Angelbones
Well-Known Member
Well, don't know how to make sense of this really but here goes:
We went to Firle BE today, and did the BE100 as per usual. Our horse was having an off day - really sluggish, had been playing up all night box walking, hadn't eaten his breakfast and was just a space cadet. As is his way, once tacked up he chilled and did his job, albeit with a lot of encouragement and boy was it hard work for his rider. Anyhow, a reasonable dressage, 4 faults sj and he really stretched to get by with just that, and then xc. He basically hacked around as its our last one this year and he wasn't too perky so we took it easy. He trotted in and out the water, took a longer route alternative, and had to be set up a couple of times for jumps - all this takes a little more time. He has never ever gone inside the optimum time; always gets xc time faults. He is a big horse, but not fast by any means.
Well the results go up and blow me down he has gone 14 SECONDS inside the time, gaining 14 faults. Now the issue of his final placing doesn't concern me, we were happy with him and that's that.
BUT there were loads of people up in arms about it as it turns out they too had gone around the xc way inside the time and had faults for it. One child on a 14.1 pony had 17 faults! This child and her mother are very very experienced indeed. Lo and behold several of my pals who never get anywhere near the time had miraculously gone inside the time too but had no faults.
One person in our section had 60 xc faults (presuming 3 run outs) and that obviously takes up a lot of time, and they came within the time with no faults.
So the poor secretary was doing a good job of calming people, the timer was called and he spoke to people and some times were checked, and the BE rep was called (she was not impressed). By this time a lot of the people later on in the section had realised that there was something up and they took it really steady and all came home without time faults and shot up the rankings.
At the end of the day the official explanation given was "you are all novice riders, you wouldn't know what speed you were riding at, the ground is good and your horses are fitter today than they were yesterday". They let the results stand (not that I could see how they'd alter them anyway).
So, how do I feel about this? Well cr*p to be honest. As it happens we would have come 7th if this hadn't happened but its not good doing the what ifs. I'm more angry this this will show on his record and look like he was belted around the course or has control issues. Has this happened to anyone else before? Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this may have occured? Or were we all blindly galloping round at near Novice speed whereas our horses couldn't get inside the optimum time bracket on any previous occasion?
Right that's my venting done - I'd share my Galaxy buttons with you but I'm afraid they didn't get past the journey home
We went to Firle BE today, and did the BE100 as per usual. Our horse was having an off day - really sluggish, had been playing up all night box walking, hadn't eaten his breakfast and was just a space cadet. As is his way, once tacked up he chilled and did his job, albeit with a lot of encouragement and boy was it hard work for his rider. Anyhow, a reasonable dressage, 4 faults sj and he really stretched to get by with just that, and then xc. He basically hacked around as its our last one this year and he wasn't too perky so we took it easy. He trotted in and out the water, took a longer route alternative, and had to be set up a couple of times for jumps - all this takes a little more time. He has never ever gone inside the optimum time; always gets xc time faults. He is a big horse, but not fast by any means.
Well the results go up and blow me down he has gone 14 SECONDS inside the time, gaining 14 faults. Now the issue of his final placing doesn't concern me, we were happy with him and that's that.
BUT there were loads of people up in arms about it as it turns out they too had gone around the xc way inside the time and had faults for it. One child on a 14.1 pony had 17 faults! This child and her mother are very very experienced indeed. Lo and behold several of my pals who never get anywhere near the time had miraculously gone inside the time too but had no faults.
One person in our section had 60 xc faults (presuming 3 run outs) and that obviously takes up a lot of time, and they came within the time with no faults.
So the poor secretary was doing a good job of calming people, the timer was called and he spoke to people and some times were checked, and the BE rep was called (she was not impressed). By this time a lot of the people later on in the section had realised that there was something up and they took it really steady and all came home without time faults and shot up the rankings.
At the end of the day the official explanation given was "you are all novice riders, you wouldn't know what speed you were riding at, the ground is good and your horses are fitter today than they were yesterday". They let the results stand (not that I could see how they'd alter them anyway).
So, how do I feel about this? Well cr*p to be honest. As it happens we would have come 7th if this hadn't happened but its not good doing the what ifs. I'm more angry this this will show on his record and look like he was belted around the course or has control issues. Has this happened to anyone else before? Has anyone got any suggestions as to why this may have occured? Or were we all blindly galloping round at near Novice speed whereas our horses couldn't get inside the optimum time bracket on any previous occasion?
Right that's my venting done - I'd share my Galaxy buttons with you but I'm afraid they didn't get past the journey home
