I would DEFINITELY take Saint Boy or any one of those horses in a heartbeat. Scope aplenty for anything I would ever want to do, and they could all take multiple serious jokes, keep going, and jump out of hairy spots. I figure my far fewer and far less dramatic mistakes would be nothing to a horse like these! Could there be anything better for a rider than these horses in terms of building confidence?
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Just because you didn’t see lather doesn’t mean it wasn’t there; I watched every eventing XC and SJ, a great many dressage tests, and a few jumper rounds. There were definitely lathered horses. I have also been to many an event at the upper levels (as a groom) and lower levels (as a rider), and when it’s hot and muggy, a 20 minute warm up is definitely enough to work up a lather. Some horses simply sweat faster than others, too; I’ve known horses to be lathered warming up for a Training level dressage test. And if you didn’t see lather in the others, it’s as you said, because a groom wiped it off–but not sponged it off. I’ve been the groom. They carry a lot of things to the warm up, but not buckets of cold water and sweat scrapers for sponging off lather.
I am far more concerned with he fact that there were no cooling tents provided. The Olympic organisers did a great job with all the venues and facilities from everything I have heard–ice vests for competitors after events, etc. So why no cooling tents? It’s because the Pentathlon governing body, not the FEI, is in charge of the events. Their governing body considers the horses equipment. THAT is the problem. While technically the horses in all equestrian events are considered “equipment” by the IOC, they also know that the owners and riders and the FEI would not accept anything less than top facilities and care for the horses. But since the riders in pentathlon ALSO consider the horses equipment, it falls to the individual horses’ owners to arrange for their care.
So the lack of cooling facilities for the horses is definitely a concern. The lather in and of itself is not.
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The FEI and national equestrian governing bodies have no say in modern pentathlon. They have their own governing body. This is part of the problem.
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One other thing I noticed is that I think the riders are taught to use their crops in literally any situation. Tight to the fence? Crop! Horse won’t move? Crop! Want to be long and launch the poor horse off the ground? Crop! I feel like it was back to when I was learning to ride and had no idea there were nuances. Like, if my horse won’t move forward, I would get it to turn and move its feet, instead of just wailing on it. I definitely wouldn’t have held such a big stick on a lot of the horses that walked into that ring.
It’s almost like you put a bunch of beginner riders in a ring who know a little bit more about riding than the average beginner and therefore they thing their form of discipline is correct.
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All the videos of the female riders appears to have been pulled. Ch 7 only shows the male replay (the whole female MP event has not been posted as a replay), and the vimeo video in this thread has also been pulled.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eventingukfb/permalink/4139922392727608/
Not sure if the link will work, but a short video from this year’s MP World Cup. This is not just an ‘Olympic’ problem
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Wtf!
No exam? No officials checking the horse who laid there for quite a bit until people approached.
The rider didn’t even walk the horse a bit or jog for soundness before cantering off, one assumes to re attempt that fence.
If this is meant to mimic soldiers behind enemy lines, uh … falling like this won’t get you where you need to go.
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The link worked for me.
Gag. Bad fall, rider remounted and continued. They did not even walk or jog the horse to see if he was OK.
This is not OK.
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Because I’m a nerd, I looked up the rules:
If a horse makes 4 refusals or run-outs (total of 4 either refusals and/ or run-outs) during
the entire course in the first round, the pentathletes that has drawn that horse in the
following rounds has the option of riding a reserve horse. Any pentathlete that chooses
to ride a reserve horse must immediately inform the UIPM TD/NTO and the Referee and
then draw from the reserve horses; otherwise he will ride his assigned horse.
Because I was also wondering about the possibility of another horse, and why the rider didn’t take it.
Honestly, there’s no reason why they can’t change the rules. They’ve already changed the shooting to laser pistols, to reflect the fact fewer people have experience with regular rifles. Double the penalties for each refusal or runout, make a single fall elimination, lower the jumps to two feet, and use every horse only once.
I was prepared for this, because I’m a midnight YouTube watcher sort of a person and I’ve watched the 2012 London replay before.
I’m still surprised, though, that someone from a relatively well-funded country like Germany had such a meltdown at the Olympics, versus a country which might not be sending the best athlete in the world, but merely the best athlete from a relatively small, underfunded program.
