What the heck happened to the French guy? On the NBC site there were pictures of him with a bloody face… I can’t even remember the last time I saw blood in a show jumping competition…
Just frightening…
http://www.nbcolympics.com/modernpentathlon/photos/galleryid=243245.html
I’d also like to know how the heck that happened. Don’t look at the pictures if you’re squeamish!
Most of these horses look like they haven’t been off the track too long. Man, this is some horrid riding. Where is George Morris?
Those photos and others really tell the story of the riding part of the Pentathalon. Totally disgusting. A couple more in this set. http://www.nbcolympics.com/modernpentathlon/photos/galleryid=114992.html
I have been under the understanding that they use older, pretty solid packer type horses. These bad fences are all becaiuse of the poor riding, not bad or untrained horses.
The Frenchman’s horse took the back rail of an oxer down and then tripped on it and somersaulted. Rider was thrown clear, but then the horse rolled onto him as it got up. Kicked him in the face with a hind foot. He remounted so his points would count, but did not finish the course.
What a spectacle. While some of the riders were obviously well-schooled and had normal problems riding an unfamiliar horse over a course in such an atmosphere, many others were simply in WAY over their heads. Rough, rough, rough… some by accident, some on purpose. Hard to believe it’s condoned, much less revered as a “sport”. 
Shameful.
That is some of the worst riding I have ever seen. I would trust our short stirrup kids to do better than that. They have atleast mastered the concept of a release.
How many of them fell off? I saw a few disastrous rounds and couldn’t watch anymore. There seem to be atleast 4 or 5 different falling action shots - and a few that appear muddy in other pictures.
ETA: I don’t mean to condemn them all. I did see some good rides, especially in an IHSA type horse draw situation.
That’s what I thought, but most of the horses don’t look like packers. I’ve only seen a few that looked like packers. The rest look like they just learned their job.
At that height, the horses need a bit of help. They can’t jump big fences if the riders have no business doing anything more than up-down lessons. This is definitely a sport that needs to be removed from the Olympics before we see a rider become paralyzed or dies. Where is PETA when they could actually do some good? These poor horses are trying to do their job, but no possible way when the riders are so off balance.
If the Pentathalon is left in as a sport, it needs to be over 2’ jumps. Or then need to qualify in riding by placing top 25% in 3 classes at real riding shows - like Level ?? jumpers.
How about just having the modern quadathalon; leave the riding out. It just seems much more humane to humans and especially the horses. I saw one horse slam on brakes at the wall with too much momentum to fully stop. He crashed the wall and managed to kick a hind leg into the wall where it went through the wood. He almost fell on top of the rider. The horse shook loose from the wall and ran off lame on that leg. Someone caught him, brought him back to the rider who mounted up. No one checked his leg at all. Thankfully, the rider retired. Hopefully, they didn’t make the horse carry anyone else around the course.
So I missed it? Darn! Could anyone tell me the site I could watch the women’s on? Is there like a live streaming site? I tried looking on cbc.ca but no luck… those pictures were GORY. “Loses points for hitting an obstacle”-- the horse was crashing right through it! Those fences are higher than I thought, what are they, three nine? I expected them to be about three three ish.
Just the fact that, while taking down a rail costs 28 points, falling off only costs 40 points, really says something about the expectations of the pentathletes’ riding abilities!:eek:
What I don’t get is, these are athletes training for an Olympic sport, so why don’t many of them make more of an effort to learn how to jump properly?
It seems like many of them don’t take it that seriously, and just expect to be able to muscle around the course like some kind of chest-thumping gladiator:rolleyes:
And I agree, that there is NO WAY that this abuse of horses should be allowed. If the riding part is to stay, then they NEED to have strict standards for quality of riding and acceptable treatment of the horse. It seems like these horses are just considered to be tools in this competition, just like their guns or rapiers. :mad:
Anyone know who did the live commentary that is being displayed on the video? The person keeps stating that it is the organizers fault and I would really love to explain to this person what is actually going on.
I really think dressage would be a great replacement for show jumping 4’ in this particular sport. Or a classy hunter round over… oh, 2’6".
WTF? 4’? I mean, I would bet that half the people on this board don’t and have no desire to jump 4’.
shocked to see the grey,a succesful Australian race horse, obviously sold to china at some stage. (I just confirmed by looking up his brand in the stud book.)
“Horses not to blame for show jumping fiasco, says pentathlon chief”, (Fox Sports Australia)
Klaus Schormann, the president of the UIPM (International Modern Pentathlon Union) said the persistent rain had made the going at the Olympic Sports Centre course “very, very heavy” and it was that, together with a lack of riding skill, which caused problems.
But he also said the height of the fences for today’s women’s competition might be lowered if the weather didn’t improve.
I didn’t get to watch the fiasco but I did a search for news photos and – well, just see for yourself.
I think the MP federation needs to sit down with some sane and reasonable equine welfare people.
OMG :mad::eek::mad::eek: I found myself yelling for the horses to dump most of those MFers so hard that they’d never be able to ride again :mad:
[QUOTE=Fairview Horse Center;3463478]
I have been under the understanding that they use older, pretty solid packer type horses. These bad fences are all becaiuse of the poor riding, not bad or untrained horses.[/QUOTE]
One might ask where exactly China would find thirty or so 4’ packers for such a competition.
Is the surface holding up ok to the rain?
I expect that they did not spend as much money on the pentathalon footing as they did at Hong Kong.
