jasmine
Well-Known Member
They said there was blood on his flanks.
I hope Bertrum wins on appeal, but it will be a shame for him not to be awarded his win at olympia with the crowd. I also hope, that Michael will fully support him in an appeal.
Wonder if we will ever know what the welfare issue is!?
All very odd. The faces of Michael and Bertram said it all![]()
If Bertram was not disqualified and tomorrow someone posted on here a close up of him on his horse receiving the first place prize on a horse with blood on his flanks... what would be the response? Harsh or not, handled badly or not, the right call was made. As a public we are calling for a tougher response on 'welfare issues' within the sport, whether this be use of whips and spurs or rolkur... can we really take a moral stand and then say 'oh but they did such a good fast round, lets ignore the blood on the flanks?' do we really want that to happen.
Im not saying that it was excessive use of spurs, could just be rotten luck, I certainly did not see any issue with the rounds he did, but there was blood so the right call was made, its a call that had to be made under the circumstances. It may not have been handled perfectly but it was handled, it was not ignored and I for one welcome that.
As a public we are calling for a tougher response on 'welfare issues' within the sport, whether this be use of whips and spurs or rolkur... can we really take a moral stand and then say 'oh but they did such a good fast round, lets ignore the blood on the flanks?' do we really want that to happen.
The stewards are there to do a job and rules have to be adhered to. Badly handled though and I don't see the need to televise the back stage arguments etc.
I agree it just should have been handled better. They will learn from it though.
Just don't see why they had to wait til everyone had jumped to say "actually you haven't won sorry".