William Whitaker loses top ride Arielle

what a shame but its the nam of the game..i saw him at Olympia and he is a very good rider and will go far long as he gets the right horses
 
Poor Will
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He was doing so well with her. Such a shame, and just two weeks before the biggest championship of his career so far. But at 18, Im sure he'll be qualifying for the finals a fair few more times. What a terrible shame though
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I saw Wonami in Bordeaux, and the horse was awesome.Hopefully the new partnership will do as well as the one with Arielle, who I loved also.
 
Forgive me for being a bit dense (I am not really into SJ), but how can a horse with a different rider compete in a competition that the rider has not qualified the horse for? If you get my meaning!
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That is such a shame. William is a talented rider, and i'm sure with the backing he has it won't affect him too much.
 
This is very strange! Surely it is the combination of Horse & Rider that qualify. The report says that the new owner Abdullah ????? of UAE will be riding Arielle in Gothenburg but I can not find him on the list of riders qualified in the first place? Secondly on the BSJA website it now doesnt mention William as included to ride at the final at all. Actually states as from the 17th April.
Also I thought Tim Stockdale was in a qualifying position? Anyone any ideas.
 
Hi Jan

How's it going?

I think it is the rider that qualifies and he most probably got through on one of the other leagues (not the european).

Cheers
 
Abdullah qualified by winning the Arab League. He had to re-qualify the horse as they had not competed as a partnership.
 
It is under FEI article 657.5 "Competitors starting in the Final must ride horses on which they, during the season, have completed at least one FEI World Cup competition, as a nominated FEI World Cup horse." which Abdullah and Arielle had to re-qualify.

They jumped at Lummen, Belgium last weekend (Saturday).
 
So how has William got Wonami qualified? I thought Michael Rode in the qual so that he could take to the Finals???

Is tim going now??
 
[ QUOTE ]
How bloody lovely to have a family member who can offer you a world class horse instead and still have one for himself
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[/ QUOTE ]

Lucky for some
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it is such a shame, i am going over to Sweden to watch the finals (b'day present from hubby) and was really looking forward to wathcing will on that stunning horse, now i dare say i'll have to watch the other guy "try" and ride Arielle, very unfair on Will me thinks
 
I can assure you that Abdullah is a competent rider and one who has worked hard to qualify for the final. It is certainly not his fault that the Arab League qualifier schedule didn't leave enough time between the last qualifier and the final for the horse he qualified on to compete in Sweden after quarantine.

Abdullah deserves his shot at the Final and I hope he is able to forge a successful relationship with Arielle in a short period of time.

There is supposed to be an article in the April 24th Horse and Hound which I hope will present a balanced view.
 
The horse he qualified on is in quarantine presumably because of the risk it poses. Life is a bitch, & then some more. We all have disapointments. Sorry but I will say it again this is a bought ticket. Anyone know whether any one else has Q from the UAE & are they still riding at the final? If so how.
 
The problem is in the way the schedule was derived. No horse from the Arab League could have satisfied the quarantine requirements and that ought to have figured into the selection of the qualifier dates.

This is not a bought ticket. You might be justified in saying so if the rider had purchased a horse like Arielle prior to the qualifiers. That isn't what happened. Abdullah Al Marri finished in top spot in his league and did not qualify for the final by default.

In answer to your question, I believe the top two riders from the Arab League qualified for the final. I don't know if another Arab League rider is taking part in the final.
 
Thats all very well, but allowing a rider a dispensation under those circumstances might be fair for Abdullah, but in then taking away the ride from an already qualified partnership - although yes, these things happen and money obviously talks - its surely then unfair not to allow a dispensation for William to compete an alternative qualified horse because its the original dispensation that deprived him of his place?

If the FEI caused this with their original ruling, they should put it right for William in the interests of fairness.

If not, then the decision stinks - he may have qualified his own horse and there been a cock up with dates and qualifiers - but why is that Williams fault? End of the day if William loses out so another person can compete the horse William qualified - the other rider HAS bought a place by buying William's ride out from under him and so dumping William out of the WC in the process.

Very unfair.
 
horses get sold, that's a fact of life really.
The other riders horse is not allowed to compete-to me this is like a lameness and is tough luck.
 
But had the FEI not made the special dispensation for the other rider - would Arielle have been sold at this point?

Thats what I mean, they have created the whole problem but seem to be one rule and special dispensation for one, a different rule and no dispensation for another...
 
I am sure it helped but the bigger picture will be the Olympics and the horse will I suspect be competed at the NC shows in Europe for experience/money. Michael most probably would have been on a percentage of the sale so although he would be disapointed for William not competing in the championship classes, reading his comments in the H&H, he knows it was a good business deal so the price must have been good. The back up classes have good prize money and William will have a good chance of competing on a good horse whilst other top horses will be competing for the WC. Both Michael and William have acted very professionally and not thrown there toys out of the pram like other people may have done with the decision. I still think the FEI have got the decision right (just) if a bit unfortunate for William and I can understand what people are saying.
 
Not to mention that the owner of the horse is in the business of selling and apparently that's why the horse was the with the Whitakers in the first place. It's not really reasonable to expect the seller to turn down such an offer. The timing completely sucks for William but it is, alas, part of the game at that level. (At least once in the US a WC qualified horse has been sold for a kid to ride! And more than one Olympic/Championship horses has been sold at virtually the last minute. The feeling is always what if they turn the down, continue with the horse, and something happens to make it worthless?)

From what I understand the quarantine issue was a piece of bad planning on the FEI's etc.'s part and they have taken pains to correct it as best they can. (Would it have been more "fair" if he couldn't afford this option?) Both Abdullah and Arielle have qualified, albeit separately, and completed the substitute test that was set for them successfully. William's second horse was not qualified for the WC by him (hence the comment about qualifying 2 horses in the future) for no other reason than they didn't choose to and the ride he has qualified is not going by choice, albeit not his, or fate if you will. Giving him a dispensation on the basis of the horse being sold would have raised all sorts of other questions about "unfairness, wouldn't it? What would happen when the next person who didn't qualify through some extenuating circumstance (lameness, horse sale etc.) thought he/she really did deserve a spot?

It really is too bad for William but the format was already in place to handle things the way they have. Hopefully he will do well in the supporting classes and have many WC's to come.

PERSONALLY, I think it sucks. I'm interested to know if quarantine problems have ever messed something like this up before and what has been done? Was the dispensation that has been used on the bookds specifically for such cases? (Before Seoul, Korean riders and horses stayed in NA and Europe and their horses were only allowed to come back if they did not break quarantine after the Olympics. One Canadian bought horse ended up staying in Korea permanently because of an administrative issue.) What about the endurance horses that ended up being stuck in Europe? It seems the practice before has been that quarantine problems are the rider's tough luck . . .

All that said, the owner has a perfect right to sell his horse, particularly as one couldn't even have played on his "nationalism". He sent the horse to them for business and business got done. We may not like it but so much money/time/effort is at stake at that level you can certainly see the problem.
 
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