Winner of BADMINTON

I don't know if I'm beng daft but what does it matter if he dropped the reins or not?? Both horse and rider look incredibly happy and if the horse didnt want to gallop it wouldn't have surely.....

He was simply celebrating and I'm sure the horse enjoyed a carefree gallop round the arena???
 
Must admit I was nearly crying too (though not quite as much if it had been an Irish winner obviously), watching his obvious joy in his victory on a horse who seems to have had a lot of downs as well as ups in his career.

The horse seemed to be enjoying itself, and the arena was more than big enough for his victory gallop. I think if it was a young English female rider to do the same thing it would have been portrayed completely positively.

Is it just a stereotype to say that frenchmen are emotional?

I was more annoyed with Clare Balding for trying to stick her microphone in his face while the poor chap was still in floods of tears. Could she not have done a v quick word with Lucy W for example and then spoken to N when he was more composed.

Please tell me lucretia - does he really not speak english, or did it just desert him in the excitement of the moment. I know Lucinda Green interviewed him last year at his home in France, and I don't remember her mentioning any communication difficulties. There again perhaps she speaks perfect French (lucky thing).

Fiona
 
love you, boy, well said. hope you back on your feet again by the way. and all the others who agree with him to, it was a lovely moment in sport in general.
 
As I said in the other thread....

This guy takes his horse round one of the biggest and toughest XC tracks in the world without problem yet is condemmed for endangering his horse because he lets it have a free gallop round a flat, well prepared (large) areana.

Sorry, just dont get it.
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I have to say that if I had just won the biggest prize in eventing I would have reacted the same. I think he is a great winner on a great horse. I nearly cried too he was so emotional. I think he is a great rider and all his wins show it. Unfortunately again we are disecting something he did for a moment rather than looking at the overall acheivement.Would you jump the ditch at fence 15?

I also think he knows his horse and do you really think he would risk it in any way after what it has just done for him? I dont. We all have moments of madness.

I admire him as a rider. I also think that we will be seeing him for many years.

I also think he prob doesnt give a stuff what anyone else thinks as he won.
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Must admit, I haven't been on here for a few days and haven't read the other thread, but did watch badminton, and it didn't even cross my mind to criticise him for his victory gallop! As said above I think it is nice that winning Badminton meant so much for him. Not read any other badminton threads, so this may have been said before but I was more surprised that Zara Philllips didn't retire an obviously exhausted horse...that could have lead to a very nasty accident IMHO, much more so than a gallop round the ring on a horse that looked to have plenty of running?
 
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Must admit, I haven't been on here for a few days and haven't read the other thread, but did watch badminton, and it didn't even cross my mind to criticise him for his victory gallop!

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Neither have I, and I watched, and no it didn't cross my mind to criticise either.

I'm assuming if he is good enough to win Badminton, then he sure as heck must be good enough to ride his horse at a gallop and be competent enough to pick up the reins when he needs to?
 
Agree with the above - after all the potential accidents a horse could have at Badminton, and in all fairness, though that is an entirely different discussion - of all the potential dangers an event horse is exposed to - a loose rein in the lap of victory seems pretty trivial in context!

Well done NT, a well-deserved victory.
 
Yep and second ZP riding an exhausted horse was painful to watch Amazed he kept Jumping pat on the back to MW to say when enough is enough!

as for NT he is a pleasure to watch and maybe its another master in the making??
 
Another Donada supporter! I do not believe he has done anything wrong in any way, if it were me; I would have done excatly the same! It brought tears to my eyes to see the emotion that was running through this man and when he threw his arms around his horse, I thought it was absolutely wonderful.

Any rider who gets to that level, weather you have preferance to their style or not, knows what they are doing and is perfectly in control of the animal they are riding.

tehe Fiona...Irish rider would have been that bit better though! Have to support our own! lol!
 
just a quick question......

have ANY of his Horses EVER tipped up/ran into something/someone during his impromptu "lap of honour"??


can't see the problem myself TBH????


Also, could those who have slated NT in these threads, kindly put up your RL names as i'd like to look out for them at various 2*/3*/4* events in future....
 
yep, i'll step up. i've ridden up to 3* and been placed at Advanced level, hope to have a horse good enough to get back up there. i have produced my own horses from scratch to 2* and 3*. have missed a few seasons but now have 2 doing PN and ready for step up to N.
whether this 'qualifies' me to comment on what he did doesn't worry me tbh. spectators/fans criticise sportsmen in every discipline. fat old guys who have never kicked a football straight will rip into the England squad for not qualifying for the Euros, etc etc.
anyway, i was not criticising his riding, i was criticising one thing he does. he's a very good jockey, obviously, in all 3 phases, but this one thing he does risks damaging his horses. he did it at the end of the xc in Athens and the horse was off for a long time afterwards... rumour had it that it had damaged its front legs, who knows whether what he did was a contributory factor or not.
 
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spectators/fans criticise sportsmen in every discipline. fat old guys who have never kicked a football straight will rip into the England squad for not qualifying for the Euros, etc etc.


