August 2016 – Page 2 – The Horse Magazine

RIO: Day 1 Showjumping

August 15th, 2016
Just following the format of the showjumping competition is an art in itself. So the first day's competition is an individual competition, with a rest day tomorrow, and the teams competition the day after that.. Read Article 4 Comments »

RIO: The Dressage Special

August 13th, 2016
Story – Christopher Hector and Photos – Rebecca Ashton Not entirely sure that making the Special part of the teams competition really works – sure it’s going to get more exciting as the three teams in contention send out their riders, but it also blows the number of competitors out to 24 and there is not […] Read Article 2 Comments »

RIO: Dressage Grand Prix – Day Two – good bits and bad bits…

August 12th, 2016
Story Christopher Hector and Photos Rebecca Ashton Day 2, and some of the gloss taken off by the news that Sue Hearn has been found guilty by FEI of not declaring a controlled substance, and fined. Really it is no huge deal, as the penalty indicates, but it does raise a few questions about the competence […] Read Article 17 Comments »

RIO: Dressage Grand Prix – Day One – Teams

August 11th, 2016
Story by Chris Hector and photos by Rebecca Ashton Sue Hearn and Remmington are living the dream. The very first combination into the dressage arena at the Rio Olympic Games, and Sue and Lloyd, the horse she made from the start are looking good. The trouble is the judges don’t really look for those crucial elements […] Read Article 17 Comments »

RIO: Sandra Auffarth’s ‘STOP’

August 10th, 2016
Here it is in technicolour – thanks to photo ace, Rebecca Ashton – and you can see that a. the fence judge got it wrong when he gave her a run out on the second fence in the water – the first two are one obstacle) the final skinny frog jump is a separate fence […] Read Article 1 Comment »

RIO: The Individual Final

Top 25 go into the Individual Final which is probably 10 too many. There are horses in this class carrying so many faults that they have no chance of winning, why send the poor things around another time? Stuart Tinney’s Pluto has two down, an improvement on his 17 faults in the first round. Another […] Read Article 2 Comments »

RIO: Eventing – The Team Final…

There are not great surprises at the trot up, although with Australia, New Zealand and Germany down to three combinations each, after the cross country, the potential for disaster loomed large. They all passed easily – and while the majority of the horses looked fine, the ones that didn’t, still got through. The only one […] Read Article 2 Comments »

RIO: Game on, let the battle begin

August 9th, 2016
The moment of Truth – we are in the lead but the margin is scary – 126.4 to the Kiwis, 137.5, with the French on 122 – but unlike Australian and NZ, the French still have four horses in their team and have the luxury of a discard score. Most of the horses looked really good […] Read Article 4 Comments »

RIO: Eventing – What a difference a day makes…

The first rider out, Canada’s Jessica Phoenix with A Fine Romance proved that you could get home but she ended up with 76 cross country penalties, and the horse took a decent whack on its stifles, tomorrow morning might be tough. Then France’s Astier Nicolas on Piaf de b’Neville showed how to master the course. […] Read Article 26 Comments »