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julianrich
26 Apr 2011 07:34
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I was shocked by the lack of fitness in some horses competing this year, yes the ground was very fast but no excuses really.
Even the winner had to struggle to get home on cross country day, fortunately no horses were injured significantly.
When Badminton was a 5 star event with Roads & Tracks & Steeplechase phases the horses had to be properly fit just to get round. Short format seems to be encouraging poor preparation.
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Horse Hero Guru
27 Apr 2011 22:00
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I think you have made a very good point Julianrich .
The benefit of the short format is that it takes less out of a horse so allows them to take part in more events during a year, but it does mean that the level of fitness required is not as high as when there was an extra eight miles or so of steady trotting plus a steeplechase ridden at near racing speed. The hours of riding required to build up that level of fitness can be compressed as the horse now only has to work for less than quarter of an hour rather than a couple of hours as it was under the long format. I believe that the roads and tracks phase also meant that a horse was properly warmed up before they started the cross country course which is not always the case now.
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EquiVenture
23 Jun 2011 12:27
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I also noticed that a couple of the top horses at Saumur were coming back looking very tired. Quite a few seemed to barely be able to get themselves over teh last jump. Personally I am in favour of the short format but I do not think that should excuse riders from propoerly preparing their horses.
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