Weird 
. There are obviously people who think like me…. Really unbelievable . https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-2020-mpn-idUSL1N2PE06E
Maybe if they bought the saddle…
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Oh god, the comments section. Apparently the horse has probably been eaten by now. But if not, a bunch of animal sanctuaries will take him and pet him! If you ship him there, of course…
Because the Japanese are gonna EAT HIM!!
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Just curious I noticed that all your posts lately are not contributing to any topic but simply are hostile against me about an event you know nothing about…. Maybe think over what you post… if you continue to do this I will report you.
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Yes, my last post was absolutely not on topic. At all. Completely off topic.
I do notice that you never actually set the record straight though… nor am I the one who brought the topic up.
But, as you are much more knowledgeable than me about it all, I will humbly defer to your greater wisdom because, like Jon Snow, “I know nothing”.
Also, the ignore button is your friend. Just saying.
Out of curiosity, I scrolled through quite a lot of my own dribble posts back to late 2019. One… one… post. Asking how the pony was. One other post referencing the thread amongst a bunch of other trainwrecks.
But yeah. Aaaallllll my posts are bein’ naughty.
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Yes! Very much this!!!
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Strange deflection on the “racist” comment.
Your second remark has already been corrected by another poster experienced in MP. They use the Polish horses because they are experienced in this event and their handlers are also quite organized. They are well trained and prepared.
The facts aside, the horses in MP at the Olympics weren’t the issue. The wailing and ill behaved German rider and her coach WERE an issue. Their terrible horsemanship and lack of sportsmanship was viewed all around the world. If that is how German riders behave in this competition then I could see why you attempted to make the point that the reason the horses come from Poland is that no German owner would ever loan their horse for this event.
What an embarrassing moment for all of Germany that the country was represented so poorly by these two individuals acting like petulant children on the world stage for all to see. If that is what the top of the sport looks like in Germany I hate to see the grassroots level.
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A few points:
- The average/mean age of the Olympic riders is 30. Most - with very few exceptions - have been competing at the top level of the sport for 10 years. Not one of the competitors was someone who just hopped on a horse for the first time 6 months ago. You won’t see that at the Olympics. It’s very difficult for an athlete to qualify.
The current world champions in pentathlon (a much more grueling event than the Olympics, which is watered down as in other sports) are 37 (men’s) and 36 (women’s) years old. IIRC, the men’s champion - a truly amazing athlete - has always had his own horse. His female counterpart is effective on the horse if not particularly stylish. You cannot get high placings consistently if you cannot ride consistently.
- Why are some of them not better riders? Because they just do enough to get around. Unfortunately, this is part of the coaching culture. It needs to change.
A couple of weeks ago, I was doing some pentathlon clinics at the KY Horse Park for Pony Club Festival with the director of US Pentathlon. He’s your typical pentathlon coach - swimming background, Eastern European, old school . (He is very nice and I like him as a person - I want this to be clear.) When we were discussing pentathlon training, he said you only have to ride for 6 months before you’re ready for competition. I said I did not agree - it takes a beginner rider about 18 months just to begin to sit correctly. But that’s the mentality of these coaches and it needs to change. (BTW, the German coach, Kim Raisner, is one of the good ones in the sport who insists that athletes ride regularly.)
- The test of riding an unfamiliar horse is a format that is done successfully at IEA or the FEI children’s/student level. The Youth Olympics also has a showjumping event on a horse you get to practice with for a week or so.
It’s reform, not replacement, that’s needed.
I’ve been out here waving the safety flag for years, just the same as I’ve done with eventing. I made those original posts to put the UIPM on notice but no way did I expect 250,000 people to watch them. Thanks to all who have jumped in the fray and special thanks to all those who’ve taken the time to understand this unusual and beautiful sport. Your voices will help make it even better.
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The pentathlon story about the German athlete got picked up by a lot of American news outlets.
And of course, PETA very predictably jumped at the chance to lump all horse sports together and call for an Olympic ban on all of them.
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One problem with taking the jumping out and making it dressage is that you are changing it to something that has black and white scoring to something where you are getting the opinion of a judge and the judging is also based on how the horse moves.
A very not tactful way of putting this - can you imagine the German rider tantrum when she gets the ugly moving horse (who can get the job done but is not the best mover)? There will be another case of - this horse lost me the gold.
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What about archery on horseback? Horseback archers often compete on random horses in tournaments, so the requirements for having 18 “solid citizens” would be less than looking for 18 packers over a 1.20m course.
For example. I live in a small town of >300,000. We had a Yabusame competition here several years ago, and had 3-4 horses available for the Japanese riders (all beautiful riders). Right now, I could probably rustle up a dozen horses tonight with the experience and temperament to run a simple course, or even a Hungarian course, ridden by amateurs. All would be suitable to do a basic dressage, obstacle, lower level jump or two, and run an archery course.
I could not, hand on heart, nominate a single 1.20m “packer”.
How exciting would that be! “Ordinary” people would definitely turn the telly on to watch Olympians run a horseback archery leg. Bonus - to shoot, you have no hands on the reins. Could be done bitless even.
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That sounds like a fantastic compromise if they are determined to keep the horses involved in pentathlon in some fashion. And it would actually tie into the military roots of it, along the lines of the shooting and fencing phases.
I’m not that familiar with archery on horseback, but I have to think it’s probably safer for the horses than crashing through jumps on bad footing with unprepared riders.
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Re: mounted archery
Ha. This is hilarious and hilariously wrong.
If you think it’s easy to source a competition’s worth of show jumpers, try finding 40 well-trained mounted archery (yabusame in Japan) horses.
Archery is dangerous. On horseback even more so. Please do a reality check when you propose these ideas.
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I have to comment on this. I just listened to the Eventing Podcast The Hold Box Tokyo edition…you are incorrect.
They are actually now recommending that horses be cooled between warm up and competition, when the conditions are hotter than normal for that horse.
Have a listen, you might learn something and certainly learn how the horses were taken care of in Tokyo.
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Like shooting a gun?
Its a laser gun LOL
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How about mounted shooting?
Mounted shooting is vert popular around here and there should be plenty of well trained loaner horses around.
They run around shooting at balloons on a stick with special blanks, not bullets.
Is more realistic that a soldier would do that than jumping a course.
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Umm. Yeh. I do mounted archery. As I said, even in my small town I could source a dozen competitive archery horses including some that competed yabusame with guest riders.
Show jumpers? Not so much. I’ve seen more injuries jumping than ever have with archery.
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What I find curious about the Pentathlon is that the swimming portion is a mere 200 meters (not a long distance at all) but the jumping course was 1.2 meters. As someone who both rides and swims, the difficulty levels appear quite unmatched. Perhaps the swimming needs to be 1000m or 1500m and the riding portion be downgraded to a Prix Capelli test.
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@JER -
Can you explain the differences between Pentathlon on a more local and national levels, and what we are seeing at the Olympics? From some posts I’ve seen now, it seems like the Olympics have fundamentally changed key aspects of the format to make it fit better into a TV focused competition. Is that correct?
From other comments, it seems like for the next Olympics, they will cram the entire event into 90 minutes… how might that impact existing issues with the equestrian portion?
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