Horse sport in danger for next Olympics!!

[canyonoak]

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/266589.html

THE president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) has warned that the status of equestrian sports within the Olympic movement is precarious.

Princess Haya told H&H that despite the undoubtedly great sport and brilliant organisation of Hong Kong, there is no guarantee that horse sports can survive in the Olympics beyond 2012 — or even get that far — and could follow sports such as cricket and polo out of the Olympic door.

“The FEI has a huge fight to even get to 2012,” explained Princess Haya, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the FEI’s first elected president.

"The IOC have heard from our stakeholders and wrote to us about the set-up and presentation of dressage.

“The popularity of dressage is abnormally low and there are complaints about judging and the make up of judging panels and committees,” she said. “Anyone who thinks equestrian sports are secure for London is mistaken…”

[War_Admiral]

You know what?

I honestly say “give it up” at this point. Let it go, we’re done here, let’s focus on the WEG instead.

All the equestrian disciplines have suffered because of trying to make compromises to stay in the Olympics. How much farther are we going to dumb down and how many more compromises are we going to make?

I think we should just drop it and be done.

[bird4416]

I agree with War Admiral. Quite frankly, I’m surprised they haven’t done away with the Equestrian events a long time ago.

[ThrghbrdJmpr]

I think it sucks…

[slc2]

Go ahead. The Olympics are insane. They’ve gotten worse and worse over the years. The countries are going insane trying to win and doing anything to win. There is so much wierd crap going on. It’s enough. Get riding out of it now and be building up the WEG and other competitions instead.

The Olympics, hopefully, will dissapear or become some sort of ‘Win The Most Beautiful Object in the Universe’ contest on TV.

[Dressage_Dreamer]

even if you do not understand the rules of the equestrian disciplines, anyone would have obvious respect for the fact someone has convinced a horse to hurl over a 5 foot jump!
I saw some sports this time around with hardly ANYONE in the stands…and some of which I had never seen anything close to that kind of sport before…

[Auventera_Two]

I say drop it. The judging is a joke anyway. People apparently have to resort to abusive training tactics to win gold medals so what’s the freakin point? :rolleyes: I am a horse lover and I won’t watch the equestrian events, say nothing about the non-horse people.

[_jumper]

The Olympics are becoming such a political and professional event. It’s sad; they are moving away from the values that they are known for. I agree with those who think Dressage may go, because people just don’t understand it. Plus, it’s subjective, and there are those who think such sports shouldn’t be in the Olympics at all.

Show Jumping, on the other hand, has a format that is fairly easy to understand, making it more user-friendly for both spectators and Olympic officials. Frankly, I’m surprised they did away with polo, as that is a sport that most people have a bit of interest in, and is definitely more of a “sport” that the other equestrian disciplines.

However, we have a long four years to go until the next games, and I’m sure that the IOC is more interested in wrapping up Beijing at this point than worrying about the future.

[seeuatx]

I’ve got the fix!!!

No more stock ties, and all the women should wear water bras with the shirts un buttoned down to their navel. Guys can borrow Jerry Seinfeld’s “Puffy Shirt”. The fact that breast implants and waxed chests will now be needed are just part of the necessary evolution of the sport. ;):lol:;).

Medal contention and any ties can be decided by a wet t-shirt contest just before medal ceremonies. :rolleyes:

[chukkerchild]

No! I don’t want them to take it out! At least not showjumping, I think that is far and away the most popular spectactor sport. An Olympic medal is something sponsors understand-- nobody cares about world championships, they only matter to the people in the sport. I don’t care who won the world championship in swimming, but I think it’s awesome when Canada wins a swimming Olympic medal-- I hear about it. I think taking the sports out of the Olympics will be the first nail in the coffin. Look what HAPPENED to polo. Polo is now a rare sport. I KNOW pretty much everyone who plays polo in western canada-- someone just down the road from me was on the canadian team. Polo has no global visibility and so it’s disappearing… that WILL happen to other sports too, maybe not fast, but eventually. Just my 0.02… :no:

[pattnic]

Another one for “let it go.” As others said, focus on WEG; in fact, in soccer, they limit the ages of the players, because their crowning achievement is the World Cup (they want to reserve the best for that).

[fiona]

"The IOC have heard from our stakeholders and wrote to us about the set-up and presentation of dressage.

what does stakeholder mean in this context?

[monstrpony]

Let it go.

