I’m totally in the dark ages when it comes to technology, I have dial-up internet and no cable, etc.
So I was begging my father-in-law to tape some of the equestrian events for me. He asked me if I wanted to see the men’s or the women’s! 
A friend of mine happened to catch dressage and posted this description on his blog. “he thought walking around the ring was the warm up. No, it is horse parading and posing” :lol:
Haven’t I taught him better than that?!
my cousin, while watching individual dressage last night:
during the passage/ piaffe tour:
“so, is it really hard to train the horse to gallop like that??”
and during the lateral work:
“wow, how do they make the horses do that? do they just have to pull on the reins alot??”
hahaha i had a good laugh…
My 5 yr old daughter was watching the dressage with me and during the flying lead changes every stride, she said:
“I didn’t know horses could skip!”
I’d never thought of it that way but it sure does look like skipping 
My husband today who should know better, was watching the team show jumping jump off and was only looking at the time, he thought the higher the time, the better, notwithstanding any jumps falling down and of course, he said:
“wow that was incredible (after seeing Special Ed go), I mean the horse, not the rider” (because of course riding is not a sport and requires no athletic ability at all) :no:
Dressage:
They say “That’s not a sport! The horse is doing all the work!” , at which point I offer my PSG schoolmaster to them and ask them to try simply riding down the centerline at a trot, and halt squarely at X. Nobody has taken me up on this yet.
Others say it is like watching paint dry. They just need to see it done badly, and then see it doen well, I think!
[QUOTE=Carol O;3454592]
They just need to see it done badly, and then see it doen well, I think![/QUOTE]
I don’t know, my friend told me he almost fell asleep watching the dressage. :lol:
:lol::lol:
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.
:lol::lol::lol::lol:
Just got a note from my Dad. My stepmother is trying to record all of this for me, since I don’t get the right channels. She’s having to run interference with him over the equipment but is doing a great job so far, got most things.
Dad has actually watched a bit of it, in spite of a negative score HQ. He was asking on cross country if I knew how BIG those jumps were and if I knew they did it in the rain. :eek:
Anyway, tonight’s email: “We just recorded the USA jumping the GOLD medal for you.”
The mental image on that one was pretty funny. Jumping the gold medal.
All silly comments aside, I can’t wait to get these recordings from them and clean them up (have all non horse events removed). Should wind up with a nice DVD or two of solid horses.
[QUOTE=Mozart;3453727]
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…[/QUOTE]
YES! I’d pay to see synchronized jumping. They could wear sparkly caps that match! And do it to music! NBC execs would love it!
The only reason our dear relatives and other loved ones say such cute (stupid) things when watching equestrian sports is because the commentary is so woefully BAD!!!
Grrrrrrrr!!! It is making me very angry. The Australian Channel 7 commentator is a jockey (yep, he has one of those voices too…) who just because he has thrown a leg over a horse once or twice, and becuase the Rugby guys thinks he’s OK, has been put in the hot seat.
What he says is ludicrous (and there has been some attenpt to educate him, I’ve been told).
Imagine if the swimming commentators said dumb, obvious things as “They’ve all dived in. Now they are swimming to the other end of the pool. They are doing Butterstroke (or Breastfly, take your pick of malapropisms).” This is what the jockey sounds like when describing a showjumping round - he merely states the obvious - and gets even THAT wrong.
When people say watching Grand Prix dressage is like watching paint dry, I really wonder why we can’t do the same as all those far less visually interesting sports, such as swimming (flies crawling along a wall), golf (what the?), tennis (slow ping pong), distance running, cycling (round and round the velodrome…) that are given life by good expert commentary.
It makes ALL the difference, and empowers viewers, so that they don’t have to ask stupid questions. And I would not feel so cranky.
Watching showjumping yesterday with husband and father-in-law… f-i-l asks, “Well, what if the horse doesn’t want to do all that jumping?” Coincidentally, that was just the moment that–I think it was Beezie’s horse?–decided to refuse coming into the triple combination. “Well, that would be your answer…”
Husband and father-in-law also were getting a kick out of all the times the announcer pointed out how many horses had a foot in the water jump. “And he came nicely out of the water jump, where we’ve seen so many horses have difficulty… that’s thirteen feet wide and it’s so easy for them to get a foot in, as so many have today…” They really did mention it with every freaking round…
[QUOTE=MelantheLLC;3454867]
YES! I’d pay to see synchronized jumping. They could wear sparkly caps that match! And do it to music! NBC execs would love it![/QUOTE]
Or they could do SJ hunt team style-each horse/horse crash worth 4 faults.
