Idiotic comment by Peter Charles!

Stencilface said:
Trouble is, these things always come down to comments like this. The 'isnt eventing harder, woe is me, the ground is too hard/wet/deep/slippy. Dressage riders are poncy and showjumpers are common chavs' etc etc etc.

I think most eventers seem to come across as having a sense of humour failure and unable to poke fun at themselves fwiw ;)
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I disagree, fme eventers have a great sense of humour, particularly when it all goes wrong. For example when one of our well known lady riders came off in the water at one of the big events, she got up and took a bow to the cheering crowd. Also not forgetting Mary, having fallen off at the 2nd to last fence at badders xc whilst in the lead said in the following interview that she just got a bit too excited!

I think the majority of eventers would still run there horses if the events themself still ran.
 
Silly remark re: eventers etc but glad to see he is a grass roots rider. Too many non-riders think we are all from the landed gentry with tons of cash to flash!
So that's Peter Charles, Mary King, Charlotte Dujardin all from basic backgrounds. Good comment from Charlotte's Mum after her success - she could only buy her daughter a horse to compete on when she got a small inheritance when her own Mum died. Good on her!
 
Re the comments that there is no money in eventing, but more prizemoney in showjumping - the prizemoney doesn't go to the RIDERS, it belongs to the owners of the horses, and very few competitiors own their horses at the highest levels, whatever the discipline.
 
Well said cortez!

Plus it wasn't just peter charles' comments...

I wonder what the likes of WFP make of his sport being described as a 'hobby'?!

I know for the vast majority of people ANY horse sport is a hobby but in the conversation at the time they were discussing top level competition!
 
I'm not his biggest fan but it was obviously a tongue in cheek comment. I've never been to a show jumping competition where everyone's wearing tweed and dragging around designer dogs or JRTs wearing clothes... Can't say the same for dressage or eventing, so I can see where he's coming from ;)

Also, show jumping is more of an industry than eventing - eventers aren't out battling for big prize money somewhere in the world on a weekly basis - that is a fact, not an insult.
 
I think this is actually 2 issues vis:

1- Whether the comment was accurate (and it certainly was to some extent)

2- Whether he should have said it when being interviewed for a programme being broadcast to a mainstream rather than horse-specialist audience. Which he probably shouldn't, because people who don't know better will take it seriously and thus the credibility of equestrian sport in general is damaged.
 
Cortez but if a showjumper isn't winning the money for the owner they aren't going to get to keep the horse & most owners actually do give a percentage to the rider as a bonus.
Not only is the prize money bigger there are more opportunities to win it. There are large, high prize money shows most weekends... Even at the lower levels you get the opportunity in showjumping to be in profit when placed. This just doesn't happen with eventing.....& yes that does come from bitter experience having won a lick & a saddlecloth for being placed at a PreNovice which had cost me £60 to enter, £10 start fee not to mention the diesel to get there!

And actually being friends with a successful showjumper I can see why eventing is thought of as a hobby, sometimes the attitude that we admire as being 'typically eventerish' I.e Mary King shrugging off falling at the 2nd last can come across as not having the competitive edge or desire to win. To a cut throat competitive SJ'er you can surely see that it comes across as 'not mattering'. Now I know it does matter & eventers are as competitive as anything but it's about perceived attitude isn't it?
My SJ friend still roars with laughter at me describing one pole down as a *brilliant* round. Her sport is different & do are her priorities!
 
Having been interviewed for almost half an hour for only one sentence being used out of context without the previous qualifying statement, I can appreciate that PC's comments may only have been a small part of what he actually said.
 
I thought Peter Charles' comments were an excellent way of alienating every rider who competes in disciplines other than SJ. And as for the way he appeared to scorn the wealthy, he really must hate the owners of his horses - the ones with money..

He came over as extremely miserable unlike Mary King, Piggy French and Laura Bechstolheimer who came across as much nicer people. Regardless of their backgrounds, I know who I preferred!
 
I'm not convinced it was tongue in cheek tbh, he looked a little too serious!

And even if it was, what a stupid thing to say on a programme that is going to be broadcast on primetime ITV! I agree with whoever it was that said he effectively un-did all my hard work convincing people horses are only for rich toffs! :D He's either an arrogant git or thick as :D (that is def tongue in cheek btw, I've never met the man!)

Ben Maher was hardly born in a cottage with a dirt floor was he? ;) Neither was Zara, nor Laura, but then Tim, Carl and Mary even it all out.

You would think they'd want to present a united front against the occasionally hostile general public, but no....''tongue in cheek'' snipes are more fun!

I did notice at the 'lympics that the dressage riders and eventers seemed to be quite pally and supportive of each other, but the show jumpers didn't seem to be around that much...make of that what you will :D

p.s. This whole post is a little ''tongue in cheek'' so don't hate :p
 
I thought his comment was rude, unnecessary and very detrimental to Equine Sport as a whole. He made himself look stupid but very thoughtless and unprofessional!
 
I think everyone is being far too analytical tbh.

To me it was a throwaway comment probably taken out of context and part of a wider discussion overly edited.

I enjoyed the program warts and all.
 
Both he and Nick Skelton came across as miserable old blokes. The SJ world is welcome to them, I'd far rather watch eventing or dressage anyway! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it PC.
 
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FestiveBoomBoom said:
Both he and Nick Skelton came across as miserable old blokes. The SJ world is welcome to them, I'd far rather watch eventing or dressage anyway! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it PC.
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Good lord that is harsh.

I did think how lovely Piggy French and Laura B were though.
 
FW wasn't overly happy with the comments going by this twitter feed last night...

I've yet to watch the second episode yet *goes off to itv player*
 
I remember having a conversation with a tradestand owner at Blenheim one time. She said that you would not believe the difference in behaviour between the eventing crowd and show jumping crowd. They attended dozens of events throughout the year.

Basically the show jumping crowd get pissed, throw up, pass out, brawl and basically behave like a bunch of chavs through the calendar and the eventing crowd behave like civilised adults. Of course there are probably exceptions to this rule as I am sure someone on here is going to throw my way .....

Therein, I believe, lies your answer to what Peter Charles was perhaps getting at - not something I would be proud of, that's for sure!
 
mcnaughty said:
Basically the show jumping crowd get pissed, throw up, pass out, brawl and basically behave like a bunch of chavs through the calendar and the eventing crowd behave like civilised adults. Of course there are probably exceptions to this rule as I am sure someone on here is going to throw my way .....
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Erm you've obviously never been to the Pig and Whistle at Badminton after hours! ;)
 
Right just finished watching it, enjoyed Jenni Saunders commentry and honesty, enjoyed looking at the lovely horses, couldn't really give a toss about who is who and who said what, like it's really gonna be a problem to a pleb like me, I just enjoyed the programme for what it was.
 
Pedantic said:
Right just finished watching it, enjoyed Jenni Saunders commentry and honesty, enjoyed looking at the lovely horses, couldn't really give a toss about who is who and who said what, like it's really gonna be a problem to a pleb like me, I just enjoyed the programme for what it was.
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I'm sorry but I have a real issue with JS saying that all dressage horses are gay :mad:



:p;):D
 
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