Japan is also a huge consumer of flamenco music and dance! So it’s a nice tie-in.
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Yes, and that’s too much fabric for a samba costume. 
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Not sure if it’s been covered here before - can they substitute riders in without penalty between today’s qualifying round and tomorrow’s final?
Yup. I fear for these animals and riders safety if this is going to be the format going forward. Not so much in dressage but here and eventing?
Shane’s ride was a prime example of a rattled and over faced horse that needed to be pulled up. It won’t be long before something much worse than that happens.
Are they doing this format for WEG from now on to?
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I am pretty sure it is only for the Olympics
The Eventing actually kind of worked out ok. Thailand didn’t finish a team but the cross country worked more or less as it was supposed to without any bad wrecks (other then of course Jet Set but that seemed to be more of a tragic accident then a horse/rider that should have been puled up)
I think maybe the key difference is that the eventing was set a level below where as show jumping is set just about as tough as it can be? i predict there is going to be a ton of rider push back after how badly today went
Eventing did work out better than I expected. I was scratching my head as to why 3 riders worked fine in eventing but is so problematic for show jumping.
I think other factors that led to the success include the 3 phases format and no team qualifier. If a rider didn’t complete one phase, the team could still continue on the next day with a penalty. Three riders and no drop score in the show jumping team qualifier means the whole team’s chances are done if one rider fails to complete the course.
Ya I think that fact that they are cutting teams/riders in show jumping has made the format not work great. Also Sweden has jumped double clear every round and it getting no credit for it which is kinda a shame (what they’ve done has been really remarkable!)mEveryone starts on zero faults tomorrow anyways when Sweden should definitely be going in with a handy lead
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I concur.
Not a fan of this new format. At all.
There was a discussion online where someone said it was an effort to make it easier for the general public to understand the scoring, which is why they eliminated the drop score and the carryover scores from the previous rounds.
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It may also have been an attempt to make it more like some of the other sports that have qualifiers or heats, and where scores don’t carry over from one day to the next. So, yeah, more comprehensible to non-equestrians.
I wonder if some of the desperation in the qualifier is tied to the desire to finish a team, which may be tied to funding or even the willingness to field a team going forward.
100% and I’m not really sure it’s allowed them to have that many more teams or individuals in a meaningful way, which is the stated reason for the whole change
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It is nice to see every inhabited continent represented with teams for show jumping.
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Theoretically I think it would be more meaningful to allow more individuals and have them be able to jump more then one round. But yes I do agree.
While I get the concept of trying to make it more appealing for spectators, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to put the riders in a position where their concerns about the lack of a drop score might override their horsemanship in the heat of the moment.
Also, the way they can juggle riders in and out of the competition now seems like a wacky free-for-all to me.
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Go here https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule/sport/equestrian (first, make an account online with your cable or satellite “provider” that gives you a user name and password if you haven’t already done so) and sign in.
Once you are in, choose the stream that just has a jumping horse, no network logo and you’ll get the live stream (and the replay) with no commercials and with Lucinda and John commenting.
When it says “concluded” just hover on the arrow and it will say “watch replay”.
No ads, just continuous live coverage including drag breaks. 
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This analysis shows which jumps came down the most in the team qualifier. I don’t see the course or the order of go up yet for Saturday.
Yep, I’ve been on my cable provider’s NBCSN streaming site since the Dressage, but have always gotten ads that break in (not in the middle of a performance, but for instance instead of showing them walking back to the FEI tent I would get an ad), but not this morning! It was magic, I’m telling you, magic!
