Gregory Wathelet said: "we can't keep disqualifying riders like this. There are worse things than just a little cut that we need to ban from the sport like riders who crash with their horses in the warm-up, keep pulling in the mouth, use bits that are way to strong and who torture their horses. Their have to be limits, but here they exaggerated. I also had a small cut from my spurs in La Baule but the judge just told me to be careful and protect it so it wouldn't get worse. Now there are protective girths for the spurs, but you don't have the same effect with those, you need stronger spurs if you use this."
The Vice European Champion also mentions that the boots check is a good thing and at the highest level there aren't that many problems anymore but at lower levels there still is some work to do. He concludes that judges have to be able to judge and not just apply a rule like its written down.
Philippe Le Jeune: "I think the FEI and the national federations have to take measurements at this level. There are riders who did worse things and who aren't disqualified. The FEI lets rider start in 5* 1.60m GP who aren't ready for this, who crash in the jumps. At this height the crack horses can't save their riders who make faults. The FEI just let them do. I don't understand what the problem was here, their have to be limits but here they went to far. The spur marks are quite new to the sport. This can be explained by the new hype to clip the horses every three weeks even during the summer since 4 years. I, personally, don't clip my horses during summer because it's a protection against the sun. Some horses get burned and their back hurts because of this. I don't know if people think that if they clip their horse every 3 weeks, they will become stars. I think a horse has to stay a horse.
Coming back to the spurs, maybe they could have proposed that just like Marcus Ehning in Valkenswaard, he could have started the second round without spurs. Maybe that's a better solution than to sanction someone. Personally, I would prefer to be a horse at Bertram Allen's or Marcus Ehning's stable than a horse of an amateur who pushes me into the jumps."