Soph & Smartie ~ First British Novice
329 views · Published 21 November 2011 · 1:33 · Indexed 8 October 2026
Channel: torabella · 2011 · Sports
There was a slight confusion here after fence 8 which caused them to be eliminated - TOTALLY NOT THEIR FAULT!! As Soph came over 8, she saw that 9 hadn't been put back up after the previous competitor had knocked it. She raised her hand and pointed it out, but the arena helper said to jump it anyway - the pole was a good 2 feet away on the landing side. After circling a couple of times they carried on, correctly missing out the fence that had been knocked, as Smits could have landed on it and gone down. It was such a shame, because he was jumping so well up til then, and they just lost their momentum a bit. It was a big first BN for them both, so very pleased with them, but mostly proud of Soph for being sensible and not jumping the knocked fence, which I'm sure a lot of people would have done anyway to avoid being eliminated. I missed out the last 2 fences as I was fuming from what had happened! Needless to say the arena helper avoided me for the rest of the day!
