FEI investigates "unusual" dressage meeting in HK

[CAJumper]

[QUOTE=3Dogs;3457224]
I have been spitting my cocktail all over my keyboard since starting this thread, when I got to this:

“… the fact that brilliance and incompetence are indistinguishable to all but the dressage cognoscenti does not speak well of the sport.”

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

whole drink spilled[/QUOTE]

:lol: Same here! Except the part that really got me was this:

“…let me explain what happens: people dressed in a sort of funereal version of fox-hunting gear take it in turns to go into a large sandy arena riding horses that seem to have been driven mad. The horses behave like the deranged dancing bears in those charity adverts…”

deranged dancing bears. :lol: :lol:

[Fixerupper]

@Equibrit;3457151

Another point of view;

Olympics: Ballroom dancing for horses is so out of step

• [B]David Mitchell[/B] The Guardian,
• Saturday August 16 2008
• Article history

I've just been watching coverage of the Olympic dressage and I must say I'm absolutely baffled. In case you haven't seen it, let me explain what happens: people dressed in a sort of funereal version of fox-hunting gear take it in turns to go into a large sandy arena riding horses that seem to have been driven mad. The horses behave like the deranged dancing bears in those charity adverts, doing weird fidgety fastidious things that clearly aren't natural to them: they hop from foot to foot, they walk on the spot, they stand still for a bit, quivering, before turning round in awkward timorous circles and walking diagonally across the arena. Quite what treatment these creatures have been put through to get them to be this odd I dread to think, but it gets stranger: sometimes the horse and rider's obsessive antics are condemned by the commentators and judges as disappointing and sloppy, while behaviour no more or less insane is hailed as excellent and just the thing, and indeed quite the spectacle to behold. I wonder if any of these people saw the opening ceremony? For their sakes I hope not; if they find watching a horse getting the shakes in a sand-pit spectacular, the sight of those fireworks would have exploded their minds. Now I know there must be rules to dressage. It's not really just craziness arbitrarily scored, like a sort of tortured horse version of Mornington Crescent, but the fact that brilliance and incompetence are indistinguishable to all but the dressage cognoscenti does not speak well of the sport. I couldn't watch it for long without the question "Why is doing this in any way good?" springing to mind. I'm perfectly willing to admit that it must be very difficult to make horses do that, but what's the point? Obviously I'm straying into dangerous territory asking what's the point of a sport - you can argue that almost any leisure activity is pointless, but most sports involve at least something accomplished or exciting enough to make it clear why the activity is pursued. But with dressage, I'm not sure. I completely understand why it's good to make horses run fast or jump over things - but what is the satisfaction in this tuneless dance, this effortful yet unentertaining capering about? I must admit that my feelings against dressage are intensified by the fact that it's one of the sports that is scored by judges. I don't like that. I accept that some sort of judging is involved in all Olympic events - whether it's a referee in a hockey match or a line judge in the tennis - but the judging involved in gymnastics, diving and dressage is on a completely different level. They're not just deciding whether or not a goal has been scored, but what a goal actually is. The spectre of artistic impression hangs over them all in a way that makes me suspect that, skilful and worthwhile though gymnastics and diving may be, they should be put in the same category as dancing rather than the shot put: they're not, essentially, proper sports. A proper sport has a clearly defined aim: "Get to that line first", "Throw that object the furthest", "Kick that round thing into that gap more times than them". It doesn't matter how inelegantly these things are done, the winner is clear; indeed, as sports develop, what is effective in the achievement of the stated aim is what comes to look elegant. Sports that involve a judging panel have much fuzzier aims - a combination of electing to do difficult things while not being seen to have made any mistakes - and so you need several people's opinions to determine the extent to which the competitor has succeeded. If such subjectivity is permissible in determining victory or defeat, then why not open up the Olympics to ballroom dancing (after all, ice dancing is in the Winter Olympics), flower arranging or amateur dramatics? You might say that not all of those activities require peak physical fitness, but then neither do archery or shooting. The distinction between proper and judged sports is at its clearest when you compare ski jumping in the Winter Olympics with the long jump. In ski jumping points are determined by various factors including "style" whereas the long jump is entirely about how far you jump, no matter how much of a gangly fool you look while you do it. Surely the aim of ski jumping should be to jump as far or high as possible and then land safely? Why should style have anything to do with it if it doesn't help you jump further? If it was discovered that an airborne attempt at the hokey cokey added yards to the jump distance, surely that's what the jumpers should do - but they wouldn't because they'd lose points for style. Of course the scoring problem is less easily fixed when it comes to gymnastics and diving, and I'm not really saying that the Olympics would be better without them. The fact that they are Olympic sports encourages people to get involved. And, within those sports, there's undoubtedly a clear sense of what excellence is. But I'd nix the dressage in a heartbeat - and bring in snooker instead. It should be at least a couple of Olympiads before the Chinese and the Germans are better at that than us.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I don’t think this covers all of dressage but it is certainly spot on for these Olympics!

