Capt. Mark Phillips sent a response to Eventing Nation yesterday addressing the Buschreiter.de editorial entitled “Good Time For A New Start” by Wolf-Deitrich Nar, which we posted Saturday morning on the blog. As we explained in that post, Buschreiter.de is a German eventing website that posted the opinion piece following the death of Emeric George’s mount P’tite Bomb at Luhmühlen. A tragic fall claimed the mare’s life at fence 12 on the cross-country course, which Mark designed. Click here to read the English translation of the Buschreiter.de editorial and here to read the editorial in German.
From Capt. Mark Phillips:
Dear Sirs:
I don’t do ‘social media’ or ‘chat rooms’ but I was shocked to be told about and then read that Eventing Nation had posted the piece by Wolf-Deitrich Nahr without any research into its authenticity.
Eventing Nation is not usually associated with such provocative and inflammatory journalism. I hope this is neither a change of direction for the website nor that it has a personal vendetta against myself.
The article posted on the German website Buschreiter.de had so many inaccuracies and fabrications that I feel compelled to put the record straight.
Firstly I have never spoken to Wolf-Deitrich and he has no idea of the sickening feeling a course designer has in their stomach when a horse or rider gets killed. He has no idea of the personal examination, sadness and remorse. A fatality always puts a dark cloud over a day and I can only assume that that sadness was mistakenly taken for a perceived ‘lack of compassion’.
Many weeks before the competition I went round the course with Rudiger Schwarz and the TD. We tuned the course, easier in some places, more difficult in others. It is totally untrue to say that those “discussions didn’t achieve any actual changes in course design”.
It is also totally untrue to say that there were no changes after the “FEI Official Course Walk”. Everything the Ground Jury and TD wanted adjusted was done and everything requested by Chef d’Equipe’s, Coaches and Riders was done. I hasten to say the lists were small, one item for the Ground Jury, one item for a ‘Chef’ and two extra warm up fences. The truth is that the courses received unprecedented acclaim from coaches, riders and the many FEI Officals present.
The first water, number 4, remains a mystery. Beforehand it was generally thought to be ‘innocuous’ and a warm up water fence for the questions to follow. How often it happens that there is trouble when fences don’t get the same respect as the more difficult combinations.
To say that “Luhmuhlen is an entertainment programme for ex-Royals in early retirement” is plain insulting and gives no credence to the extreme effort put in by the whole team, Organisers, TD, Officials, builders as well as coaches and riders.
The ‘art’ of designers to “incorporate all those expectations into a singular package” was put into practice in an exemplary way at Luhmuhlen, even if all would have wished for a different result.
The CIC3* was a true CIC3* with a little plus in it. I was sorry but I thought that was what was expected at one of the flagship German competitions. It will therefore continue that way unless the Organising Committee and German coaching regime asks for something different.
It is true that I was sad to see the old, with Steeplechase format, go but I as much as anyone understood the sports position with the IOC and the need for change. I have since worked harder than most to put constructive input into the rules and conditions of the modern sport.
I believe this is still a work in progress as we strive to get this more intense formula better.
To say that course design has anything to do with “nationalistic pride” is nothing but laughable. To even think it has anything to do with the demise or prowess of the British or German sport horse is simply a joke.
To say that the horse is being “relegated to (a piece) of sports equipment” only goes further to devalue the article as Wolf-Deitrich obviously has no conception of the extreme love, care and attention bestowed upon the sport horse and the love affair between horse and rider.
After eight years without serious incident at Luhmuhlen, the death of P’tite Bomb and the rotational fall of Nicola Wilson and Opposition Buzz over a fence they jumped successfully in 2011 has left a scar on me that I will carry for the rest of my life.
Suffice it to say that my love of the sport and my love of the horse are still as strong as ever and I will continue to work my hardest to use my 45 years of experience to promote the sport and its horses and riders in the best possible light.
The same cannot be said for Buschreiter.de and much of the mainstream media in Germany.
Regards,
Captain Mark Phillips
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UPDATE 7/4/13:
We have corrected several errors in the original translation.
The first translation of the article incorrectly translated the tense of a German sentence, implying that there was an official FEI course walk that recommended changes before the cross-country and that those changes were not implemented. In fact, the German article actually claims that there was an official FEI course walk AFTER cross-country that questioned the course design in retrospect. Captain Phillips clarifies that above.
Secondly, the first translation incorrectly translated the German article as saying that Captain Mark Phillips wants to “go back to the old format.” The German article does not say this. A more correct translation is that “Phillips belongs to the group of hardliners, who would be happy to turn back the clock.” There is no direct mention of the old format.
All of the points that Captain Phillips addresses above were translated correctly the first time.
We apologize for the errors, click here for more information.
