Please don’t penalize circling! While initially, I thought “that’s crossing lines!”… I think many of them could have benefitted from a “reset”. Hod knows I do on a bad day!
(PS, I need to figure out how to quote multiple people!)
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You are missing my point… do you really think I am racist against polish horses 
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The reason they used polish horses from a provider specialized in events like this was that they couldn’t find owners in Germany who would provide their horse for the event…. The polish horses obviously did an excellent job (Annika Schleu won) although there were complaints that some horses were underfed…
Interesting article with a picture of one polish horse…
Best post on this thread.
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I thought it was interesting with the first rider on Saint Boy. Once the time ran out, the horse easily walked forward out of the ring. Talk about a horse outsmarting its rider. That horse knows what he’s doing. He was like “Time’s up. Get off my back”
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Uhh… idk why you’re so heated because I agree with you. I think should ride better… no idea where you got that I didn’t think that was the case.
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The scoring needs to be restructured so there is an incentive for people to train for the riding with the same intensity as the other phases, period, like doubling the penalties for refusals and runouts, and making a fall elimination from the competition.
The rider who we are all talking about may have had an unenviable, even impossible task (for a minimally skilled rider) getting a horse that had been brain-fried to jump the same course. But this was not her first time on a major stage, and she’s also from a country with access to top-level equestrian coaching, so I’m less sympathetic. Even if every pentathlete can’t learn to ride like Michael Jung, the athletes should at least have the understanding from competing that anything can happen with horses and a horse isn’t a machine you expect a certain level of performance from without some tact and sensitivity.
Honestly, I am not one of those people who could claim I could have schooled the horse and ridden a great course or think that horse swapping is innately cruel. What I am put off by is an Olympic-level rider’s expectation and many commentators outside of the horse world that a horse seems to “owe” a rider who has a win in hand a good round, regardless of her skills. That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the point of competing in equestrian sports.
I once saw McLain Ward at Devon on Rothchild with a win in hand after a gruelingly difficult class (I think there were only three in the jump-off out of many) and Rothchild spooked at the last fence of the jump-off, losing everything. That was one of the best-known pairs at the time, but it happens, and anyone who rides should know shit like that can happen, whether it’s a pony who bucks you off in a crossrail class or a Devon Grand Prix.
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Take the jumps away and replace them with targets. Tent Pegging requires a horse to run in a straight line while the rider has to show balance, hand eye coordination and accuracy. There is still riding skill involved, but imo, the horses would be spared the worst of the crap they take in show jumping.
Bonus, horses are loaned for Tent Pegging competitions all the time. They know their job and do it well with minimum interference from their riders.
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I need to briefly sidetrack the discussion on this thread to note that the post on the UIPM Facebook page with the alleged photos of the Saint Boy horse? There are 1500 comments on it… and counting.
Most people are doubting it’s the same horse, for a number of reasons.
If they honestly did try and use photos of a DIFFERENT horse in this post… 
Talk about a PR / social media debacle.
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Wow
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Because the FEI isn’t breathing down their necks about horse welfare. Because they are only just now getting the first hint of the general horse public being appalled about the state of the riding, the rules, and the lack of enforcement of incompetence rules.
Shit will change eventually, but it might take a couple more Olympics with well-deserved bad press to make it happen.
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Manni01, the German Champs were in Berlin. The horses came from not far away - Zielona Gora in Poland, more specifically the excellent training center at Drzonkow.
Those are experienced pentathlon horses and they are top quality.
It’s not all that easy to round up a bunch of 1.20m jumpers to borrow for the weekend. Drzonkow has them as well as the support team necessary to bring the horses in/out.
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I can’t even keep up with all the good points. Going back to read. Let’s not all assume that vocal German eventer and German IOC is enough. Email, express outrage, and offer your solutions. I had an amazing mare I tried at Indio 20(ish) years ago. If my memory serves. I jumped a handful of warmup ring fences, showed her in a biggish class (junior amateur modified (ish), I don’t know!) and bought her the next week. I had zero prep for her, as I had zero prep for all the other horses I bought. None of those horses (bought or trialed) other than in barn deals had more than a class or two as a trial. I wouldn’t do that now, because I am not the same rider I was then. ETA: I guess that is to say that if they made the riding portion more of a priority then I don’t know that riding a strange horse over biggish sticks is a problem, if people actually were actually competent and put the training hours in. The problem is they clearly do not.
It can be done (see IHSA, world championship etc), but not without people who take our sport seriously. And not over this height of fences. Make it more sane amd reasonable or make it worth more points.
ETA: that mare was a 6 year old! Sanest, smartest, most awesome horse ever who should never have tried so hard for me. Hence the cashier’s check in hand on my flight the next week!
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Link please?
I have not read all the comments.
But it really irks me that we finally got some positive coverage in the regular press, largely due to Jessica Springsteen’s participation and silver medal performance.
And then these poor horses in the pentathlon got treated so badly, first in the ring and then in the press.
Obviously the German coach should not have smacked the horse, and as soon as she did it, that rider should have been eliminated for outside assistance. But the smack from the coach was nothing compared to the rider crashing him through the jumps.
And what about that footing?!? Who thought that was acceptable??
I definitely think the best solution is to remove the horses from the whole pentathlon and let them ride bicycles instead. I’m sure it would be easier to find bicycles for them to ride, rather than horses, both at competitions and at home when they train.
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Even if (and it’s definitely a big IF) it’s the same horse, that’s obviously not a current picture. As was pointed out in the comments, it’s a winter picture and it’s summer in Tokyo. Also the horse didn’t go from a slick, summer coat to winter coat in 2 days.
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Col John Russell would be “rolling over in his grave”.
All his athletes could ride.
I grew up at Ft Sam. Home of Modern Pentathlon. As juniors, we all rode the Pentathlon horses used in World Competitions. Not all were easy but all were more than “capable”.
Such bullshit. Very sad.
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I live pretty close to Berlin so I am aware of the situation . And I did not have any doubts about the horses from that center…
Sure, but lather isn’t indicative of overheating, and lack of lather isn’t indicative of being cool enough.
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The press coverage of Springsteen is American coverage. German coverage and that in the rest of the world is different depending on equestrian results, interest, scandal coverage, etc.
Just something to consider.
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