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well, thats hardly surprising, is it???
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he did it at the end of the xc in Athens and the horse was off for a long time afterwards... rumour had it that it had damaged its front legs, who knows whether what he did was a contributory factor or not.

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Its crap that the horse was injured because of that, since the first round he jumped the next day was brilliant. Indeed, it was in the lead until the second round.
 
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he did it at the end of the xc in Athens and the horse was off for a long time afterwards... rumour had it that it had damaged its front legs, who knows whether what he did was a contributory factor or not.

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Its crap that the horse was injured because of that, since the first round he jumped the next day was brilliant. Indeed, it was in the lead until the second round.

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Indeed. It was the Sydney Olympics when the horse was injured after he did it going xc.

So he would have been 19 - suppose age and (in)experience could be blamed for that.
 
if it was sydney, the horse made a sparkling recovery because it won the europeans at punchestown AFTER that. nico did the rein thing as he finished at athens i believe but i will be corrected everyone was surprised it trotted up so well it then jumped a fab first showjump round and puled up lame in the second. this actually could have been cause by the surface which was much critised and disposed of two pure showjumpers during their contest. but he was still young and lacking a little judgement, you are certainly correct about that.
 
It was indeed Athens BUT Lucretia I'm sure you know an injury can be hiding and it is not always whatever you are doing at the time of injury that is the contributing factor to that injury....
 
Punchestown was 2003 wasn't it? So 3 years for the horse to come right. So yup, agree with you

BUT he didn't ride Galan de Savugere (sp) at Sydney, he rode Cobra D'Or (good old Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_at_the_2000_Summer_Olympics#Eventing_Team )

I knew I wasn't going mad
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Horse may have been injured, may not have been. All I can remember was that he did it over the finish line XC and Mike Tucker slated him for the rest of the day about how not to finish a xc course. I don't think he sj though.

He's a good rider & good on him for showing what Badminton meant to him but having that ^^ stuck in your mind for 8 years is all I remember when I see him compete. Tends to cloud the judgement a little and it's unusual for MT to get so animated commentary wise too.
 
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Thank god for that doneda, one of the most sensible posts of the day.
This forum makes me laugh and grimace sometimes!

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Can I agree with that too please?! That horse was enjoying letting his hair down as much as the rider.
 
No one is denying that horses under his charge have become injured, (although I should add have then come sound again and been successful at the top level [Galen.])

But that is not necessarily a reason to criticise someone. Who hasn't had a horse off for some time due to injury, espicially at the top level where the strain on every horse is immense. Indeed, it was just a rumour that Galen did his front tendons... any horses injury can be completely unrelated to riding and occur at any second.

Do you bitch about Pippa because Primmores Pride has never come? This argument is as ridiculous as saying that it must have been reckless riding on hard ground that caused Walk on Stars career to be cut short with splints!

If we are going to talk about mistakes and inexperience, look at Will F-P in 1992 when his horse died in the Lake. Look how fantastically he has turned out!

Try looking at the bigger picture. Nicholas has tons of horses in his work, 90+% of them stay sound. He has the best record at Le Lion, illustrating just how well he must produce young horses. He is a consumate horseman, and just because he drops the reins isnt going to change that!
 
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I also think he prob doesnt give a stuff what anyone else thinks as he won.
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Absolutely!

But I'm sure he knows where to come for advice now, if he wants to learn to ride properly... *rolls eyes*
 
and where have any of us said that he can't ride properly? jeez, i've criticised one thing he does (as have others), not said he's a bad rider - obviously he's very very good.
the way this thread is descending into unwarranted bitchiness really is quite astonishing.
 
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But I'm sure he knows where to come for advice now, if he wants to learn to ride properly... *rolls eyes*

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FPMSL...excelent, Dubs...makes you wonder how the hell the guy has managed so far, eh???
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OK - Galan did not compete at Sydney as he would have been a baby and I believe was competing at Le Lion in 2002.

It was indeed at Athens that the infamous 'rein incident' occured and before anyone jumps on saying nothing was wrong with the horse afterwards....I WAS THERE....I was grooming for another team and so had full coverage of the incident and all the after care (if you could call it that) and thus also know EXACTLY what went on and so I can safely say that yes the horse was injured (quite badly - thus the 2 years off afterwards) and should never have jumped the next day....his god awful second SJ round is testament to that as he is a very good SJer usually.

I am not taking anything away form his win and he very much deserved his Badders win but I had to clear up some facts here and I feel that as I was there and not just spectating but stabled in the barn next door my info is valid as there are a lot of conflicting reports on what happened as well as the PR response that the horse had time off due to 'niggling problems'.

Once again I am not saying he is crap and didn't deserve Badminton but this is the facts of what has happened previously.
 
Okay having read this thread again, it seems there is a big difference in attitudes depending on age of posters? All us old folks appear to see nothing wrong with what he did (probably because we've all done the same at some point
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) and the younger ones are unequally divided; most think what he did was wrong, others (the ones who'll sadly turn out like us old folks I bet
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) think there was no big deal in what he did.

Is it an age gap problem? Is it because of the way younger people learn to ride these days perhaps? H&S abounds ... or something like that?
 
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