Poor ElleJS, I hope they are both ok?

Ouch. Just watched her round. Connie looked like she suddenly went a bit flat coming up to the fence and just tried to steeplechase it and caught her back legs. Hope they are both ok.
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Having watched Laura at a few 3*s, Connie's a small but very pingy, keen and scopey jumper- she fights for her head and goes best out of a nice strong forward stride. It's 4*, it needs attacking! She rode some of the combinations so well- the corner coming out of the road crossing in particular was brilliant.
It looks to me like Connie wasnt cantering properly behind coming down to the brush/ditch, she was mis-placing her hind legs- perhaps she was tying up again or perhaps something else was amiss. Laura got her there on a good stride but the hindlegs didnt do there job.

I really, really hope Connie is ok and that they come out fighting next time.
 
just watched it, thought Laura was doing a really good job until that fence, but imho she came down the hill really fast and didn't rebalance at all, the mare tried to jump totally off her forehand and there's not many that can come up enough to jump a 1.45 ish fence (as that one is... i know it's brush but it's not v soft!) from a real gallop downhill on the forehand. she put her hindlegs together a stride from take-off in a bit of an attempt to back off, but her front end was running away from her so it didn't work.
sorry, i've got tons of respect for Laura, she rode loads of the fences brilliantly, but imho she didn't do enough at that one.
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really hope they're both okay.
 
Know nothing about x country riding but watched that and agree totally too forward and lack of balance on final approach and imo horse was going to put down again and put a short one in! do agree with Polypad that it DID look fast but perhaps that is how the horse likes to go and performs best that way, seriously hope the horse is ok though because that to me looked like it could easily be career/life ending injury but fingers crossed
 
I agree with Kerilli. Thats exactly what my thoughts were when she approached the fence ( and i didnt know that was the one she fell at beforehand - I could guess from the approach). She did most of the combinations in real style, but also thought she was too fast to that sunken road one - felt ride roadcrash tv watching that one too. Can agree that they look like a super combination, and horse seemed very keen early on, but she was also driving her forward at a couple of the fences leading up to the fall. Boss did say horse goes best when forward which I dont doubt but it just looked like she overcooked it a bit.

Im not an eventrider so probably dont deserve to give my opinion on this but while I thought most of her round was fantastic there were a few fences where I thought she was driving her on while very on the forehand and those were hard to watch. Hope horse and rider are both ok after that.
 
It looked like a fluke fall to me; they seemed to be going really well (and that does not appear to be a straighforward horse to ride), then the horse clipped the solid part of the brush fence. Hope they are both ok.
 
having watched it half a dozen times, the mare changes behind about a stride or 2 away from take off - as if she was trying to steady herself. Still maintain she was let run on a bit much into it on her forehand, otherwise that wouldnt have happened.
She did look ace over most of the fences though so I expect just an error in judgement here. fabulous horse.
 
I do think some people are quite mean. It must be pretty horrible to have a crashing fall like that and then come on HHO and read a load of people slagging you off!!
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I do think some people are quite mean. It must be pretty horrible to have a crashing fall like that and then come on HHO and read a load of people slagging you off!!
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It's fine; next year they will all be there showing us how it should be done!
 
Why is it that if you have a difference of opinion you are 'slagging' someone off??? Can't we all think differently???

Just because I think she was too fast into it doesn't mean I'm 'slagging her off' nor does it mean I think I can do better.

We all criticise riders in the public eye, doesn't mean we don't respect them for what they are doing.

I'm not going to sit here and say I thought she did the right thing at that fence just because she's 'one of us' as that's not what I think.

That is just my opinion, and have already said elsewhere I hope both are ok and fit to run another day.

If it had been a german rider (for example) that non of us know, would we have all thought the same thing?
 
Agree that people are possibly getting a little 'sensitive' about comments due to knowing the rider, if it had been another rider that we didn't feel was 'one of us' then i think others would prehaps be a little more blunt about it.

I personally think the mare was unbalanced on take off and because of travelling too fast couldn't do anything to sort herself out. A horrible fall for both horse and rider, but a little more care and prep for the fence could have prevented it imho.
 
Hope her and Connie are okay
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She rode really well I thought up to that fence especially as Connie does not look an easy ride. In a way, I wonder if she was going faster also to make up time. She took a few long routes (such as fence 6 and the dairy mound) and then it looks like she had a lot of time to make up, especially with Connie looking very excited.

I thought she rode the cascades very well (if thats its name?)

Hopefully they will be back next year and at Badders
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Thats a really horrible fall. I truly hope Connie is OK today as she smacked her legs pretty hard
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I dont think she looked 100% after she smacked one of the fences pretty early on - a house type fence right after the trout hatchery.. she gave that a right whack and I wonder if she jarred something behind then??

Fingers crossed they are both ok.
 
As far as I know, Laura is the only competitor at Burghley who is also a member of this forum, and likely to read comments about her. I am sure if she made a mistake she is well aware of it, and is suffering the consequences.
 
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I dont think she looked 100% after she smacked one of the fences pretty early on - a house type fence right after the trout hatchery.. she gave that a right whack and I wonder if she jarred something behind then??



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I noticed that too. She seem to bank that fence with her back legs didnt she?
 
She didn't look too fast or too on her forehand to me, but she did stutter behind coming in and then just didn't lift off behind
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Knowing her history of tying up it would not suprise me if that was the cause for the mis-jump. Very bad luck and horrible to fall at the same spot as last year - I reckon that was why she lifted her hands up when she was walking towards Connie - in absolute disbelief!
 
Not sure if anyone else has heard from her or not?
I've been away at a wedding on Sat, then at a ODE today.. so i've not seen any of Burghely.. including her fall..
I have however had a text from Laura.. she is fine
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but please can we all send vibes for Connie!!! I haven't heard from her again today, but it didn't sound very positive last night..
(and from what Laura said the vets are saying, it could well explain why she put in the kind of jump she did at that fence).
 
Was she tying up?

I feel very sorry for her and hope the horse is OK.

This forum is too quick to judge........ I think the demands of a 4* are quite out of the league of most, and anyone who gets there has been through a lot of trials and tribulations both in training and competition.

Don't forget that you are only on course for minutes - and have to make split second decisions re stride, pace etc. We are not all perfect.............

Even the most experienced horses and riders had problems, and some of the first timers had very lucky escapes............

That's the way it goes in eventing.

If you look at PG you will see some photos from others that show some very dodgy moments from pro's at both Burghley and Blair. Maybe they were just lucky and Laura wasn't.........

I don't think condemning Harry or Laura serves any purpose - are you trying to get them to quit eventing??

Leave it to BE and the FEI
 
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