Forgotten your jodhpurs, girls? Showjumping's desperate image bid

Mr_Ed

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" Forgotten your jodhpurs, girls? Showjumping makes a desperate bid to find a new 21st Century image

It's not a pose that you can easily imagine David Broome striking.
But in a desperate attempt to update the stuffy image of showjumping, the sport’s bosses have persuaded two of the top young female riders to strip off for a photoshoot.
Gone are the traditional red tunic, white top and jodhpurs familiar from the Seventies when millions would watch the action on TV, with commentary from the gentlemanly Raymond Brooks-Ward.
Instead, Laura Renwick and Georgie Strutton pose in tight polo tops, knee-high black boots and not a lot else."
Read more >> http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/femail/art...tury-image.html
 
Classy
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I saw this earlier today and I don't think it actually was necessary for them to be pictured in their underwear - definitely lowered the tone and really wasn't relevant to the story.

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Ditto.
 
That is awful. And they call themselves professional? Do these women actually want to be taken seriously? Why does raising the profile of the sport involve sex? Our sport is about what we can do with horses,not looking like a hooker! If anything this will add to the sterotyping in our sport. This is degrading to the girls. You can be sexy with your riding clothes ON.

This is exactly what our sport doesn't need. I am shocked that Laura and Georgie agreed to do this.
 
OH. MY. GOD. Does it say 'desperate'? Cos that is certainly the right word.
While i agree showjumping needs to make more of itself and raise its profile but who thought of this and who concieved and took these pictures? Some prepubescent schoolboy living next door to stoneleigh? they are awful, the light isnt good, as everyone has said the outfits are awful and they havent even bothered to spray tan the girls legs. White knickers and white legs? and judging by the comments below the article the public are as impressed as us.
and who was advising the girls? they are both cracking jocks and attractive with it, they didnt need to whip their kit off for this sort of cheap publicity.
Loking at these people will think that 'Riders' is a reference book not a novel.
 
I think the HHO ones were much better!!!

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They look like tacky page 3 girls. But then maybe the idea is to attract pervy old men to the sport...
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ETA - You've gotta LOVE the expression on that horse's face though! PMSL!
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eeek! What's wrong with the old look, that's what I've always liked about certain equestrian disciplines that they'be kept their tradition.

I wouldn't dare ride side saddle in my knickers to attract more to the sport! lol!!
 
Who on earth persuaded those girls that this was a good idea?

Why didn't they use a professional photographer?

Who in their right mind would think that images like that are going to attract anyone into the sport?

What is wrong with tradition? I would rather someone told me I looked "stuffy" than cheap and trashy.
 
i love the horses face in the first one. . . he looks a little confused. . .

it makes Horse riding look cheap and tacky and trashy. . .i would have thought it would scare people away not tempt them in. . .
Who would want to get rid of the tradition of horse riding. . .

o well
 
Oh Jesus wept, how on EARTH could Georgie and Laura done this to themselves
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Our Godiva pics are FAR more classy than these AND show a lot more!!!!

Tacky, BADLY styled, titillating and bound to alienate EVERY female rider out there and interest only dirty old men!
 
Oh lighten up you lot! Take this with the good spirit in which it was meant. Who (except a desperate housewife) would want to see the likes of men pushing and post fifty in their jocks? Fair play to these girls for trying to bring a little bit of entertainment into an otherwise non interesting sport for our public? Their are plenty of girls who walk around showgrounds with their white breeches on leaving very little to the imagination. Plenty can be seen at Hickstead next week and if the public saw the antics in the evenings - they would be disgusted and probably applaude these two girls (who are both very polite and well spoken) for trying to raise the image of the sport. I really do not think there is anything offensive in what I saw and who knows - if it boosts their publicity I am sure they won't mind!
As far as the reference to Polo and Riders - some of you really need to know what goes on behind the scenes!!!!
 
well said weezy and horsenmad007 if you think these images in a quality national paper like the Mail is a good idea, you are very much mistaken. this item has also made in onto a USA forum (no redeeming comments so far) and the comments on the Mails own site are far from positive.
i do totally apprieciate the girls did this with good intentions and with a modicum of taste from the person who concieved the shoot they might have succeeded.
and as for references to Polo and Riders some of do know what goes on behind the scenes, but the point is that it is behind the scenes. What the public and sponsors dont know for certain cant hurt them or damage the chances of support from them.
 
horsemad - the fact is I KNOW G & L are well spoken and polite girls, hence why I am thoroughly shocked by these pics! IMO they would have looked far sexier IN their breeches than without them! They could have had their names on the seat of the breeches for example, or black hot pants with their names on, I don't know, ANYTHING but 3 for £5 BHS cheap pants...

And sorry but I don't think this type of exposure is what the higher echelons of SJing had in mind when this series was conceived...

I know what goes on behind the scenes, been there, done that, doesn't mean the sport of SJing needs to be cheapened, things go on in every area of life that would raise people's eyebrows!
 
and you have to woner exactly who the BSJA is trying to attrach to shows. if its families, i dont think they will be too impressed hanging about with mac wearing, penthouse reading dirty old men who are attrached by this sort of very soft porn 'pony girl with whip and boots' image.
 
Thanks Lucretia. I think it's quite a giggle really. I am sure both girls were aware of where the photos would have been published and could not have been fazed by it. Therefore fair play to them. I remember when a calendar was published showing our male riders topless - no one caused a stir. They have have obviously generated quite an interest and if this is to their benefit sobeit! As I have said - if the public think this is bad - give them a night out at Hickstead - showjumping really would be dead then!!!! Sex, drugs and rock and roll have nothing on a week there. The girls are not showing any naughty bits and at least they don't look like the back end of two buses!!! (LOL)
 
the trouble is horsemad G and L ride horses cos that is their job, obviously. their job means they probably dont spend much time with the not particularly horsey public or even the horsey non professionals. consequently they probably did think it was a laugh but surely one of the jobs of the BSJA's press and marketing department is not to provide a giggle for those inside showjumping already but to be able to accurate gauge the response of the public and media to their press releases and advise their members of these reactions?
they are good looking girls and as weezy and myself have both said with a little more thought there could have been an entirely different and more positve reaction entirely.
i do not think in a week when the super league comes to Hickstead for what maybe the last time, that the BSJA need to be playing for 'giggles' and hoping that the maxim 'all publicity is good publicity' turns out to be a fact and not a rather naive urban legend.
 
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