Olympics Eventing Showjumping Two Rounds?

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Junebug44

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Just watched round 1. Has the Olympics always included two rounds of showjumping for the eventing? I thought showjumping was the final demo of the horse's fitness after the demands of dressage and eventing?

Ps well done Team GB! x
 
Ah, I see, thanks. Has it always been this way? I went to the eventing showjumping in 2012 and I don't remember two rounds - faulty memory, perhaps? It was an amazing experience! x
 
Junebug44 said:
Ah, I see, thanks. Has it always been this way? I went to the eventing showjumping in 2012 and I don't remember two rounds - faulty memory, perhaps? It was an amazing experience! x
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It's fairly new. It was definitely in for Tokyo and maybe Rio too?
 
Oh, that's interesting! While googling about this I have found some interesting old footage of the roads and tracks/steeplechasing phase of the Olympic eventing in the 1950s. Can't seem to post, but fascinating. Many changes over the years I guess!

(edited for spelling!)
 
No its comparatively new, as the rule is that someone can't win two medals for one performance. I thought the second round of jumping was very good, it was a short course and they got through them very quickly and it was nail-biting. Were the horses jumping better in the second round as I didn't see much of the first.

It is true that if Laura had not had the fence down in the first round she could have beaten Michael Jung?
 
Junebug44 said:
Oh, that's interesting! While googling about this I have found some interesting old footage of the roads and tracks/steeplechasing phase of the Olympic eventing in the 1950s. Can't seem to post, but fascinating. Many changes over the years I guess!

(edited for spelling!)
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Many of us far preferred that, feeling it was much safer for the horses to be bred for that work, and fittened/strengthened for it, to then jump XC. The new format was started less than thirty years ago, maybe twenty and has led to the dominance of the warmblood rather than the old TB blood, with a smattering of Irish. I remember walking out to the roads and tracks and watching the steeplechase at Burghley in the 80s.
 
Orangehorse said:
No its comparatively new, as the rule is that someone can't win two medals for one performance. I thought the second round of jumping was very good, it was a short course and they got through them very quickly and it was nail-biting. Were the horses jumping better in the second round as I didn't see much of the first.

It is true that if Laura had not had the fence down in the first round she could have beaten Michael Jung?
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yes - she just rubbed the last fence and it cost her dearly. Having said that, Michael had one down too so it's not quite that simple. Chris Burton had 0.4 of a time fault in the first round and that was enough to lift him above Laura. Tom was the highest placed to finished on their dressage score although several other placed lower down also did.
 
sbloom said:
Many of us far preferred that, feeling it was much safer for the horses to be bred for that work, and fittened/strengthened for it, to then jump XC. The new format was started less than thirty years ago, maybe twenty and has led to the dominance of the warmblood rather than the old TB blood, with a smattering of Irish. I remember walking out to the roads and tracks and watching the steeplechase at Burghley in the 80s.
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But horses have a much longer career now. They retired around 12 years old, it was considered shocking when Mark Phillips took Columbus around Badminton at age 14, it was almost considered cruel.

Yet now many horses are competing at the top level well into their teens - see the Olympic team? I think it is nice that all that training and conditioning means that the horses have a much longer career and there appear to be fewer soundness issues.
 
Fieldlife said:
why cant the single round of show jumping be used for team and individual placings?
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Well it used to be, but a few years ago the Olympic governing body decided that there would have to be some other method of choosing the individual winners. I seem to remember that at one time there were two competitions, one with team members and then a second one riding as individuals so there have been various things tried out and this year's new competition with only three team members and substitutions allowed (previously best three scores out of four) is the latest alteration to the competition.

I thought the second round of jumping was good, it was quite a short course and all the horses seemed to jump well - they were thoroughly warmed up after jumping the first time!
 
We definitely had two rounds in London, started in Athens.

Pre Athens, you would have the team riders compete for the team medals, then entirely different combinations compete for the individual, unless you were specfically nominated to ride in both. So Ian Stark rode two different horses in Sydney!
 
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It was quite confusing that teams which had a rider eliminated could then substitute the eliminated combination in the next phase, albeit with a cricket score of additional penalties.

It was extra confusing that a rider who got eliminated on the XC for falling off was then able to SJ on the same horse the next day. Not impressed with that.

It’s all to keep enough numbers still in the competition for the spectators.
 
Orangehorse said:
But horses have a much longer career now. They retired around 12 years old, it was considered shocking when Mark Phillips took Columbus around Badminton at age 14, it was almost considered cruel.

Yet now many horses are competing at the top level well into their teens - see the Olympic team? I think it is nice that all that training and conditioning means that the horses have a much longer career and there appear to be fewer soundness issues.
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Maybe that's more down to veterinary treatments? Too many variables to know for sure but I don't think soundness has improved, all things considered.
 
Annagain said:
yes - she just rubbed the last fence and it cost her dearly. Having said that, Michael had one down too so it's not quite that simple. Chris Burton had 0.4 of a time fault in the first round and that was enough to lift him above Laura. Tom was the highest placed to finished on their dressage score although several other placed lower down also did.
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So many variables but actually my thought was those 8 time faults in the xc that cost her the individual gold
 
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sbloom said:
Maybe that's more down to veterinary treatments? Too many variables to know for sure but I don't think soundness has improved, all things considered.
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Switchn from long to short format for eventing is one of the key reasons horses are eventing for longer
 
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