Comment on eventing commentary

[vineyridge]

Did anyone else feel that somebody hadn’t done enough research for interesting tidbits to fill in dead spaces.

I was thinking that it was never mentioned that Ingrid Klimke not only rides in eventing but that she also rides GP dressage; or that her father started out as an eventer; or that both her and Dibo’s horses were from the same breeding program and were the same age. Or who were coaching the teams, or…

Sometimes some of the background and commentary seemed so lacking in true expertise.

I know that Melanie Smith is a jumper person, but she can only work with what the research department provides, and they just didn’t provide enough.

[Gunnar]

IMHO why have a SJ person do the commentary? Where is Jim W when we need him? Also why sit in NY? I love Melanie but her comments were repetitive and wearing. If she said one more time the jumps were so delicate I was going to scream! Also she kept saying that a horse didn’t touch a thing right as they were showing said horse with a rail jumping around in the cups!:eek:

Needless to say I appreciate any coverage us horsey types can get but with the time not many in the world got to see it. Most people don’t even think they are broadcasting any Equestrian (at least on the West Coast where most are still working at 3:00!)

[ika]

The Canadian commentaries are great! Giving lots of tidbits of information and explaining things quite well for non-horsey viewers.

[BLBGP]

Melanie tends to try to dumb things down for a non-horsey audience. She says the same kind of random things during show jumping, too.

[Eventer13]

[QUOTE=Gunnar;3439689]
IMHO why have a SJ person do the commentary? Where is Jim W when we need him? [/QUOTE]

I agree. There are plenty of eventers out there who would have had a lot more information to give, especially for the cross-country portion. I don’t think she was bad for the SJ, but XC left a lot to be desired.

[gottagrey]

I think it was during the X-country our folks in NYC were talking about Philip riding for Australia and couldn’t get it that the US had gotten this phenomenal rider who is now riding for USA ! "oh that’s right that’s right, he got he is now riding for US - I would expect that from nearly every other sports commentator but not someone who is involved w/ showjumping and all of that.

It would also be nice if the regular commentators would every once in awhile announce other medal winners besides Michael Phelps and the battle between the US and Chinese gymnasts

and whoever made the comment about womens/mens vollyball was right on:lol:

[LisaB]

Yeah, while generally I like Melanie but this time, there must have been some real technical difficulties with being in NYC.
If she said one more time about the dressage scoring… “Oh well they seem to be scoring higher now in the afternoon” or “In the morning they were scoring lower and now they seem to be more lenient” I thought I was going to shoot her! Like it’s subjective or something.
And then she totally didn’t comment on the striding or anything in sj. I thought for sure she would nail that part. Like when the German took those long ones and still went clear. She should have been right there about that and how lucky he was.
I miss Jimmy! Or Kerry Miliken did Rolex online and did a fabulous job.

[Coreene]

I do not know why they continue to hire her as a commentator. Then again, has anyone seen the recent Aachen classes on Animal Planet? No Emmys there either.

[BAC]

@vineyridge;3439522

I know that Melanie Smith is a jumper person, but she can only work with what the research department provides, and they just didn’t provide enough.

Don’t blame it on the research department, many of us “nobodies” on the BB have a wealth of background information on many of these horses and riders, just because of our interest in horses. If anything she should know a lot more than we do. I am not attacking her personally, I just think she is not at all good as a commentator.

[Wellspotted]

Personally, I’d enjoy a bit of “dead air” now and again. I get headaches from the constant commentary.
I’d prefer to just get to watch the rides.

That said, I would love to know what the volleyball comment was!

[rennyben]

Ugg, my husband and I were both wishing Melanie would just be quiet every once in a while. She repeated herself a lot and I felt like she used a lot of jargon that the average viewer wouldn’t understand.

When you watch swimming or gymnastics, the commentators will teach you about the sport. I now know it’s bad to bend your elbows on the high bar, or staying sideways while turning underwater is faster. Why can’t they do that with horses? Explain what a deep spot is and how that makes dropping a rail more likely - that would be such an easy graphic to do! Or show how if a rider gets way ahead of the horse that can cause a rail, again, fairly easy to show in slow-mo.

[DeLovely]

The guy with Melanie is worse, I guess he is a race commentator or something, but it cracked me up when he said “looks to be going a little crooked there” when the horse was doing shoulder-in down the center line. Anyone else catch that? And how many times can he say “equestrian” in one sentence because he has no other horsey vocabulary to use?

[supershorty628]

Am I the only one who watches all of the equestrian stuff muted? I can’t stand some of the commentary.

[Reds-n-Greys]

I thought Kerry Miliken did a good job at Rolex. It’s shame they didn’t ask her.

[cllane1]

One thing Melanie said that sent me over the edge: during eventing dressage, after (I think) Lucinda Fredericks’ ride, she kept saying how the judge would be comparing all the rest of the rides to that one. Uh, no! Each dressage ride is scored on its own merit and how it measures up to official standards, not how it compares to someone else’s ride!

[Larksmom]

Melanie

They have used her for years, I think because she is a Gold Medallist. Her commentary is insulting because I think she went thru Pony Club and should have a rudimentary knowlege of Dressage and eventing. She covered I think Barcelona when there was a long hold. I think one of the US riders were on course and dismounted. She worried that he/she would be dqed. :rolleyes: These two do enough horse stuff that THEY SHOULD DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH!!! NO EXCUSE! She has been around way long enough. I agreee, listen with sound down.