Which makes her behavior all the more abhorrent.
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Not sure who owned the Hungarian horse but the girls who took care of it contacted me and sent me videos to show the horse was ok. They were absolutely devastated by the fall.
The Hungarian horse is the nicest horse and a great pentathlon horse. The Hungarian horses are fantastic as a rule and many are owned by the national riding school or army riding school.
The Tokyo bronze medalist, Sarolta Kovacs, used to loan her wonderful old horse Henry to pentathlon competitions. If you drew him, it was your lucky day.
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She’s clearly VERY experienced. But that’s exactly what I find appalling. Is this how a top notch Pentathlete behaves when the equestrian portion of competition goes poorly? They sob in the arena, beat the horse, crash through a jump, etc? That’s really crazy…
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Maybe the horse was not in a good shape??? I do believe the rules say the horses are supposed to be able to jump the course without huge problems… this horse refused to even start the course…and did you see how hard the Russian rider used her Spurs?? It for sure did not encourage this horse… I still think the rules are ridiculous… drawing the saint horse shouldn’t be the reason to do well in a competition like this…
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She’s experienced all right but she’s never been a good rider.
She’s very rigid in her style and rides every horse cranked in and very upright. While that works just fine with some horses, another excellent horse might say ‘No’ to that. I saw her draw the best horse in the comp at a World Cup in the US and proceed to ride it all wrong. A friend had her ask me about what went wrong. I explained that the horse was a packer who liked to go around on a longer rein, etc - more American-style than German style. Annika didn’t really get it. I think that was in 2013 or 2014.
But part of being a good pentathlon rider is adapting the ride to the horse. If you can’t figure that out, it’s not going to go your way sometimes.
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I watched a WC qualifier in Sarasota and I don’t really remember whether she competed there but the Germans did not do too well there although in my opinion they did look like experienced riders
Manni, do you blame all bad rides on the horse?
Do you think all horses get along with all riders?
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I would love to see you on that horse… you are an experienced rider and know how to ride… I watched the Russian girl on the horse and she was a strong determined rider but as soon as something went wrong the horse refused and she didn’t finish… but I am sure you would have found a solution
But for you I repeat it again… IMO the rules are ridiculous…. It’s simply a lottery…. And that’s not how it should work… I still think it would be more fair to compare different riders on the same horse…. Each horse is different and the rider who handles a specific horse better then the other riders should be rewarded… if a horse doesn’t finish the course with any of the riders it needs to be replaced by another horse…
But that’s only my stupid uneducated opinion
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Some riders know they have limits to their abilities. Being experienced does not equal being experienced with this skill set. Which I guess is fair, since I do not claim to have this skill set and I am not representing my country at the Olympics while pretending to have this skill set.
I also am very aware that every rider does not get along with every horse. That in no way makes the horse a bad horse.
I can say I have never had a toddler tantrum in the ring while my trainer and I beat the horse.
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Manni didn’t you stop someone from buying your pony because they were inexperienced? Why would you pardon the German rider for her shitty riding ? If that horse were yours would you have felt the same ?
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I would assume that people who do not agree with the random draw system of assigning the horses at a pentathlon, are not participating in this sport at the Olympic level.
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?? I hope you know that most of these horses are from professional providers…I think they got 1000 dollar for each horse… I was shocked to find out that for the German Championships the horses came from Poland….
And as I said before the rules of the riding part are IMO horrible…
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Yes I would agree with you…
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Yes. Perhaps professionals. But honestly if you owned any of those horses would you fell warm and bubbly inside? Rules aside. That was terrible riding.
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Hmm, I actually thought the horse was more than charitable until she repeatedly put him into positions where it was absolutely impossible for him to do his job. Interesting how our interpretations differ.
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I’m a little uncomfortable with some attitudes here that think that the riding phase needs to be removed altogether. I disagree. I think anyone from any background can learn to ride at any time. I don’t think you need to grow up doing doing pony club or live and breathe the sport as your primary sport like all of us do.
I think regular people can ride too. They should take it more seriously, and the riding portion needs an overhaul to become safer for everyone, but less and less kids are learning to ride these days so I don’t think we need to be putting up any more walls around equestrianism.
IEA and IHSA frequently recruit complete beginners to fill out the bottom divisions and it’s great to see those kids fall in love with the sport and move up the levels. The difference is that they’re doing walk trot or walk trot canter which is appropriate.
The equestrian portion should be revamped but not removed.
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Are you talking about the Russian or the German rider? Because he jumped well with the Russian rider until things went downhill and then she used the Spurs hard…
But of course I am not as experienced as you are so my observations are worth not much……
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Jesus it’s the Olympics! One or two people from
Each county. It’s not IHSA. It’s the Olympics. These people should be able to ride. To work on it. To perfect it like all their other skills.
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Why are you shocked the horses came from Poland? Have you ever ridden a Polish Warmblood? Mine jumps 3’6” BRIDLELESS. He went to a performance event and jumped a tinsel jump under a spotlight. Any one of these riders would be absolutely blessed to get a ride like that!
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As a jumper rider with a hot horse who anticipates things… this made me nervous! I am all about the short approach after a lifetime of jumper rounds. Lolol Forget the rollback - this would be challenging enough!
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