And we (daughter and I) do tempi changes instead of skip… 
“Do they supply the horses or do you have to bring your own?”
Oh yeah, actually have gotten that more than once.
My grandpa called me all excited when the jump-off between Canada and the US was on to make sure I was watching it. After we found out who won, he was like, “Canada will get gold in 2012-- you’ll be there!” And I was like, “Hahaha, in my dreams.” And he was like, all seriously, “If you need ANY financial support, we’re here, we know you can do it!”
Well, look, I only have about a foot and a half to go!!
Haven’t read all of these yet, but the first few made me laugh.
We were talking to our very non-horsey, but very polite friends, and explaining how we know people in mulitple equestrian events, from multiple countries. The husband said “Oh, that’s right, we just found out that you can ride horses in the Olympics”.
Uh, yeah…? :lol:
aww! that’s so cute!
Had Isabell’s horse not had a meltdown based on the scores she most likely would have received for that part of the test would she have won?
I usually respond with “yeah, well Michael Jordan still had a basketball coach and had to go to practice”, or Tom Brady, depending on the person’s sport of choice.
[QUOTE=kateh;3454641]
I don’t know, my friend told me he almost fell asleep watching the dressage. :lol:[/QUOTE]
:):):) My Dear Husband has now been to a world cup and still falls asleep at every ride! He says it is like watching paint dry. OHMY! So… I give him a job now while we go places, he gets the video camera and takes the movies. He always asks now-----when will that “Spanky, or Panky, or whatever going to ride?” He also likes the announcers in Europe who roll their ‘r’s’ when calling out the names.
I have him on alert now: FILM at eleven~!
My hubby actually is fairly horsey, so his comments during the eventing XC were pretty astute… he was yelling at Amy to get Poggio under control about 10 strides out from her fall, and how Karen didn’t set Mandiba up well at all with her run-out at the (brush was it? can’t remember now). OTOH he can recognize true genius when he sees it… had GREAT things to say about Toddy (even if he WAS wearing THOSE PANTS :lol:). And just before Authentic refused the triple, he said “I think he has something wrong with his ear- he’s shaking his head and not even looking at that jump”. He does think dressage is pretty boring… I didn’t make him suffer through it, I watched it later by myself. And he has now decided that there IS a sport out there that is less “manly” than riding in the English outfits… sychronized diving. LOL.
As far as dressage being like paint drying… you have to remember, to each his own. I myself find gymnastics to be mind-numbingly boring… after all, they all do the same darn thing over and over! And then I remembered that everyone does the same dressage test, and rides the same XC test, and jumps the same stadium test…:D.
I was watching the showjumping last night with my boyfriend and after the 3rd horse he said that it was like watching paint dry and he was about to walk out of the room. In walks horse #4 wearing an ear bonnet and he said, “Look look at the BatHorse!” Apparently anything wearing a hat over their ears officially turns into a Bat-(fill in the blank).
A few minutes later started to referring to them as horse yarmulke!
Most of my co-workers and in-laws have the same gripes.
Why are they dressed the same?
Why aren’t they dressed in a costume representing their country (Americans should be dressed as cowboys was one example given to me)
Does the horse get a medal too? (Three different people said that they didn’t think it was fair that only the rider got a medal when the horse did all the work)
I loved watching the dressage, but most of the music was mind numbingly boring. We’ll see what comments I get today.
Well Mr. Equilibrium is very horsey and the better horseman for sure, but Dressage just ain’t his thing. So he’s been annoyed with all the dressage watching of late especially as he’s missing racing. But anyway in comes Don Schufro, a horse I adore, and whata know, Pink Floyd is playing. Somebody perked up and said, well isn’t it about time somebody used some decent music. Then thought it might be fun to try out his own riding to music on his ever trusty ISH. Please don’t, for the love of God, please don’t!!! That would be one of those youtube distasters we all laugh about.
Terri
I heard someone on the radio the other day (from what I get they were talking about dressage) and they said, “They just go around in circles dancing. I can’t tell if they’re judging the rider, the horse, or the outfit!”
watching the dressage special with the BF when Anky comes in (and BF had pretty much sat down on couch with me and started paying attention):
me: “She is a beautiful rider.”
BF: “SHE? That’s a dude, look at the tophat.”
and during the freestyle, BF appears to have learned the tophat lesson:
me: “Look at his legs there” (when horse was coming across diagonal at extended trot)
BF: “That’s a chick riding.”
me: “no, the horse’s legs, not the rider’s”
not Olympic but a friend of mine came to my last event and walked X-C with me. There were 2 options for the first fence and she asked which I was going to jump - I said all of mine were labeled with the purple & white numbers.
She replied, “oh, so horses can see in color and your horse knows to jump the ones with purple & white” :eek: not as a question - just a statement - thought this was pretty funny!
[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]
But aren’t the horses borrowed for decathlon (or pentathalon or whatever it is that has a small SJ component)?
LOL that is too funny.
Modern pentathlon. Yes. But why anyone would lend their good horse to be jumped 3’6" by pentathletes who will hang on to their face before, during and after the jump is beyond me.
[QUOTE=Mozart;3459886]
Modern pentathlon. Yes. But why anyone would lend their good horse to be jumped 3’6" by pentathletes who will hang on to their face before, during and after the jump is beyond me.[/QUOTE]
I know; I have thought the same when watching it. I was just thinking that might explain the provision in the Atlanta Olympics’ budget for horses.
Good commentary definitely factors in. My sweetie took me to see the Lippizan tour, which has some decent commentary for those who don’t know what the horses are doing.
My bf was surprised to find out that foaming at the mouth was good. He’d seen horses froth while overseas and thought it was a sign of horse abuse!
