Anyone else watching the car crash that is the modern pentathlon showjumping?

[Noitsnotteatimeyet]

Dd and I are sitting watching like this

Why on earth don't the athletes learn how to ride properly before getting on a horse and asking it to jump

[seahorse106]

I know! It's really bad isn't it.
They only get 20 mins before they have to go in and jump but even so most of them look like they have literally only been on a horse a handful of times.
Feel sorry for the poor horses

[PitchFork]

those fences are bloody high to jump on a horse that you have only just met and which is probable fed up with having to carry multiple riders.

[PitchFork]

how come they are allowed spurs?

[VimFuego101]

So they get allocated a random horse rather than having their own? That seems weird.

[woodenmouse]

Bollocks I forgot it was on

[Noitsnotteatimeyet]

I appreciate it's not easy to get on a strange horse and jump a course with only 20 minutes warm-up, but given how a poor round can completely scupper even the best swimmer's/runner's/fencer's event I don't understand why pentathletes don't concentrate more on the riding element.

Some of the competitors looked like they knew what they were doing and some were unlucky to have a pole or two down but the number who looked like they'd barely been on a horse before, hanging on for dear life and zigzagging through the combinations in a haphazard fashion was astonishing. And yes, poor horses having to put up with that

[Gabilan]

It was dreadful in 2012 as well. It should probably be compulsory watching for people who say horse riding isn't a proper sport and it's just rich people doing circus tricks.

For your BHS stage II you have to jump 2' 9" on a horse you don't know and for stage III it's 3'3", more than that for stage IV. All the uni competitions you're expected to get on a horse you don't know, have a 10-15 minute warm up, max 2 jumps in the warm up and jump 90cm. So it's not exactly an unheard of format. That said, you do have to be a rider to suss out a horse that quickly and get it jumping. There was talk of them taking it out after 2012 - perhaps they should have done!

[devilinmyshoes]

I'm convinced we only jumped 2'6 for my stage 2!

[Gabilan]

Apparently the fences are up to 120cm. If you look at google images for modern pentathlon they mainly consist of riders falling off and horses having a bad time of it. There's no way I'd put my horse up for that. They definitely need smaller fences or just make them do an Elementary dressage test. Less fun for the spectators, far safer for horses and riders!

[Gabilan]

Devil I took my stage 2 in 1991 and the fences had just been put up from 2'6" to 2'9". They may have put it back down, but all the horses actually jumped better over the slightly bigger fences.

[sashh]

There's no way I'd put my horse up for that.

That's what I think the problem is. How can you practice for that? Who would lend you a horse? Riding your own horse every day would not be the same (have had a total of 3 riding lessons in my life so may be totally wrong).

[seahorse106]

They were saying in the commentary that most of them don't have their own horses because it doesn't really help you if you have to ride a completely different one in the competition.

[Gabilan]

How can you practice for that? Who would lend you a horse?

To get round a course of jumps of 1.20m you're looking at riding to around the standard required for BHS stage IV. There are equitation centres that teach and examine to that level and you could just have lessons there. These are Olympic athletes though so I assume they have their own training set up.

I wouldn't put my horse through the competition itself because he could end up with a twazzock like this pulling him over backwards. But the training would be different - an instructor should stop that happening to the horse.

[Rollingdinosaur]

I'm just watching it on catch up now. Those poor horses! What amazes me is how honest the vast majority of them are. They are put wrong at fence after fence, poles going everywhere, but most of them just keep on trying despite the horrible riding!

[ShoeEatingMonster]

I remember there being outrage after 2012 when people had put their horses forward to be used and they were massively unhappy with the quality of the riding.

I get the logic of not having their own horse etc but surely as an athlete they train for the running/shooting/swimming parts so surely they would put equal training into the riding aspect? There must be clubs out there for modern pentathletes where they get the opportunity to ride different horses.

[Moanranger]

I think it was worse in 2012. I was at a yard in London that provided national pentathlon horses & provided 3 to the London Olympics. They are typically riding school schoolmasters, and the London ones (at least from my yard) were a bit of the kick along type, although one, who was brilliant, was ridden by the master of the local hunt.(Obviuosly, not at the Olympics.)
As schoolmaster types, these horses are used to being badly ridden, and return to form pretty quickly, usually by being ridden by experts between times.
I know a lot of people are shocked by pentathlon, but the patience the horses demonstrate (mostly - thinking of the guy who fell off at Rio & horse really did not want him back on) is why I love horses.
The Rio horses looked quite top class & go-ey, especially compared to the London ones. (Don't get me started on Beijing -Hong Kong, tho.) A couple were too tricky for their riders & 1 at least looked completely spooked by the environment.