Hi all,
I posted this in the uni's facebook group. would love your thoughts!
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“The FEI is looking into the full circumstances of the incident in which the French horse Vagabond de la Pomme stumbled very badly prior to the first round of Monday’s competition and the rider, Penelope Leprevost, reacted very roughly..."
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http://equnews.com/miscellaneous/fei-will-look-into-full-circumstances-of-world-cup-incident-concerning-penelope-leprevost/
I watched this live and I have to say I found that a bit harsh, but then after seeing the whole competition I feel that if people are looking into this they should also look into the rider who wacked his horse before the fence that had a picture on it just to make sure he'd jump. That was shocking to me.
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I think people are shocked because her reaction was not immediate, she checked if the horse was hurt before "disciplining" him, if she'd whipped him right away people wouldn't even be talking about it.
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Or maybe I'm biased cause I'm French and I love that rider :D
There's a video at this URL to a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/idasofie.friisgehlert.9/videos/823061271171532/
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You can see the incident there.
I am surprised that I have completely missed out on this one - and I live right here in Göteborg! The local newspaper didn't mention it and they did cover the competitions very well. Maybe the big Swedish horse magazines will have something in their next issues?
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Anyhow... I read Ms.Leprevost's excuse and insofar that she got a real scare and wanted to wake her horse up and pay attention, I can understand that. The way she did it, I can not.
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I'm sure she was quite shook up and added to being extremely nervous considering the circumstances of World Cup finals and everything. Maybe the horse also is "difficult" and needs to be told to keep his mind on the matter at hand so he won't hurt himself? But all of that are just valid explanations and not a very good excuse for *how* she did it.
Completely unnecessary, under any circumstance, if you ask me.
(a) this is normal practice in most of the horse world(b) horses stumble for a reason; while it may not be physical (vet said ok) he may be overworked and very tired - hence the need to "wake him up"!!(c) I don't see much evidence of "fear and shock" by the rider to any significant extent; what I saw was violence and punishment inflicted for no other reason than anger.
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There is no justification for it.
How can I join the Fb group?
I agree! She also rakes him in the mouth in a harsh bit before booting him forwards then as soon as he moves forward with her kick she hauls him back again. No excuse. If he fell like that and was dangerous he should have been pulled out. I know money is at stake but her life was as well carrying on and jumping him. Poor show!
hmm just watched it. poor show indeed. No need for that reaction. If that was me i'd be off the horse, checking it and walking it round before i got back on. Cruel to continually boot him so he lunges forward then haul him in the mouth!! What a good horse to not throw her off with her behaviour!
The FB group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/equusonlineuni/ just send a request to join.
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If you watch the video over and over, you'll see just before he stumbles his head drops a little lower as if he is nodding off to sleep. then as he falls he's not fully aware that he fell until his nose touches the ground, watch his ears they remain the same until that point. The adrenaline she shot through him would have woken him up for the jumping, but if the horse was that tired that it started to switch off during warm up.... not good and she shouldn't have continued. Her harsh method of waking him up, as she put it, is a demonstration that it's not the first time this has happened.
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Mel
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