I’m an engineer. Some grown men will cry when things don’t go the way they want. In the workplace. Over a cup of coffee.
I have never heard this mindset voiced, though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I do remember in the other CotH article, someone called Jensen’s equitation “unconventional” or something very similar. Um. Since when have we been rewarding deviation from the norm in the hunter ring?
as an outsider, when I read about the judge’s eyes glazing over after 165 horses pass under her eye, my uninformed self just thinks, "why not make the classes smaller?
My observation is also that adult male riders can be weak on the basics. There is a lot of ego involved. They want to jump high and go fast. Working on the nuances of flatwork is boring and unsexy. Recently, I had a man tell me he preferred to use a 3-ring gag versus a plain snaffle because it “looks cool.” Can you tell I don’t love adult male riders?
That being said, I know another adult male rider who is an absolute doll in every way. So I guess it always depends on the individual.
Having schooled my husband on the underlying implication of saying “females” and knowing Fran for 40+ years, that also caught my attention with surprise.
I think any riding teaches any rider to control their emotions. Any emotion has consequences in performance and horses clearly amplify this effect: one of the life lessons that riding teaches. I noticed during one Olympics that so many of the athletes were shown on the podium with tears flowing - except in the equestrian disciplines where athletes remained dry eyed.
I recall an article in Horse & Hound many years ago which asked the question “How to encourage boys to ride?” O.K. it was half jokey but, in my memory, never ask them to do anything that is difficult, boring or dirty, make certain they can win any competition they enter and, ideally, have a few other boys to socialize with at shows and at home in the stables. It does make one think. Foxhunting, Polo, Skill at Arms, Triathlon tend to hold the interest of boys rather than dressage.
At university we set up a “Learn to Ride Programme” for people who had never before sat on a horse and participants paid up front for a block of lessons. Unexpectedly, it was invariably men who signed up - a cunning plan: they would meet women if they learnt to ride! However, a group of college-age men learning together proved to be very successful because they supported each other, had fun and there was little ego involved as each was as bad as the other. I think about half who started riding carried on which is a good stat for people trying a new sport.
Regarding emotions and horses, I’m recalling the Pentathlon girl who was SOBBING trying to beat a horse around a course, after her “coach” reached across a fence to punch the horse in the ass.
That’s unacceptable, regardless of gender.
A professional, paid judge. If they can’t pay attention through the entire job maybe it’s not the job for that person?! Can you imagine if other professionals admitted that? A doctor saying she just goes on autopilot for the afternoon surgeries or a contractor who stops rigorously following the designs midway through a project once it gets boring. I cannot fathom admitting to half assing your job except when you see someone of a particular sex show up, and then you reward that person for being that sex before going back to numbly going through the motions for everyone else. Can you imagine paying to be judged by someone who admits to doing the job that way? Why would you hire someone who blatantly tells you they’re only sometimes going to pay attention on the job?!
Also let me point out the difference in spin of the COTH coverage of young male riders and young riders who are racial/ethnic minorities. The coverage for the boys is always “he is so great” or “he is so hardworking.” The coverage for racial/ethnic minorities is always “look, a BLACK PERSON!” Being male means you must be talented. Being a minority means you’re an oddity.
My thoughts exactly.
This is it, in a nutshell. Maleness is seen as a positive way of standing out in a crowd of black coats, buff breeches, and bay horses over the same course for hours and hours, but being a minority (or hell, even a short, stubby girl with a grey coat or a horse of color) is seen as standing out in a not-good way.
I think a good analogy is applying for jobs. Prospective employers say they want people whose resumes stand out, despite using software to specifically find candidates with only very specific credentials on their documents, plus throw in some bias against names that sound obviously “ethnic.” Standing out is good, but only in very specific ways (like being the only male applying for a publishing job).
Modern Pentathlon precisely isn’t an equestrian discipline and it isn’t regulated by the FEI. Less emotion, the horse might have been more willing to jump for her. The more upset she became, the more upset the horse became. There is a proposal to replace horses with bikes at Olympic level.
This describes my dad and his riding 100%. Warm up? Whats that? I just need to canter and get jumping. lol
I believe they have replaced it with an obstacle course, riding is out.
We’re talking about emotions and horses, which if you’re going to jump around 3’ or better you’re assumed to have ridden more than a few times. Somewhere in there, emotional control should have been covered. Not to mention, don’t abuse the horse.
The problem with Modern Pentathlon is precisely that many of the athletes have NOT ridden very much and, I believe, it is possible to reach a high level without doing so. There was a very long thread about it on COTH after that particular disaster. At least the Coach was banned.
I think someone explained that at most of their competitions, the jumps are tiny and so riding instruction is an afterthought while many focus on improving in the other phases. It’s only at the Olympics and maybe one other world competition that the jumps get cranked up to spec, if I remember correctly.
I know at the Pan Ams, the course was massive. It looked big to me and I was riding at the 1m & 1.10m level at the time. They had an FEI course designer, course was solid 1.10m. Everything was on a 1/2 stride. I didn’t think it was smart at the time that the designer made the course as he would have for an actual equestrian event. It didn’t help the situation at all.
But that isn’t what anyone said. Sue Ashe could have said: “being a long legged, long armed, thin person with no distinctive curves is an advantage, especially given the current trend towards being mounted on a 17.1h warmblood. If you’re only 5’4” with breasts, hips, fuller thighs, you’re going to need to be perfect in every way to compensate for your own body on a mount that size. It’s harder to have a perfect following hand. It’s harder to get your leg on the horse in the same manner. The overall picture you present is quite different. It’s an advantage to be a teenage male with the typical teenage male physique in an equitation class on a large warmblood, if all other factors are equal. But it’s not ‘boy points.’ It’s body type points because they can use their body more easily.”
That would have gone over differently. But she didn’t. What she said instead was clearly bias - she didn’t talk about a body type at all, she literally said that the boys who stay with it are normally “the better riders” and that when a boy walks into the ring and has a great trip, she is “1000% in their favor.” That is bias.
Thank you. However, it does not match the judging criteria of the modern equitation era. That is a whole other can of worms, is equitation as it is judged now even comparable to balanced riding regardless of terrain or jump?
But, I am a guy. What do I know? 
@Rel6 I totally agree that her choice of words were poor. If she had said what you said, the article would have been received differently.
The whole concept of boy points seems like something someone says to make them feel better after they don’t win.
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