Tokyo Pentathlon SJ

Willowbankstables

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Headline just coming through from sky sports: German coach thrown out of Olympics for punching horse.

Makes me sick to my stomach.

All the headlines last night were along the lines of: Olympic dream destroyed by disobedient horse.

Poor bloody horse. Wonder how the owner feels.
I've just seen this on BBC news, too. How disgusting. What would happen if a coach was seen punching a competitor!? I feel so upset for that horse. As an owner, I don't know why on earth you'd put them forward to partake in this event.
 

milliepops

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and that's a wrap. i think the men did a better job overall. there was much less unbalanced wobbling around and the horses looked more confident in what they were doing. some looked like really good riders.
 

Burghleygirl

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Anyone else about to watch this? Heard on the BBC today that it’s going to a much shorter competition at the next olympics so assume that they’ll probably drop the show jumping.

our Brit is in 6th place at the moment
Think for the sake of the horses it should be dropped the standard of riding is ibismal people blaming the horses perhaps if they could ride it would help. I wouldn’t consider lending my horse for these people to ride. The poor horse test wouldn’t even start the course was obviously totally stressed out. Common sense really would have been to give the poor girl another horse
 

milliepops

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I think the women need to sort themselves out because the standard of riding was much better today than their riding yesterday.
yeah the difference is quite stark isn't it. i wonder what that's about. Sheer bravery looked to play a part in this, the more the horses believed in the riders the better they went, which made for an easier ride even for the less technically good riders. Like, get in a rhythm and an honest horse will jump a fence pretty well. I don't think that's all of it, but to me there was a big difference in the pace today.
 

Kadastorm

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yeah the difference is quite stark isn't it. i wonder what that's about. Sheer bravery looked to play a part in this, the more the horses believed in the riders the better they went, which made for an easier ride even for the less technically good riders. Like, get in a rhythm and an honest horse will jump a fence pretty well. I don't think that's all of it, but to me there was a big difference in the pace today.

also, apart from the Lithuanian rider and the Chilean whose reins broke, none of them got stroppy, pretty much all of them patted their horse. Even the USA guy who had a fair few poles gave his horse lots of love and a kiss on the neck. They seemed to appreciate the horses and those horses were VERY good horses.

I’m all for supporting women but when you can only say that 3, maybe 4 at a push were good enough, that’s pretty poor show!
 

Meowy Catkin

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They need to overhaul this competition.

Either take the horses out or make some big changes to the equestrian element. EG make it worth double points so the competitors have to be riders who also do other events, rather than say a good athlete who dabbles in riding. I would also be tempted to have them ride their own horse rather than have this pool of horses thing going on. Who in their right mind would ever lend a horse to this competition after seeing the riding yesterday (I haven't watched today)?
 

mini_b

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Late to the party but that was a sh!t show.

doesn’t paint our sport in a good light. especially as it fuels the fire for those who are saying all equestrian sport shouldn’t be included at the olympics.

agree with others that the jumps should be considerably lower or omitted altogether. A prix caprilli type event would be better.
 

Equi

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Saying the jumps should be lower would be a huge benefit to the riders but these horses are clearly up to the job maybe they were underjumped in their eyes - like how a puissance horse would probably demolish a cross pole lol
 

teapot

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yeah. much less wincing on behalf of the horses today i think. a little messy but not causing the horse a problem is *Ok* in this sport i think.. in my mind these are a bit like RS horses in terms of what they are getting from the riders - some better than others?

Yup agree. Also seen worse in riding schools and out at both unaffiliated and affiliated, yet no one raises an eyebrow in the same way MP seems to get a reaction.

They're jumping 2cm lower than the smallest fence in the Eventing sj team round...
 

CanteringCarrot

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Lots of stuff in the news (German) this morning about Annika Schleu. There apparently will be consequences, mostly against her trainer/coach according to one particular article. It's brought up animal welfare stuff, of course.