I did The Google of some other pentathalons, and the riding actually appeared to be better quality than in the Olympics!
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Yes the jury ride is a few days before the competition. The owners or riders were also allowed to school the course daily for the week before.
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If anything, the rider’s body language appeared to just be upset about the time it was taking for the horse to get up and she just seemed to want to get on and continue as quickly as possible without taking into account the welfare of the horse.
If the clock keeps ticking while the horse is down on the ground, that’s something else that needs to be changed. They should not have had encouragement to get back on and continue before everyone, including the horse, could be checked out.
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USA Contacts for Modern Pentathlon:
Robert Stull
Vice Chair, USOC Athletes Committee
Exec. Dir., CEO USA Pentatnlon
Robstull@aol.com
John Helmick, Treasurer
John@gorillacapital.com
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One notable difference is the height of the jumps. That course appears to be .90m, max 1.0m, which is both more forgiving to mistakes and also far less likely to result in riders being popped out of the tack over the fences.
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From Ingrid Klimke;
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Yes, very true! That height looks reasonable for someone to be able to get around (if properly prepared).
A big issue is course design. At the Pan Ams everything was on a half stride. Why they would do that for these riders is beyond me.
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Yup. I watched other videos of world championships from modern pentathlon’s YouTube channel… and the courses were ALL closer to 0.9 m, and it appeared the pace expected was slower as well.
That simple change went a long way towards improving the overall situation. HOWEVER… the trend was still towards rough, ‘get it done’ riding.
A few other things being mentioned in comments online concern the way they put forth people for the Olympics. They put forth 2 people from each national team. Some counties have far more interest and participation in modern pentathlon than others…. so the Olympics has a wider range of skill levels amongst participants than the World Championships you can see video of online. Given that the jumps are higher in the Olympics as well… the jumping phase in particular gets hairy…
With that said, Annika Schleu had been to multiple games before, has been a pentathlete for years, and IS one of the best in the world. And her riding was CLEARLY not up to a 1.2 m course, by any objective standard. She was definitely an athletic and determined rider, and a “get it done” type… but even after watching her round in London… her seat is so hard, it’s going to agitate and upset even the most lovely old school master. Clearly it upset Saint Boy (amongst other things)…
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This has been a great discussion and why I love this board.
I don’t think we should minimize the impact that TV COVERAGE has on horse sports. IIRC, modern pentathlon used to be held over multiple days. In order to be more TV friendly, it is all done in the one day and in the same place. The commentators kept marveling how a swimming pool was inserted into the track and field stadium. It was a 25 meter pool, not a 50 meter pool was usual, but it is what fit to allow the one day format.
It is really unfair to give a rider 20 minutes to get to know a strange horse and then jump a 1 M course. Lower the fences is a good idea. Also officials need to be given more leeway on what a refusal looks like. Serious napping is a form of refusal, IMO.
I’m also concerned that the horses had to be used by multiple riders. I’m from the one rider per horse in a competition school. I understand that having horses that will jump 1 M and TOLERATE poor riding is not that simple. I understand having enough horses is a problem. Lowering the fence height would help. But again, I can’t help but think that TV likes seeing refusals, crashing through jumps and rider falls. Watching a clear round is boring in comparison to the non-horse audience.
I understand the feeling that if you can’t do it right with the horses, then don’t use them. I also think that is the easy solution and we see horse sports getting more marginalized. We already have the travesty that has been made of eventing so it fits on TV. I don’t want to see horse sports dropped from the Olympics, but it seems like it is moving that way. It is a shame we can’t see the welfare of both the horse and athlete put before having the most TV friendly coverage. I suppose it all boils down to money in the end.
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One of the issues I saw was the organizers wanting their horses and their friends horses used so they get paid. Paid per use. If that’s 2 rides for each the men and women and then jury rides…the $$$ adds up.
If the horses are stopping in warm up, or in the ring they need to be subbed out. At the Pan Ams there were many horses who would jump around but the organizers kept wanting the ones who wouldn’t jump to be used because they were their own or their friends horses.
From what I learned, that was normal for these events.
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