The summer Olympics are at a difficult time of year for equestrian sports, unless there is complete freedom of location. Look at all the resources that go into keeping the horses comfortable at the past several. Granted, not such an issue for London, but what will be next after that?

Less of an issue for dressage and show jumping, perhaps but the judging issues with dressage are a disgrace. I could be happy with leaving show jumping only–the sponsorship issue is a valid one there, and jumping is accessible to a wide audience in terms of judging and spectacle.

[Eventer13]

I say get rid of dressage. Its subjective and the common spectator cant understand it. Keep show jumping, and maybe eventing (although I’d say get rid of eventing if it means they’ll bring back the long format).

Anyone wondering how that German dressage judge is feeling right now? Possibly he will be one of the driving forces that gets the equestrian competition kicked out.

[fiona]

The perception that the British don’t want the games is completely erroneous.

What we do want is the muti million pound budget spent on a permanent site so we can in the future bid for events like WEG and meanwhile use the facilities to train our own riders.
What Londoners want is their Historic Grade I protected Unesco World Heritage Site left intact and who can blame them! It’s a beautiful park and can never be replaced or repaired.
The small detail that it will look spiffy on tv is the only reason it was ever chosen and rather overlooks the growing objections of the local people plus it won’t fit more than about 20,000 spectators. Aachen WEG had 50,000 for the dressage and was sold out, SJ, and in the uk particularly eventing, get a lot more supporters.

[Janeway]

I thought that there was some sort of rule in place that prevents a sport being dropped from the Olympics in the 4 years between them: that the IOC can only announce additions/deletions during a current olympics for the next scheduled one. I mean how crappy would that be for an athlete to be one year away from competing in the olympics only to be told “sorry, we just dropped your sport”?

Does anyone know IOC the rules? I tried looking on the main IOC site but didn’t have any luck.

[canyonoak]

I do not understand any of this.

The FEI fires its head vet 11 days before the Hong Kong Olympics start.

And here I am going out on a limb to suggest that the vet, Frits Sluyters, wanted the pre-event drug test to actually TEST for capsaicin,etc so that the riders would have a chance to present all their horses as clean.

But the FEI in its strange collusion with WADA, decided instead to use the pre-event test as some kind of false lulling of the riders by NOT testing for the very drugs they claim to be so worried about.
Further, at no time do they appear to have used thermography–which they have emphasized will be in great use at this Olympics in order to determine any use of hyper-sensitizing agents.

The results…are what we all can see now.

They “catch” four riders who have been using Equi-Block in its non-test formula (there are TWO formulas and only the heavy one is generally used as a hyper-sensitizing agent,SFAIK)
for their horses’ backs. And the one rider who belatedly discovered the stuff was in the anti-chew spray they put on that horse’s bandages and stall wraps.

And they “catch” one rider whose horse was treated at the highly-acclaimed HK equine clinic and most likely got some Felbinac onto its skin through totally innocent means.

Wow. Drug criminals par excellence!

ANd the results is headlines everywhere blaring about “doping charges” and medals taken away,and parallels drawn to other drug tests at other Olympics.

ANd then, of course, there is the specious judging in the dressage competition, not to mention the secret meetings,etc.

Way to go, FEI!!!

I am truly nonplussed by Princess Haya’s statement, as I have always had respect and admiration for her accomplishments.

The Olympics is a stage that attracts major sponsors . To lose that world stage will prove, IMHO, to be a major tragedy for horse sport.

If any single cause is to be found for the IOC deciding to remove horse sport from the Olympics, that cause is only the FEI itself.

[fiona]

On the other matters - if failed dope tests cause a sport to be dropped by the Olympic movement why are Athletics still in the games? Swimming? Gymnastics? Weightlifting?

The dressage judging hmmm, trickier.
But i have a hard time understanding synchronised diving, how on earth do they score that? rythmic gymnastics? beach volleyball? ladies bmx?!!! i ask you - they are all ridiculous sports to me but i wouldn’t want them dropped, i like seeing something different in the general field of human endeavour once every four years.

[grayarabpony]

Honestly I really wish that the Olympics had a permanent venue.

It would really be a shame for the equestrian sports to be dropped.

[fiona]

I mean how crappy would that be for an athlete to be one year away from competing in the olympics only to be told “sorry, we just dropped your sport”?

marginally less crappy than having trained, qualified, completed your test to find it was a waste of supreme effort because of “specious judging”?