The horse was clearly nervous the whole round - head high, eyes staring, going too fast, trying to charge the fence, and weaving before several fences. The rider did well in a difficult competition, despite having her hands full with him.
What a beautiful ride from the rider. The horse was sucking back on leg up to most of the fences, and seemed very slippery, yet she was a definitive and confident leader, and wasn't indecisive in any of her aids. This could have gone so much worse. I think she made this a great learning experience for the horse, even if she knew that round wasn't going to win her anything.
Horses are horses, they dont feel the environment is comfortable sometimes. You won't win all finals, but the more sensitive horses make you better. They take more horsemanship!
I am sorry, but I could see that stop from several strides out. That horses may have needed to be tapped with the crop. The rest of her course was quite lovely
It was obvious from the get go that the horse felt very uncomfortable and didn't like the arena at all. It happens, even the best-trained horse remains at heart a flight animal with strong instincts. They also have bad days sometimes, this was probably a combination of both. Bad luck, especially on a stage like this.
For your information, Brody and Sarah are amazing. Until YOU get on that horse and YOU show and YOU work with that horse, maybe you shouldn't judge... Even though he is quite difficult, they look amazing together.
Lmao funny u call this a push button horse… clearly spooky and nervous, a push button horse would be much more well adjusted to a competition like this. After all some of the past winners have made their horses themselves… Dominic Gibbs (2020) made his jumper into an eq horse and proceeded to win the Maclay and the Washington finals on it.
