A random Barbury photo, courtesy of Beth Collier
Taking a jump off the course during cross-country is always a tough decision that balances equality of competition and admitting an error of course design with the potential risks of not removing the fence. After 3 of the first 10 horses fell at the main Barbury water complex, the Ground Jury was faced with a tough decision. The complex had been on the course without major incident for several years and since the cross-country was run in reverse order of placing, the first group of riders was likely to be the least experienced on average. Lulu Kyriacou wrote in a good discussion of the incident for Horsetalk that the only notable difference in the complex from 2010 was that the D element jump in the water was absent this year. The Barbury officials decided to leave the water complex on the course and then a few rides later Tom Crisp fell at the drop with Coolys Luxury.
At that point I was sitting with a few of the later riders, all of whom were surprised at how tough the course and particularly the water complex was riding. The event was an hour behind schedule–partly because of a long break when both horse ambulances were occupied–and Will Coleman was checking the schedule to see if it would still be light at his revised start time. Pippa stopped by and said that many of the riders in the warm-up were reluctant to head out on course. I later heard riders at events in Great Britain sometimes get together in the warm-up and collectively refuse to start until a jump or complex that is riding poorly is removed from the course, which is what reportedly happened after Tom Crisp’s fall. I was surprised to hear that this is a regular occurrence and I would imagine that if I ever refused to start in the States that would be a quick way of getting scratched.
As a perhaps irrelevant addendum to the discussion, I am happy to report that Coolys Luxury left Barbury Tuesday night. The vet looked at him Tuesday morning and said he is recovering well and will not need hospital treatment.
The main question moving forward is: what is the best way to handle whether or not to remove a jump that is riding poorly? Theoretically that is the prerogative of the Ground Jury, but it seems as though they waited at least one fall too long at Barbury to remove the water complex. I never like to question subjective decisions made in the heat of battle, so to speak, but the real scare would be if Tom Crisp or Coolys Luxury had been badly injured. Perhaps one option is taking the decision out of the hands of the Ground Jury and requiring an element to be removed after a certain number or percentage of falls. The problem there of course is that you might have a situation where a jump causes three bad near-falls, or maybe three innocuous falls. One way or another, we don’t want to put events in a situation where the riders have to band together in the warm-up to get something done regarding safety. Your thoughts Eventing Nation?