My husband, watching Olympic dressage:
“Why are they doing that?”
(he’s from Montana)
Watching the gymnastics, I thought they could repackage equestrian with sparkly lycra, and have each combination just do a run-up to a wickedly difficult jump (like a vault) - judged on style and execution.
The Dr-sarge could be indoors on a bouncy surface in a 20 x 20 ring and go for 1.5 minutes. Vaulting moves by the rider, plus tricks such as cantering backwards and rearing could score extra, as would juggling riding crops while piaffing. The end would require lying down like a dying swan. (artistic gymnastics).
Eventing would be repackaged as a true endurance triathlon thing. Forget going back to the classic long format - bring on the 100 kilometers - and make it a true race - all setting off at once. Getting off and fighting, or swinging of the horse’s tail while it climbs a ravine would be encouraged. As would a swimming sector. First past the post wins gold.
The BF watching a well done Passage (likely for the first time in his life):
“Hehe, that horse is dancing!” (I was impressed, because my lively demonstration of flying leadchanges (the day I learned to ride them) cantering around the living room only solicited eyerolling).
how about the friend/loved one who asks why you still take riding lessons after
all these years…don’t you think you know how to do it by now
So my sister… Is a total ballerina!
She came to one of my shows to watch me ride, and afterwords when i was hosing of my horse, i asked her to hand me a bottle of shampoo. She looked at me, the horse, then the ground. She looked back at me and said " Uh yea, i dont think so. Theres horse poop every where! It SMELLS and im wearing my nice sandals… i dont “do” getting dirty. SOrry"
She tends to crack me up. The other day i was watching the dressage, and she came and said to me “oh my gosh! Are they like pretending to be from the old days and dancing? I dont get it! Oh my gosh! That horse is out of control!!!”
So i of course had to tell her… “umm… no, thats part of their test.”
Out of everything… The funniest thing she EVER said was when i was asking her to help me come up with a show name for a horse at my barn last year. His barn name was Laddy… so i told her to come up with some things and out of no where… she shouts: “CLIMB UP MY LADDY!!!” I could not stop laughing!
Oh how people that have no idea whats going on crack me up! lol
Ya know, after all these years, I finally got that one recently!! I don’t remember exactly how it came up or what I said, but it was along the lines of “well, there’s always something new to learn.” That must have satisfied the person since that’s all I remember.
I’m watching alone. I like it this way, no explaining and nobody distracting me. But it’s freeking out the dog because I’m not all that quiet about it. When that one horse caught a flyer to the water and clipped the line, well I squeeked like I was hanging over the rail and it was my horse getting a bad distance. Dog just about peed his pants, I scared him so bad.:lol::lol:
[QUOTE=SarahandSam;3454889]
Watching showjumping yesterday with husband and father-in-law… f-i-l asks, “Well, what if the horse doesn’t want to do all that jumping?” Coincidentally, that was just the moment that–I think it was Beezie’s horse?–decided to refuse coming into the triple combination. “Well, that would be your answer…”
Husband and father-in-law also were getting a kick out of all the times the announcer pointed out how many horses had a foot in the water jump. “And he came nicely out of the water jump, where we’ve seen so many horses have difficulty… that’s thirteen feet wide and it’s so easy for them to get a foot in, as so many have today…” They really did mention it with every freaking round…[/QUOTE]
Was that the BBC commentary by any chance? I am very lucky to have most of the equestrian events shown live in their entirety (and a lovely husband who is taping them for me) but I need to watch them with the sound turned off.
[QUOTE=CrazyDog;3455356]
Was that the BBC commentary by any chance? I am very lucky to have most of the equestrian events shown live in their entirety (and a lovely husband who is taping them for me) but I need to watch them with the sound turned off. :)[/QUOTE]
No, it was the American commentary–I think I’m turning the sound off from this point on too. (;
