So much worse for the horses and not the spirit of the sport. SMH
Horrible. This goes against everything eventing is supposed to be. I hope thereās still a chance argue against this change.
I can envisage that more horses will get pushed home faster on XCountry. At least when SJ was last, you knew that a tired horse took rails. Now, tired horses might actually die.
I hope riders boycott it.
I donāt believe there is anything anyone can do about it. The FEI has submitted it to the International Olympic Committee.
I think what will happen is that the format will become an Eventing Showcase. The change in order forces the āXCā portion to be shortened and in an enclosed area to provide for easier TV coverage as well and spectator friendly setting.
This is the end of eventing unless others outside the IOC are willing to protect it.
Yikes. We saw what the short format did to change the sport years ago, Iām not thrilled about the likelihood that this will trickle down tooā¦ I donāt even event as my main discipline and I donāt like it!
Exactly what benefit does being in the Olympics bring for eventing? Can it divorce from the Olympics without taking all of āEquestrianā out? Not that I am entirely against removing horse sports from the Olympics with the way things are going - I just see fewer problems in show jumping and dressage at the moment.
funding. There is a lot of funding from the feds, and it would disappear in a heartbeat if we dropped from the Olympics. I do think the Olympics have changed a lot and not for the better. It is all about money now. It used to be about teamwork and sportsmanship. Plus the eventing community in the US is a much smaller percentage of the population than say the U.K. Eventing costs much more than dressage and SJ because they are contained in one arena. Granted they have warm-up areas, but the land needed for XC is very expensive.
All other areas of my life are changing and no one seems to care, just think I am a dinosaur. This is just another in a long line of things that just arenāt the same. Sorry, this probably deserves to be on the vent threadā¦
People keep saying to stay in the Olympics for funding in one hand and then on the other there are always discussions about needing more funding for equestrian sports. How much funding are we really talking about?
IMHO, staying in the Olympics is destroying what eventing is really supposed to be. Of course, eventing doesnāt help itself with events like Gran Prix Eventing at Bruceās Field. Thatās just advertising an alternate format to the FEI/IOC and what the sport will ultimately become.
just pull the funding and see what happens to it. It has been bastardized, it is great to think we can shake off the Olympics, I wish we could. Maybe COTH can do a write-up about the pros and cons. The thing that bugs me the most is losing the last jog. How the IOC can say they are concerned about the welfare of the horse is just BS. If you think it will survive without government funding, just look around and see how many old-style events there are, with the roads and track elements to them. Look at the difference between the Olympics and the World Championships. NBC actually acknowledges the sport exists, although the last couple I think they have not even had the commentators travel to the venue. The costs are too much.
I remember a line from The Right Stuff that applies here. āNo bucks, no Buck Rogersā.
Can it be worse than what is happening to the sport already? Itās heading in the direction of Grand Prix eventing already. cowtowing to the IOC is just going to expedite that process.
do you want there to be no sport at all? I am all in on rejecting the Olympics demand, but there will be no sport left. I do not know of any countries that would finance such an expensive sport without the possibility of an Olympic medal. I agree with the idea that it is a terrible idea, and the people making this decision are not competitors, Everyone who disagrees is free to not participate. But from what I see, we take half a loaf or none at all.
So I am not a 3D person, just a casual onlooker.
would the āteamā for three day comprise a set of three or 4 riders to do the team round and separate individuals ( one or two?) to vie for individual. Or might there be an individual with second horse who could ride two different horses in the two different events?
Ugh. I hope that the new format wouldnāt be adopted by WEG etc or trickle down to the competitions attended by the 99.9% of us who are never going to the Olympics anyway.
Not arguing with you, but Iām genuinely curious. How much funding does eventing receive from the US government, what does it pay for, and who does it benefit? Is it mostly travel funding for the high-performance crowd? Do eventing venues see any of this money? I guess Iām wondering what we would be missing out on.
Hereās an interesting and current list of grants available to eventers: https://www.usef.org/forms-pubs/N3Pt9jnX3w0/usef-eventing-athletes-guide-to-funding#:~:text=Funding%20and%20financial%20support%20opportunities,USET%20Foundation%20and%20USOPC%20grants.&text=*Funding%20and%20Direct%20Competition%20Financial%20Support%20is%20subject%20to%20availability.
Nothing against pros, not at all. But when I started watching the Olympics only amateurs could compete. For better or for worse. First of many changes in my time.
Well, apparently you have people in your life who care that dinosaurs exist. So many people these days think dinosaurs are extinct.
But I grew up reading Roy Chapman Andrews and The Shy Stegosaurus Of Cricket Creek. 
I am not even remotely associated with the sport, I just follow it. Kentucky Horse Park probably gets a little money, but if they lost it I doubt that they would shut down. I would imagine there is travel money. Letās see what the upper-echelon riders and shakers have to say about it.
FWIW, this is a screenshot from the USOPC website that says there is zero US federal government funding for the Olympic committee:
Funding from the feds? I didnāt know that. Do you know how much (ie, whatās it worth for eventing to stay in)?
Iām not an eventer, but thereās a point where itās just not worth it. Put $ and energy into the big events instead and be on the right side of horse welfare and quality competition venues. Olympic hosts probably hate the high cost of horse sport venues. Gotta know when to holdāem and when to foldāem.
Why would KHP receive Olympic-related funding? It doesnāt have any particular affiliation with the Olympics. Itās funded by the KHP Foundation and state tax money.
This report details funding for the Olympic Equestrian sports (2002) from the Team USA Fund.
Itās pretty sorry.
