well it happened as predicted like 5 years ago. a horse has been euthanized on the worlds biggest stage and now the inevitable mud fight is going to happen.
pulled up severely lame after the final fence with a ligament tear, examined and everyone agreed it was the humane thing to do.
now sometimes bad luck strikes and those tears just happen*, but if the autopsy learns it was a minor injury picked up at an earlier fence and the rider could feel it, then in my view it is a direct consequence of the new team structures where teams were decreased from 4 to 3 for eventing and showjumping and all 3 scores count, no drop score.
it sounds all tough nosed and **** for olympic sport but it's just so stupid in practice because you're going to get occurrences like this where (and this is where i am speculating, this is not confirmed fact) a rider could feel something marginal. in an individual situation, you stop. in a team situation where you get a drop score, you stop. in a team situation where you have no drop score, you don't want to be the 22 year old who pulls up on a suspicion of an issue and then it's discovered it was nothing.
just more great governance from a governing body more concerned about staying hooked on that sweet, sweet arab blood money than actually being useful to the animals or people who need them.
i haven't actually watched a second of the horses in tokyo because i just flat out don't care for the sport above amatuer level anymore because it is completely broken and becoming more and more unfair to the average rider every day, but eventing is actually one of the fairer ones because there's less cashed up americans and arab oil kingdoms sucking it dry for themselves, which means real countries like NZ and Australia can actually compete on somewhat equal terms, so this is disappointing. eventing still has just as many multiple concussion substance abusers and teenage rape victims at the pro level as the other 2 olympic disciplines but it hasn't slid off the deep end like showjumping and dressage overall yet.
i said the other day the greatest enemy to horse sport is people who run horse sport, and now they've gift wrapped the weapon for their minor enemies to kill them with.
i think i will tune in for the specialist show jumping next week because bruce goodin is a fantastic and very kind man and i will be cheering on the australians bar Edwina as well, especially since they're up against it after Kermond couldn't stay away from the coke for a couple of weeks.
*i've never seen one below pro level, but i can accept it would happen.