Rider report from WEG 2014 Endurance

Haven't we all been waiting for this? I've been sitting here on ridecamp and on the German forums waiting for someone who was actually there, or maybe, who actually rode, to say something.

Finally.



(oh come on - only two of you don't have a white bridle?)

Melanie Arnold spoke up, with lots of exclamation points (it's a German thing - they like to feel heard).

Before I translate her report into English, I want to say how much I hate unethical journalists. I've experienced it myself, when Baasha fell through the bridge. One news source (who was not there) reported that my horse fell off the bridge not through it, despite the photo evidence of his body lying in the broken beams. Journalists who always try to make America look bad - that's a favorite in Germany, and journalists who lie about endurance rides. The organizer of that event I went to last month, Cavallo, (the magazine) reported that a horse had to be euthanized at WEG after striking a tree.

Well, we all know that didn't happen.The horse died at the tree. Why do some journalists make stuff up? They're programmed into it to make the news more readable and provocative. I've known lawyers with better ethics.

This ride had a 23% completion rate due to technicality and "excellent vetting". I could not find technicality, in all the ride photos I saw, it was a flat course with a 50 meter elevation change. One of the Chefs before the ride said it would be technical due to the frequent changes in footing - from pavement to sand to grass to roads. OK so I'm still looking for the technical?

Here we go (and I'll just post the bits that are relevant to me, let me know if you want the source):

Posted by M. Arnold 2 days ago:


From the beginning the footing was slippery and muddy, something that is not so unusual, after so much rain. But the route wasn't appropriate for such weather and the number of riders starting. 

It wasn't quite light out yet, and had started to rain, so we couldn't see much. Especially in the woods,  we could only guess what we were riding over.

The first loop was very hilly and twisty on a narrow trail. This is where a few accidents occured. The first was on a narrow unsecured bridge without rail where a rider broke his femur falling off the bridge. He was almost trampled by the other riders, due to lack of visibility. 
This  bridge was slippery because of the rain and at the end of a steep muddy trail. No sign nor helper warned of this, even when the rider lay on the ground. 

Next came another shock, riding steep downhill on muddy slippery ground around a very tight corner. The horses had difficultly trotting slowly around that corner. One horse slipped into a tree and broke his neck.

We have been through footing and weather like this. But nothing was like this.
 
We should have pulled at gate 1. If it had been an individual ride, we would have. We were feeling committed to our country. Otherwise we'd have been torn apart in the forums.

We have a responsibility to our sponsors and our organization, especially because distance sports are not so popular. 

I was really scared - on the 2nd loop the mud was so deep the horses were stuck while cantering. Up to the knee, not just the pastern.

The cameras only showed the beautiful places, so that no one saw the disaster. It's no wonder, the course designer was a vet who'd never done a mass-start at an endurance ride. Sabrina rode this course last year and people said if it rained, it wouldn't be ridable. They had noted the two places where the accidents occured, as a warning. But the organizers didn't react. The French wanted to slow the Middle Eastern riders down, but it didn't work; they don't care for their horses and simply run over anything. Even the Netherlands team had two horses from the UAE, professionally trained and prepared. Normal horses have no chance here. Only a few more accidents, and the WEG would have to be annulled, according to the rules that I recall, that 25% must finish.

If we had had the chance to see the course beforehand, this may not have happened. The French knew a large part of the course, the others didn't.

I don't know what they wanted to accomplish. This has damaged our sport more than anything before. We've never seen so many horses in treatment, and this was not because of bad riding.

Ironically they dropped the minimum speed so late, many had already pulled cuz they knew they would not make the pace.

I won't ride a ride like this again.
Until then, a beautiful season with healthy horses!

I let her leave in her final exclamation point, cuz I was exhausted from reading all the others.

So there I have it. My first rider report from Normandie.

Anyone have more for me? I'd love to hear from people who were there or helping the riders.





(No, you cannot take my color scheme. I started it a decade ago.)

Why are you stealing my white?