Funny things your non-horsey ppl say re: equestrian in the olympics

[Keep1Belle]

So, figures the one day SJ is on a channel I get, I am riding. I thought I would be home in time, but no such luck.

Anyway. My boyfriend watched and I asked him what he thought of it. this is his reply:

“it was pretty amazing. i still don’t know how they get those horses to do that. the obstacle is purposely set up to confuse the horse. trying to make optical illusions with the water and brightly painted fences. it’s nuts”

Me (sarcasticly) “Boyfriend, so you think they are playing Jedi mind tricks on the horses?”

Boyfriend: " Yes yes. that is exactly whats going on. the poor horses dont even know it"

ROTFL

[caffeinated]

“But… what is the point of this ‘dressage’?”

[Mozart]

Great idea for a fun thread. I told a work colleague that Canada won team silver in show jumping and she said “Oh, is that the synchronized jumping event?” :lol:

Maybe next Olympics…

[dressagetraks]

One of the funniest non-horsey perspective things I’ve ever read:

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996 included in their original budget for the overall event an allowance to provide horses for the athletes in the equestrian competitions.

I guess they thought it was like providing discuses for the throwers or poles for the vaulters. They actually did not know that horse people at the Olympics prefer to bring their own mounts. :lol:

[DeLovely]

Not related to the Olympics, but funny…

Overheard at the barn:
“Daddy, why is Aunt Helen making that horse go in circles?”(lunging)
reply:
“Well, she’s trying to make him dizzy before she climbs on.”

[dressagetraks]

My younger brother when I was watching the 1992 Olympics on cable and he was about 6 asked me why so many of the riders “spanked” their horses at the end of their turn. “Is it so they’ll do better and win next time?”

[HJALO]

from my fiance (bless his heart):

“Don’t the horses get tired having to do 3 different events?” (meaning showjumping, dressage and eventing

And, this really got me:
“Boy, those jumps are A LOT bigger than the ones you jump!”

:lol::lol::lol:

[Milocalwinnings]

My dad was watching dressage (I was amazed, he actually sat through all of Dressage and SJ! We’re making progress!)

Dad: “What in the world is a ‘fly change’?”
Me: “A fly change? Do you mean a Flying Lead Change?”
Dad: “I don’t know… I thought they said a Fly Change”
Me: “Well, a flying change is hard to explain… you know how horses have to be on a certain lead when cantering?”
Dad: “No…”
Me: "well nevermind. It’s basically where they canter and change the lead without going back down to a trot… "
Dad: “Ohh! I see it! So every two strides you do a flying lead change”
Me: “No, not exactly- you can. Or when changing directions or each stride etc”.

Dad: “Wow, this is horrible! The horse is going down the centerline almost sideways!”
Me: “They are supposed to be… they are doing a shoulder in so they aren’t supposed to have their whole body straight”

Dad: “Oh my gosh! Why is the horse rearing up in a circle like that?”
Me: “:sigh: it’s a canter pirouette (sp?). They aren’t rearing up… they are doing fine”

Show Jumping:
Dad: “Jeeze, this is boring- where are all the exciting jumps? Where is the water, big logs or anything?!”
Me: “That’s cross country. They already did those. This is stadium… it’s supposed to be set up this way- you don’t have logs and big water jumps in stadium”

My dad is not very horsey. He tries though… and it makes for some good entertainment sometimes;)

[johnnysauntie]

My husband was messing with our computer, since I was having trouble getting NBC’s streaming video to work. He fiddled away while I hopped up and down, hoping to see the eventing dressage. He finally got it to work and said “Wow, that’s a bouncy horse. It must be hard to make them bounce like that.” I scampered over, to see fits of very athletic bucking, I think it was that poor guy from the Netherlands who ended up with an awful score, the horse was just having none of dressage that day …

[HJALO]

[QUOTE=Milocalwinnings;3453885]
My dad was watching dressage (I was amazed, he actually sat through all of Dressage and SJ! We’re making progress!)

Dad: “Wow, this is horrible! The horse is going down the centerline almost sideways!”

Dad: “Oh my gosh! Why is the horse rearing up in a circle like that?”

Dad: “Jeeze, this is boring- where are all the exciting jumps? Where is the water, big logs or anything?!”

[QUOTE]

:lol::lol::lol: That is fantastic!

[Jasper_sMom]

[QUOTE=dressagetraks;3453739]
One of the funniest non-horsey perspective things I’ve ever read:

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996 included in their original budget for the overall event an allowance to provide horses for the athletes in the equestrian competitions.

I guess they thought it was like providing discuses for the throwers or poles for the vaulters. They actually did not know that horse people at the Olympics prefer to bring their own mounts. :lol:[/QUOTE]

That is funny! I wonder what they budgeted or where they thought they might buy these horses? Non-horsey people are usually ahem a little startled to find out what an Olympic level horse costs…

[citydog]

[QUOTE=dressagetraks;3453739]
One of the funniest non-horsey perspective things I’ve ever read:

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996 included in their original budget for the overall event an allowance to provide horses for the athletes in the equestrian competitions. :D[/QUOTE]

The horses used in the modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping, and running) are indeed supplied by the organizers.

[dressagetraks]

According to the story I read (can’t remember source, it was in 1996), they did indeed include horse allowance for ALL equestrian events in the initial draft of the budget.

[dogchushu]

My brother, while watching dressage, asked me “how long does it take horses to memorize this?” Yes. He thought the horses memorized the entire dressage test.

[Ibex]

Email with the youtube link to Matinee.

“So is this what you do??? SO COOL!!!”

Yup, that’s what I do… in my fantasies… :lol:

[Elegante_E]

A friend in Singapore reported that they weren’t showing her favorite events on tv very much (Diving and ghymnastics - hmm, she should come here). But she did get to see some horses which were “prancing and dancing about” which she enjoyed. I’m thinking she meant dressage - not that I haven’t tried explaining it to her for nearly a decade.

[Ajierene]

[QUOTE=Jasper’sMom;3454166]
That is funny! I wonder what they budgeted or where they thought they might buy these horses? Non-horsey people are usually ahem a little startled to find out what an Olympic level horse costs…[/QUOTE]

I got a nice tax refund last year and finally lived my dream of buying a nice jumping and dressage saddle and finally getting out of my childhood saddle.

My boyfriend went with me to pick up one of my saddles and was floored to find out it cost over $1,000. I told him that $1200 is not that much for a good saddle…

[Kenike]

My FIL is a small rancher in Texas, so not exactly non-horsey, but certainly not exactly horsey, either. He wrote me an email yesterday expressly to tell me he was thinking of me and that he loved the “grey Arabian” the “little lady” from the U.S. was riding. :lol:
He was talking about Laura Kraut and Cedric. I did correct him on the breeding, but only after I had a good laugh. It was cute…at least to me

[4Martini]

One of my co-workers said he thought the dressage horses looked drunk stumbling sideways across the arena and kept cheering for them to go straight. I tried to explain it was actually hard to get them to stumble sideways.

[Wellspotted]

dressagetraks posted:

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996 included in their original budget for the overall event an allowance to provide horses for the athletes in the equestrian competitions
.

I think that’s kind of thoughtful, really. Maybe they got the idea from intercollegiate competitions where the riders have to ride the horses provided at the venue. At least they were giving the matter some thought!