[Renn_aissance]

London, 2012:

E - slc2 (three scribes)
H - ideayoda
C - egontoast
M - theo
B - equibrit

Let the games begin.

PLEASE!

RR, Post of the Week award goes to you.

Precious, I will never STOP listening to the rolling stones. When I am in my dotage, with a silver mongrammed drool bucket hanging from my neck and my brain a pile of scrambled neurology stripped of 90% of its myelin, when I don’t know the rolling stones from a dish of cream of wheat, i will STILL be listening to the rolling stones.

SLC, something weird has happened in the last two weeks… almost everything you’ve said, I’ve agreed with!

[slc2]

three scribes is fine but give them alot of coffee

[Mardi]

Ok Ok !

What about the judges meeting ???

[MEP]

[QUOTE=grayarabpony;3457325]
I love Adrian Monk but no way could he be a judge. It’d be midnight before he made up his mind on the first horse’s score![/QUOTE]

Not only that, he’d have to touch them each on the nose, and would then need a wipe :lol:

[MEP]

OK, but seriously folks …

from the H&H article:

The FEI has been forced to make yet another statement during this Olympic Games.

So what was the first statement the FEI was forced to make???

[Stubborn_Mare]

I believe the first statement was about the last-minute change to one of the cross country jumps.

[egontoast]

Love the Guardian article!!:lol::lol::lol:

PS Apologies to the Tennessee stud.

I’ve fixed it now.

[MEP]

[QUOTE=Stubborn Mare;3458167]
I believe the first statement was about the last-minute change to one of the cross country jumps.[/QUOTE]

Thank you - I have a mind like a sieve.

[freestyle2music]

[QUOTE=Reynard Ridge;3457241]
London, 2012:

E - slc2 (three scribes)
H - ideayoda
C - egontoast
M - theo
B - equibrit

Let the games begin. [/QUOTE]

He Reynard. Judges don’t get paid for it, only expenses. And I am sure the FEI will never pay my expenses, certainly not in London. Just fill me in as the tourguide !

[Roan]

[QUOTE=MEP;3458163]
Not only that, he’d have to touch them each on the nose, and would then need a wipe :lol:[/QUOTE]

Heh.

Some day when I’m out at the mall or something I’m going to pull a Monk on all the posts and stuff. Give my 12 year old a thingy of wipes, too.

snort

Eileen

[Graymaresrule]

@SGray;3456758

CHORUS:
The Tennessee stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
And there never was a hoss like the Tennessee stud

If you like that song play the video on this site
http://www.kinsonstud.com/kinson-stud-irish-draught.html

[SGray]

saw Doc and Merle 'most every time they were in town to play

[Mozart]

@Reynard Ridge;3457241

London, 2012:

E - slc2 (three scribes)
H - ideayoda
C - egontoast
M - theo
B - equibrit

Let the games begin.

Oh, I would pay to see that. Quite a lot actually. No, wait, can I scribe for ideayoda??? Hmm…maybe eggy. She of the razor wit. Or maybe theo? Oh…can’t decide. Each has their own…unique charm…:yes:

[petitefilly]

[QUOTE=Equibrit;3457318]
Oh - you just want to see me get eviscerated - dontcha?[/QUOTE]

I ride dressage and I agree with the article!!! Come’on people the judging is HORRID! Someone, somewhere must be betting big time on the results, because as they say “the fix was in”.

My husband came home the night after the Kurs, he had watched Steffen at work, mainly because he took an interest in his wife’s hobby! He chuckled when he came in the door, he came over to me, whispered in my ear of Steffen’s ride “it ain’t your night, kid”. In his best New York hoodlum accent no less! :):):):):)

“I could’a been a contender” was my retort!

:):):)

[tangledweb]

@petitefilly;3459045

Someone, somewhere must be betting big time on the results, because as they say “the fix was in”.

I think you misunderstand how race fixing works. You don’t fix races so that the favorite wins. You fix them so that a long odds outsider wins.

[PaddyUK]

[QUOTE=egontoast;3458173]
Love the Guardian article!!:lol::lol::lol:

PS Apologies to the Tennessee stud.

I’ve fixed it now.[/QUOTE]

Trouble is, that Guardian article has probably had more publicity on this board than in the UK.

Your average Guardianista tends to be, politics wise, slightly to the left of Attila the Hun, wandering around campus wearing open toed sandals, a baggy cardigan with elbow patches and carriyng a terms worth of lecture notes in a carrier bag - and that’s just the men.

Paddy

[egontoast]

London, 2012:

E - slc2 (three scribes)
H - ideayoda
C - egontoast
M - theo
B - equibrit

Let the games begin

:eek: I had no idea I was in that group.

This may require some deeply profound self reflection and years of analysis. I may need to be rolfed or spittooned or something.

[Mozart]

@egontoast;3459842

:eek: I had no idea I was in that group.

This may require some deeply profound self reflection and years of analysis. I may need to be rolfed or spittooned or something.

Maybe reiki’d? Or Alexander’d? With a bosu ball? Wait I know…
Parelli’d