[QUOTE=Starda01;6451836]
Can anyone answer this question?[/QUOTE]
The IOC amateur rule was tossed out in 1986. Amateur vs. professional status is irrelevant and has nothing to do with Olympic eligibility in any sport.
[QUOTE=JER;6451781]
Fairview, do you think it’s possible to live up to your name and stop grinding your 16 year-old axe against modern pentathlon?[/QUOTE]
Absolutely - as soon as it is fair for the horses. Tell me it iis only one horse per rider, and you will never hear another peep out of me…
until then, not only is it not fair to the horses, but not fair to the riders either. Riding a horse that someone in an earlier round pissed off enough to make into a rearing head flipper is gambling, not competitiove sport.
Just curious- is it a requirement for all the horses to go in snaffles? I mean, it’s obviously the favorable bit for the riding shown, but I think that is the only bit I saw.
and I agree that I’ve seen similar riding at the T/P levels at horse trials… not to mention BN/N.
[QUOTE=Fairview Horse Center;6451860]
Absolutely - as soon as it is fair for the horses. Tell me it iis only one horse per rider, and you will never hear another peep out of me…
until then, not only is it not fair to the horses, but not fair to the riders either. Riding a horse that someone in an earlier round pissed off enough to make into a rearing head flipper is gambling, not competitiove sport.[/QUOTE]
That WC vidoe was an hour plus long and I never saw the same horse twice >?
Are you suggesting that the horses are only capable of jumping one 3ft course and more then that is “abusive”. Somebody better call every show venue in the US and tell them they are condoning abuse… not even going to get into schooling horses at home and shows.
What about at WEG when the horses who have already jumped multiple courses at what 1.5meters have to come back and swap riders X 4 and jump around. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MKzVJ8fbW0&feature=related
Believing that horse sharing is abusive is absurd. Jumping a few rounds each is not going to harm a darn one of them. As to whether its fair I suppose there are a lot of things that are not fair in life if you want to be the best you overcome them.
[QUOTE=Satin Filly;6450172]
OMG…where’s PITA when you need them??
Just at the first horse/rider’s round in the video below. This poor animal is a SAINT! Look at how the neck is bent as the rider uses his poor mouth to get her leg back over the saddle!! :eek::no::mad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3w2wFkmo8No[/QUOTE]
Gotta love the commentators - at the 37:00 mark “this is a strange horse, going at different speeds,” YA THINK?!
[QUOTE=Slewdledo;6452093]
Gotta love the commentators - at the 37:00 mark “this is a strange horse, going at different speeds,” YA THINK?![/QUOTE]
As harry carry as that pony was and the ride was poor. When it did the little bugger could jump !
[QUOTE=Lynnwood;6452066]
Are you suggesting that the horses are only capable of jumping one 3ft course and more then that is “abusive”.
Believing that horse sharing is abusive is absurd. Jumping a few rounds each is not going to harm a darn one of them. [/QUOTE]
Are you suggesting that in 99 degree heat, it is not abusive to keep a horse mostly cantering for 2 hours, including 4 different riders, jumping 4 rounds, plus the practice jumps for each?
Do you think any horse will actually be in a mood to try for its last couple of riders?
Do you think any horse will approach a jump calmly and honstly after crashing at that jump with a previous rider. After 4 rounds, most horses, had crashed at most of the jumps. More than half the rounds have falls, and most have 6-8 jumps taken down.
Why not put stadium rules in place. Fall of horse or rider = elimination.
[QUOTE=Starda01;6451397]
The riders all look like ammies in the sport of riding, dunno about the other sports. In Olympic equestrian competitions most of the riders are pros, at least these days. So do the Pentathalon riders have to be ammies, or can a pro rider decide to compete too?[/QUOTE]
sure…if they can do the other sports too! These are not specialists in one sport. I wouldn’t expect them even at this level to be as good as someone who just rides.
This is also not a sport that you are going to win huge prizes or get tons of sponsors…so besides training for mulitple sports…most of these athletes have day/full time jobs.
I find that pretty damn impressive.
Could I out ride many if not most of them…probably. But that doesn’t mean I could beat them in this competition or have the drive to learn all these sports to the level to qualify for the Olympics. So I’m not going to judge a sport by a few bad rides. And NO, I don’t think even a bad bad bad ride for a short period of time is extremely abusive. I’ve seen abusive…and while not desirable…it is not truly abusive. I see more “abuse” daily seeing the Amish horses running on the roads…those horses have a hard life much more so than a horse who packs around a bad ride at one show.
