Is it to test a horse's jumping ability or is it there to catch a horse out? I am of course referring to the down hill fences at Cheltenham, particularly the second last where we lost Granit Jack yesterday.
This is not a knee jerk reaction as its something that has bugged me for some time. In my opinion there is something fundamentally wrong if a horse jumps a fence well and cleanly yet still gets punished with a fall. It happened in last years Arkle....My Way De Solzen made a mistake at the second last but lost little momenteum where as Dont Push It jumped it cleanly but was "caught out" by the drop. I seem to remember Risk Assessor seemed to peck badly or fall at that fence repeatidly. The horse can clearly judge a fence when he is approaching it..and if he makes a mistake or a bad one he deserves to fall (thats the nature of jump racing) but I genuinely think the steep landing at these fences (at a time when the horses are really pressing on) is unfair.
This is all in the context of my general concerns about the quality of fence in England. So often you will see a horse make a mistake at a fence but not "suffer" for it...this leads to lack of respect for the fences on the horse's behalf which in itself leads to poorer jumping quality in the future.
This is not a knee jerk reaction as its something that has bugged me for some time. In my opinion there is something fundamentally wrong if a horse jumps a fence well and cleanly yet still gets punished with a fall. It happened in last years Arkle....My Way De Solzen made a mistake at the second last but lost little momenteum where as Dont Push It jumped it cleanly but was "caught out" by the drop. I seem to remember Risk Assessor seemed to peck badly or fall at that fence repeatidly. The horse can clearly judge a fence when he is approaching it..and if he makes a mistake or a bad one he deserves to fall (thats the nature of jump racing) but I genuinely think the steep landing at these fences (at a time when the horses are really pressing on) is unfair.
This is all in the context of my general concerns about the quality of fence in England. So often you will see a horse make a mistake at a fence but not "suffer" for it...this leads to lack of respect for the fences on the horse's behalf which in itself leads to poorer jumping quality in the future.