interesting. In a spontaneous fit of exuberance, I subscribed to H&H, for the Olympics. I clicked on the link and it would only let me in if I subscribed! but it offered me nowhere to sign in. I went into the site, and was granted access instantly, but when I went back to your link, no dice.
That’s more sacrilegious than that bacchanal!
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I think it is supposed to be!
I am just watching the replay now, and it sounded like someone was yelling something just as Kazuma was starting his round…any idea what that was?
I know, I am just now watching the replay and I can’t believe I paid extra for no commercials on Peacock…I’m not seeing the commercials, but there is also no coverage during the commercial breaks so it was a total waste 
I’ve seen a lot of people having issues accessing in the comments!
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They yelled before Kazu’s round and again in the middle of Yoshi’s. Interestingly not for the rider in between them. They were then escorted out, is my understanding. I do not know why or what they were trying to accomplish.
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This is so perfectly stated, well reasoned, and nicely broken down to show the layers of benefit to eventing being in the Olympics. 100% agreed.
While there has been unfortunate pro-creep in the Olympics, the spirit of the games is not rewarding pros. That can happen outside the Olympics.
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This is spot on!
Regarding the long format roads and tracks, it’s time to drop that argument. It’s never coming back to the sport, with the exception of a fun opportunity at the lower levels. The sport has adapted, the horses have adapted, and any way we can make it more spectator friendly is going to be beneficial to us.
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I was thinking this also - like the “eventing showcase” format we see at Bruce’s field. I love watching 5s, but I love watching 4 shorts too. It’s a lot easier to include more nations at a bit lower level and the shorter course is much more doable for the host nations. “Eventing” is already an umbrella term that includes different formats. I say pick the format that works best for the Olympics so it doesn’t just disappear. WEG on the other hand - no way - 5* long format or we riot 
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Yep. I likely wouldn’t have gotten into eventing had my dad not taped the XC portion of the 1996 Games for me while I was away at camp. I watched that VHS at least 100 times. 
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Reading the Chron description of the DOC proposal for 2028 LA – I don’t hate this proposal, if I understand it correctly, personally I could live with this. Perhaps because I’m comparing it with the Paris substitute-rider thing that I am hating when the sub didn’t ride all phases.
Even though SJ and XC are switched in order, it appears that all competitors ride all phases, in this proposal. The order of the phases makes it harder to sub for cause – or at least, so it seems. I can live with a phase order switch so long as the core tenet holds that all riders are queued up to ride every phase.
As shown in a post above …
• Day 1: Dressage
• Day 2: Jumping
• Day 3: Cross-country, followed by team medals
• Day 4: Jumping, followed by individual medals
All competitors would participate the first round of jumping, as riders competing as individuals would still need to complete the three phases of the “team test” before moving on to the second, individual medal round to be held the day after cross-country. This would allow the team and individual competitions to remain separate, as well as providing the opportunity to have team and individual medals awarded in separate ceremonies on separate days.
Basically, as everyone would ride DR and SJ, they should all be going forward to XC. If I understand it correctly, even with 3-member teams, it would seem that there isn’t much opportunity for substitution. (Other than vet reasons.)
And that all riders would therefore ride all 3 phases. That cures my major problem of people jumping around some course without doing all 3 phrases. I may be misunderstanding, but that seems to be the format. If the sub rule is that it has to be as a result of an E in an earlier phase (not switching competitors merely for advantage).
Am I assuming correctly? What are other opinions on this proposal?
I know DOC has his reasons for promoting these alternatives, he does see it as good for eventing, in some way. He stood up very strong to defend the sport during a crisis period for eventing on his USEF presidency (several rider deaths in a short span).
The FEI also specified that the same venue has to host all phases, as was done in Paris. No trailering over for XC or any other phase, as happened in Hong Kong (Beijing). I am sure the horses as well as the horse people will appreciate that requirement.
This article link was already posted, but for convenience here it is again …
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/eventing-format-changes-in-store-for-la28-as-sport-fights-to-stay-in-olympics/?_gl=11slhbro_gaOTM4Mzg4NDg0LjE3MDUwMjkxMzY._ga_3Q593VP376*MTcyMjU0MDAzOC42MTMuMS4xNzIyNTQwMjUzLjAuMC4w
My problem with swapping the order is that it’s against the core test of eventing - that you still have a horse fit and careful enough after XC to jump a SJ course. Sure, at the lower levels when you’re learning this is fine, but not at the Olympics. We’re moving further away from the horsemanship requirements of the sport. What if the gold medal team has horses that don’t pass the jog the day after XC? They’d already have a medal, and that’s not right.
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I was going to type out a comment but now don’t need to. @Demerara_Stables has expressed my feelings and thoughts on the matter better than I could have.
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I’m a lawyer and… video court is rife with issues. Including people who don’t show up on time or in the right format. Cases are accidentally left off the list, judges have trouble with their video feeds, it goes on.
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The question I would ask of the people that are supporting the changes in order to stay in the olympics is “how much of eventing are you will to sacrifice in order to keep it in the Olympics?”
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The Olympic format scoring is extremely hard for the public to understand - I thought one of the goals was to make it easier to understand.
I tried explaining it to my sister, who used to event, and has been involved in multiple elite sports since then. It took about 20 minutes to explain.
Rugby is hard to understand too but they have plenty of fans. We don’t need to sacrifice horse welfare (by not having phases in the correct order) to keep it easy for the pubic to understand.
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My point was that this current format is harder to understand than traditional eventing as we practice it daily, monthly, yearly, except for 3 days every 4 years.
Rugby is dead easy. If you are running with the ball the opposing side try to kill you and to escape you have to chuck the ball backwards. The rest is just fiddling around the edges. Now, by contrast, when the commentators can’t explain how Eventing team substitutions work…
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