I think one of the first things they need to do to improve the riding portion is SLOW THE F*** DOWN. These riders are motorcycling around turns hell-bent-for-leather because they think they’re not going to make time. Slow down, balance, set up your turns, and maybe you won’t pull as many rails.
Oh, and shorten your stirrups, for god’s sakes!!! Dressage length leathers aren’t helping your ability to stay with your horse.
JMHO. 
The poorer riding performances at the Beijing Olympics made a list of the greatest olympic moments made by the BBC and screened this week. It was actually the only horse themed moment that did, much to my disappointment.
Anyway, wanted to share it with everyone but it’s not on their iplayer, so I filmed the specific clip though the quality is not the best:
Are the people who are against this because it is cruel to the horse also against college riding teams?
Those horses get ridden by lots of different riders on the same day. Not all of them are good riders either. I have seen some pretty scary beginner level riders do college riding team stuff. Heck, even having to WTC with that level person on their back has to be difficult (just like lesson horses go thru).
I just do not see how you can be so strongly against this and not be against college teams too.
By taking pleasure in someone’s disaster tells an awful lot about the person doing so.
[QUOTE=trubandloki;6456120]
Are the people who are against this because it is cruel to the horse also against college riding teams?
Those horses get ridden by lots of different riders on the same day. Not all of them are good riders either. I have seen some pretty scary beginner level riders do college riding team stuff. Heck, even having to WTC with that level person on their back has to be difficult (just like lesson horses go thru).
I just do not see how you can be so strongly against this and not be against college teams too.[/QUOTE]
I think the big difference between IHSA and the riding phase of pentathlon is that 1) the jumps are half the size, 2) the riding time is less (you don’t get a warmup in IHSA and you’re on for maybe 5-10 minutes, tops, all day including a flat and jumping class), and 3) IHSA emphasizes equitation and a points-based system to move up the levels. A terrible Novice rider who can’t jump will never advance to Intermediate, plus I doubt their team wants them to show for fear of being embarrassed.
Now, I’m not familiar with NCAA and IEA, so maybe their system is different, but I think the suffering horses face from unbalanced, handsy pentathlon riders catching them in the mouth over EVERY fence is a bigger issue than a wobbly W-T rider. (Not to say every pentathlon rider is like that – the Canadian and British riders JER mentioned are very competent – but even two of our three American Olympic pentathletes are pretty awful to watch.)
Here’s a local news report from the UK about two of the horses in the pentathlon competition:
Sam and Beannie head for Olympic pentathlon
(That coloured horse is really cute.)
Yahoo Sports has a good post up about the new aspects of the 2012 pentathlon. Nice pic of our Canadian athlete Donna Vakalis, too.
This year’s modern pentathlon involves laser guns, combines running and shooting
[QUOTE=JER;6456564]
Here’s a local news report from the UK about two of the horses in the pentathlon competition:
Sam and Beannie head for Olympic pentathlon
(That coloured horse is really cute.)[/QUOTE]
Awww… that’s so nice that they wrote an article on the two horses!
I read somewhere that Suzanne Stettinius (the third American pentathlete – former pony clubber and steeplechase rider) is most excited about riding British horses in the Games. :yes:
Pony clubbers loaned their horses for LA
I was a national examiner for a Pony Club B test in Southern California shortly after the LA Olympics.
If I remember correctly, at least two of the horses showed up for turnout with number painted on their hooves which were explaned by their participation as Pentathlon mounts.
The horses seemed fine and their young riders were now riding “olympic horses” they told me.
In previous years the US team was training in showjumping by Col. John Russell in San Antonio. I know he still has a great training set up, but do not believe that he is currently involved with the training.
I think the US’s coach is Richard Lamb.
I helped a guy for a while that was on the Egyptian team. He unfortunately didn’t come too many times before he quit the sport because he was (IMO) getting a little old… But he was, while not a professional, a good rider. He could have piloted your average 3’6 horse around an adult jumper class without too much difficulty. He always came to the barn in white breeches and perfectly polished tall boots. He was a class act and I wish he were still competing! The majority of them do make me gasp.
