bce
Member
I am so shocked having just seen the Show Jumping phase of the modern pentathlon at the Olympics and I was wondering what others thought. The format of the phase as far as I understand is that the competitors are drawn a horse to ride, one which they have never ridden before and then given was it 20 minutes to get to know it before they have to jump a course of show jumps.
What followed in many cases can only be described as an outrage! The riders, who in many cases where given a whip and spurs, had a clear inability to ride a horse, let alone jump it. I found some of the rounds almost unbearable to watch. Rider after rider socked their horses in the mouth as they jumped, making it almost impossible for the horse to even jump the fence. As they did so the horses could not make the back rails of parallels or distances in combinations, consequently they came crashing down on poles to the point where one horse looked rather lame.
Horses were also continually ridden to fences on impossible strides and then when they understandably refused as they had had enough of such bad riding, they were usually then quite horribly smacked with the whip. (And bearing in mind these were in most cases big strong men, who are athletes, who were riding them).
Whats worse is that due to the format of the competition the horses and riders it seemed could have fallen off and stopped at every fence and they could still carry on to the end of the course. If they had two refusals at a fence they simply missed it out and went on to the next one. This meant the horses suffering continued long after the round should have stopped. In addition to this each horse did more than one round, that is each horse might have a number of different riders. So having had one awful experience, the poor horses might have to go in again for more of the same.
What made this all worse was the BBC commentator who clearly was completely clueless, who continually blamed the horses for all the riders falling off, horses refusing and poles crashing down. At one point someone got round and the commentator said finally a horse that works!!!! My opinion was that in most cases the horses were very honest and forgiving to have even carried on. And I cant believe that the horses selected would not have been fit for purpose given a half decent rider as some indeed did demonstrate.
The whole thing was an outrage, particularly for a sport at Olympic level. The crowd appeared suitably entertained at all the people falling of etc, but I didnt think it was very entertaining, just very unfair on the horses. Admittedly I didnt watch it all, but in what I did watch I only saw a few riders pat their horse and the whip used inappropriately so many times.
What followed in many cases can only be described as an outrage! The riders, who in many cases where given a whip and spurs, had a clear inability to ride a horse, let alone jump it. I found some of the rounds almost unbearable to watch. Rider after rider socked their horses in the mouth as they jumped, making it almost impossible for the horse to even jump the fence. As they did so the horses could not make the back rails of parallels or distances in combinations, consequently they came crashing down on poles to the point where one horse looked rather lame.
Horses were also continually ridden to fences on impossible strides and then when they understandably refused as they had had enough of such bad riding, they were usually then quite horribly smacked with the whip. (And bearing in mind these were in most cases big strong men, who are athletes, who were riding them).
Whats worse is that due to the format of the competition the horses and riders it seemed could have fallen off and stopped at every fence and they could still carry on to the end of the course. If they had two refusals at a fence they simply missed it out and went on to the next one. This meant the horses suffering continued long after the round should have stopped. In addition to this each horse did more than one round, that is each horse might have a number of different riders. So having had one awful experience, the poor horses might have to go in again for more of the same.
What made this all worse was the BBC commentator who clearly was completely clueless, who continually blamed the horses for all the riders falling off, horses refusing and poles crashing down. At one point someone got round and the commentator said finally a horse that works!!!! My opinion was that in most cases the horses were very honest and forgiving to have even carried on. And I cant believe that the horses selected would not have been fit for purpose given a half decent rider as some indeed did demonstrate.
The whole thing was an outrage, particularly for a sport at Olympic level. The crowd appeared suitably entertained at all the people falling of etc, but I didnt think it was very entertaining, just very unfair on the horses. Admittedly I didnt watch it all, but in what I did watch I only saw a few riders pat their horse and the whip used inappropriately so many times.
