What I noticed was how much riding skills have improved over the past few Olympics. It is such a tough sport that any marginal gains will be reflected in the final score and so it it obviously worth learning to ride as well as possible. Many of the woman rode a strange horse over a difficult course with a lot of skill. The horses were also really good and they tried their honest best. Well done Brasil.
Out of the first 10 riders, 4 had falls, one of which fell twice. The rider Moya from Cuba left on a stretcher. She caught him so hard in the mouth over the 2nd fence, no wonder…I couldn’t stand to watch any more. Such awful riding skill on display was disheartening. Poor ponies. And terribly dangerous for those riders. Not saying I’d be any better. But if I rode like that, I wouldn’t expect to be an Olympian. Anyway, I hope it got better.
JER, am I imagining it or are some of these horses really nice? A lot of them look like serious jumpers with a ton of scope. What’s the general feeling among the competitors?
ETA-Are they allowed to use neck straps? For some of the less skilled riders, I would think it would allow them to stay out of the horse’s face more, which should let them get around better. Can’t tell from my screen whether any of the horses have straps.
Overall, I thought most of the riding was much better than past Olympics.
In general, I would love to shorten their stirrups and add a neck strap. The riders are all so fit and the horses are so game that I think everyone would benefit from the riders just getting out of the way!
Where do I buy one of these horses? Or 5. Wow, what good souls. Some actually look really nice with tons of scope to spare.
Poor Donna. She gave that horse a hell of a ride. I thought she had re-instilled some confidence in him and they were going to pull out a complete round, but he was just done. 
It would be interesting if they pulled a bit from the IHSA format: Allowing judge granted re-rides or even a schooling round following a particularly bad ride.
My Fix: Since it sounds like you can’t really improve your score from riding, I would make an elimination cut before riding. Only the top 2/3 continue on to ride, run, and shoot. Most of the exceptionally bad riding was early on/with the lowest placed athletes. Additionally, many of the better athletes ended up punished/out of the running because their horse had a bad ride earlier.
If you eliminated competitors before riding, all you’re really doing is emphasizing fencing and swimming more. Ideally the less skilled riders would spend more time working on their riding, but they’ll spend most of their effort improving their swimming and fencing just to get TO the riding. I think you can definitely improve your score riding, based on the shakeup to the leader board. I’d still love to see good riding incentivized more than it is; some of the early rides were cringeworthy. But, they went first because they were the lowest ranked. Some of the higher ranked ladies rode incredibly well.
I wish they had enough horses for them to only go once. The second rider has quite the advantage or disadvantage depending on the horse and the first rider. Totally agreed that Donna’s horse looked 100% done in the first round with the Cuban rider, and Donna was fighting an uphill battle because of it.
Did anyone else see the volunteers/handlers giving the horses treats after their round? Made me smile, it was well earned.
[QUOTE=Cancara;8805145]
Very welcome, and shout out to the strawberry roan cob Trinidad who is an absolute trooper.
Also heads up about 1.26 in the mens where there is an extremely nasty incident with the Korean rider actually pulling the horse over on top of him… some may not want to watch.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that horse was like, “NOPE.”
Good sense of self preservation.
While I was surprised to see they used a horse that had just flipped over, props to therm rider for trying again and letting go a little next time.
Also the Ukranian guy two rides later had the most amazing save. …Hhhow?? If that one would just let go he could go places.
I see what you’re saying Jexa, but there has to be a way to save those horses from that. I’m not someone who goes around critiquing every photo of a horse being hit in the mouth. Mistakes happen. We all have to learn. But many of those early rides were truly hard to watch. I found myself hoping the horse would dump the rider because it looked so painful. And I’m a fan of IHSA, which has its share of iffy rides.
If I had a suitable horse, I would consider lending it for a competition with the riders who came later in the day. But I would never lend my horse knowing there are all those riders who rode earlier. So the sport is not going to get enough horses so they only go once unless they do something to protect the horses.
Agreed - also from an outsider’s perspective. Think the riding could still be a good test without being quite so technical - maybe six inches less height, fewer combinations. Wondering if that might make it possible to get a larger pool of suitable horses. When it comes to the luck of the draw, your outcome is heavily influenced not only by what horse you drew, but also who else drew it and rode it before you.
[QUOTE=Wonders12;8807045]
I see what you’re saying Jexa, but there has to be a way to save those horses from that. I’m not someone who goes around critiquing every photo of a horse being hit in the mouth. Mistakes happen. We all have to learn. But many of those early rides were truly hard to watch. I found myself hoping the horse would dump the rider because it looked so painful. And I’m a fan of IHSA, which has its share of iffy rides. [/QUOTE]
I agree, I just think that eliminating them before they get to the riding won’t actually achieve the desired effect, which is them becoming better riders. I think a positive to take away is that the riding does seem to be improving; as the competition gets tougher you really can’t afford to give up points anywhere if you want to be competitive.
Maybe a different fix would be to eliminate those who fall or have too many refusals from the entire competition, not just give them zero points for that part. That would punish the unfortunate like Donna more, true, but it would also go a long way to incentivize good riding.
[QUOTE=Fairview Horse Center;8788869]
I sure hope the horses are treated better than they were in Atlanta at the 1996 Pentathlon. It is not a serious competition if horses have to be ridden by several riders, and in the Atlanta heat, being ridden for hours and hours was cruel at best. Riders getting 3/5/7/9 refusals as not sport, OR the horses’ fault. Hearing the crowd chant :“BAD HORSE” each time was infuriating![/QUOTE]
I rest my case. :no:
Or if you want to incentivize a better riding phase, make it worth more points with higher penalties for each rail, run-out, refusal, fall. Really don’t understand enough about the scoring overall to know why things are the way they are.
On another rather random note, some of the riders seemed to be very well outfitted - the GBR teams seemed to be wearing the same kit as the GBR show jumpers - while others seemed to have stopped at the Rio equivalent of the Goodwill store to pick up their jackets.
Watching the men’s pentathlon livestream at the moment - fencing bonus round. The men are all very good looking!
[QUOTE=Jexa;8807345]
Maybe a different fix would be to eliminate those who fall or have too many refusals from the entire competition, not just give them zero points for that part. That would punish the unfortunate like Donna more, true, but it would also go a long way to incentivize good riding.[/QUOTE]
The fact you aren’t eliminated for falling off the first time is appalling to me as a jumper :eek: Some of the falls I saw yesterday were pretty tame, but one girl did a complete somersault off the horse, landing on her neck/shoulders when she hit the ground. And she just got back up and got on again. That is so unsafe! There’s a reason you have to do the walk of shame in show jumping… Because you might not realize how injured you are until the adrenaline wears off. Absolutely ridiculous IMO. They should be able to stay in the rest of the competition if they prove to be fine, but getting back on while still in the ring is no bueno.
The men just drew for first horse. They are about to start after the first 20 minute introduction period.
Maybe the riding part should be scored like a medal round, where there are points given or taken for equitation in addition to the points taken for rails/refusals/falls etc.?
A friend has just commented that though some people do not like the sport as they consider that it is cruel to the horses, really it is more like cruelty to riders :winkgrin:
The modern pentathlon isn’t an FEI discipline and it has its own rules about rider falls etc.
first rider had two refusals and lots of penalties, but he and the horse finally figured each other out.
second rider was on a nice enough horse. not a great rider but the horse worked for a double clear.
Who all else is watching?
And now they’re having to do this on a grass track in a pouring rain. Yipe! Hat’s off to them, I’m glad I don’t have to try that.
The Irish rider did very, very nicely.
