Horse Breed Question

[Anonymoose]

During the Eventing competitions I heard Randy Moss and Melanie Smith Taylor refer to at least one horse as a “French Saddle Horse.” That’s a new breed to me. I know the Selle Francais breed, and just today watching some replays I head the British commentators call one of the horses a Selle Francais.

Is it two different breeds, or were Moss and Smith Taylor just translating “Selle Francais” for non-horsey viewers?

Sorry I don’t remember which horses the commentators were talking about. I was having to multitask while watching.

[J-Lu]

Yes, I’d bet dollars to donuts that they were referring to Selle Francais for non-horsey viewers. I believe that’s the rough translation.

[andy.smaga]

[QUOTE=J-Lu;8803248]
Yes, I’d bet dollars to donuts that they were referring to Selle Francais for non-horsey viewers. I believe that’s the rough translation.[/QUOTE]
Correct, Selle = saddle in French.

[Anonymoose]

Wow, RM and MST must think their viewers are really dumb! Why not just say Selle Francais and then translate?

[sophie]

Maybe they weren’t sure how to pronounce Selle Français correctly, so translated it?

[findeight]

RM is a (good) racetrack guy. MST should know better then what a writer dug up for them to say. Between them there’s not much deep understanding to fill up all the air time so they grab what they are given and reuse it.

I watched via the NBCSports app, assume it was the BBC feed with their regular contract, dedicated SJ commentators. Night and day, even mentioned breeding and knew what they were talking about.

[Anonymoose]

Yes, the British commentary was brilliant, and since NBCSN had it, why didn’t NBC?

I guess it’s like their coverage of the Triple Crown races. Starts out on NBCSN with pretty good coverage, then switches to NBC for the “big race” and is all about the assumed TV audience rather than the horses and jockeys.

I can pronounce Selle Francais well enough to be understood. I may not pronounce it “right,” but if I can do it MST and RM should be able to. After all they can say “Oldenburg” and “Holsteiner.”

So, back to the British vs US commentators, is Qatar pronounced “Cotter” or “k’TAR”?