. I am also neither a fan or otherwise of OT but I hate this social media witch hunt. .
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Sorry, but he had his knees turned out and feet at right angles with the spurs stuck into their sides. Bellybands or not, that is NOT how to use spurs. No witch hunt here just what I observed at both Badminton and Burghley.
 
I watched the Silvia round really closely (soft spot for greys) and have just watched it again on iplayer and saw Warren tap her once early on. I thought he rode her quietly and sympathetically and as the commentators said although she certainly wasn't speeding along, she was jumping well. She also passed inspection next day and finished in 35th place which I doubt she would have managed had she been struggling the day before.
 
cundlegreen said:
Sorry, but he had his knees turned out and feet at right angles with the spurs stuck into their sides. Bellybands or not, that is NOT how to use spurs. No witch hunt here just what I observed at both Badminton and Burghley.
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Disagree totally just watched his round on Cooley he gives him a lovely encouraging round, even when Cooley backs off.
I personally think the only reason he is wearing the spur bands this time is because of the trouble he had in the trot up at badminton when BC was withheld and reinspected due to a mark on his side where the hair had been rubbed off .
Not saying by any means his riding at badminton was acceptable, but his riding at burghley, and the live streamed round at Blair was class .
 
lannerch said:
Disagree totally just watched his round on Cooley he gives him a lovely encouraging round, even when Cooley backs off.
I personally think the only reason he is wearing the spur bands this time is because of the trouble he had in the trot up at badminton when BC was withheld and reinspected due to a mark on his side where the hair had been rubbed off .
Not saying by any means his riding at badminton was acceptable, but his riding at burghley, and the live streamed round at Blair was class .
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Just correcting myself it was Cooley who had to be represented in the trot up at badders not BC
 
HBII said:
Re the patting - only done to make a point IMO
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While i was watching I did wonder if he was doing it to counter the negative publicity at Badminton. I didn't particularly like him but lost all respect after the 'sometimes you have to win ugly' comment from there. I think he's very arrogant and needs to learn from riders who've achieved far more than he has.
 
Can I just point out that the "win ugly" phrase that seems to have caused SO much upset was ACTUALLY first uttered by the "saintly" Clare Balding during the Saturday broadcasting at Badminton.
 
"Winning Ugly" was coined by Brad Gilbert (very high level US tennis coach) as a phrase for tennis players who won without playing a technically beautiful game, but by scrapping away, and never giving up. Its Brad Gilbert that Clare was quoting.
 
And OT May just have been quoting Clare quoting Brad Gilbert yet everybody seems to have got upset at him using the phrase.
 
Because it's a crass turn of phrase (and frankly a worrying way for a competitor to think) when you are talking about a sport which requires another living creature to take the pain of 'winning ugly'
 
lar said:
Can I just point out that the "win ugly" phrase that seems to have caused SO much upset was ACTUALLY first uttered by the "saintly" Clare Balding during the Saturday broadcasting at Badminton.
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What's the relevance of the 'saintly' comment about Claire? She wasn't riding the horse and hitting it, was she?

It causes upset because it's a nasty way of thinking by a sportsman when the equipment you're using to win ugly is a live animal, and it should never have occurred to him to repeat it.
 
ycbm said:
What's the relevance of the 'saintly' comment about Claire? She wasn't riding the horse and hitting it, was she?

It causes upset because it's a nasty way of thinking by a sportsman when the equipment you're using to win ugly is a live animal.
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Exactly CB was not riding the horse OT made a grave error by repeating the phrase himself later it will follow him around a long while .
 
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