I'm not sure why they can't do a more "US hunter style" course (not riding that style exactly, but the course). In that the jumps are a bit lower and more natural style/color. Perhaps similar to the hunter derby, or something. I don't know. I'm a bit ignorant about this particular sport, but didn't care for what I saw, for the most part.
 

Mrs. Jingle

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I’ve not been able to watch modern pentathlon jumping for years, and no way would I ever put a horse of mine through it. I think if they want to keep sj as part of it, the athletes should provide their own horses. It’s just wrong putting these animals through it.

100 per cent my feelings too. There is a good chance that poor horse is now completely mentally sour for any sort of jumping, no matter what level of competing he was at before that ugly fiasco. I am equally sure that trainers/owners willing to allow their horse's to be abused in this event, will use any and every method available to deal with that unwelcome outcome for the horses, but behind closed doors of course. :mad:

Dr David Marlin has picked this up now and is encouraging people to complain to the governing body

Well there is a surprise, Marlin jumping on the back of a horrible incident when he realises the huge potential to keep his name up there and grab even more exposure purely for his own ends. But then lets face it, he probably does need a bit of positive publicity as negative feed back is increasing for him year on year now. Sorry went slightly off topic just there, but that man's spurious claims and so called 'research' to promote his products just infuriates me!
 

criso

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yeah the difference is quite stark isn't it. i wonder what that's about. Sheer bravery looked to play a part in this, the more the horses believed in the riders the better they went, which made for an easier ride even for the less technically good riders. Like, get in a rhythm and an honest horse will jump a fence pretty well. I don't think that's all of it, but to me there was a big difference in the pace today.

I think we've all seen situations where a relaxed and confident but less experienced rider has 8done better that a technically better but nervous one.

The German rider on Saint Boy was awful to watch but I'm not sure what else could have happened assuming he was upset by the first round and didn't want to repeat a bad experience if he could help it. Sending him back in with an unconfident and inexperienced rider was never going to go well.
I wonder what happened in the warm up as she appeared to be in tears from the start.

If that was your own horse, you'd take it home and rebuild its confidence before coming out again.

If nothing else there's a strong argument for not asking these horses to do 2 rounds, the riders shouldn't have to undo damage done by a previous bad rider though it does mean they'd have to source more horses.
 

Rowreach

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Yup agree. Also seen worse in riding schools and out at both unaffiliated and affiliated, yet no one raises an eyebrow in the same way MP seems to get a reaction.

They're jumping 2cm lower than the smallest fence in the Eventing sj team round...

People riding at riding schools aren’t purporting to be at the pinnacle of their sport, are they?
 

milliepops

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If nothing else there's a strong argument for not asking these horses to do 2 rounds, the riders shouldn't have to undo damage done by a previous bad rider though it does mean they'd have to source more horses.
yeah agreed.
 

milliepops

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BBC just describing new format for MP for Paris. It will be over 90 minutes and eliminations after each round. First round of 36 will be Equestrian and only first 18 will go to second round fencing. That’s a real incentive to improve the standard of riding!
so as there's clearly an appetite to retain the riding element let's hope that does the job then. As they weren't all rubbish... it clearly can stand up as a sport in a way that doesn't impact the horses negatively but only if the athletes have done their homework.
 

milliepops

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there's another petition asking it to come under FEI rules and some other bits and bobs, which would be better IMO

edit, ah no, they're asking for changes to tack, regulation of whips/spurs and for a minimum competency.

well *I* think it ought to be under FEI rules, whatever the bad points that would bring some consistency.
 

teapot

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People riding at riding schools aren’t purporting to be at the pinnacle of their sport, are they?

No one is saying there are?

The top level of MP is never going to look as polished as the top level of the three main disciplines by a LONG way, and expecting it to is bonkers. So few of MP competitors are riders, some may only ride once a month - what they're asked to do is a huge ask on that basis. Some of those riders would never have sat on the level of horse Tokyo have produced - they all look like decent schoolmasters in their own right, hence milliepops' comment, and will react accordingly.
 
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