To think that equestrian events are ridiculous

Also, in dressage, I have never had the aim of 'making' the horse do anything. The training is all about working with the natural movement of the horse and responding with your own body to improve your messages in line with how your horse works.

Trust me, if the horse didn’t enjoy doing it then it wouldn’t. Horses like to be told what to do, they’re not just humans with four legs.

Have you ever tried to persuade any horse to do something it didn't want to do?

Yes, every time we approach the bloody wash bay.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-y13R0YJr4

Dressage rider explaining why she does it- ie art as much as sport (With slightly annoying background music).

There was one winner of the dressage contest who supposedly also won in the nineties. No mention of the horse, guess it was with a different one then

I know. It's like sailors & rowers who have to use the same boats throughout their entire career... oh no, wait, they don't... Maybe it's about the skill, talent & experience of the person involved, and how they get the best out of their horses? As PPs have said, you try making a horse do something it doesn't want to & see how well you get on.

@atlastifoundit
Why would I ? It's a stupid idea.

OP you just show your huge ignorance and inbuilt misconceptions with this post. Horse athletes are incredibly well cared for, and only those horses who want to work and enjoy it will ever get to the Olympics, watch Ollie T’s cross country round, a masterpiece of riding and watch the horse, bloody loving it. It’s an incredibly clean sport, we were dope testing 30 + years ago when I had the brief pleasure of riding internationally and a huge amount if time and money is invested in research into how best treat competition horses. For example did you see the post competition tents with fans blowing iced air over the horses as they were washed off, far better conditions than for example the GB women’s hockey team who looked stuffed in the weather conditions.
If you don’t like equestrian sports no one is forcing you to watch, and equally non one is forcing the horses to work either. Those that don’t like it certainly aren’t at Tokyo.

This ridiculous dancing in dressage, who the hell thought of that?

The whole point of dressage is that they are moves that the horse can do naturally, they’re not “poor horses” at all. And of fucking course Carl Hester was riding a different horse in 2021 to the one he competed on in the 1990s, you’d have to be spectacularly dim to think otherwise

As a dressage rider, I can see that your ignorance is clearly showing, OP.

Also these horses love to jump. Trust me if they didn't like jumping, no amount of rider skill would get them over the first fence, never mind them all!

I love all the equestrian events - I have a friend who is a groom for a competition rider, not quite at olympic level, but who accompanies the horses on trips to europe and they are so well cared for - I'm sure olympic level horses have amazing care! Dressage is fascinating to watch and is technically very difficult- the skill of the rider makes it appear that they are doing very little! I would much rather watch this than boxing or rugby, or endless dull running!

I had my horse flown to the UK in 2012. Not an Olympian, just a pampered pet.

He had an oversized stall to himself, a personal groom, vetting on both departure and arrival, and travelled in considerably more state than the rest of us!

[quote Salanda]I agree - flying horses halfway across the world to ‘compete’ in high humidity and heat can’t be in the horses’ best interests. I’m sure there’s a lot of skill behind it but that doesn’t mean it’s ok.

Off on a tangent but did you see this in the news recently? www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/19/thousands-of-ex-racehorses-being-sent-to-abattoirs-bbc-investigation-claims[/quote]
I used to work at an airport and any horse that was transported had a groom to accompany them (a trained vet). Dogs, on the other hand, could travel on their own.

I think it's very true that when you boil any sport down to its crux it sounds ridiculous- why do we care about people running around a track? What's special about someone tapping something over a net? I watched someone win a gold medal for jumping their skateboard over some steps - pointless right?

@LtDansleg organised sport is a cess pit of physical and drug abuse.

Russia for example, literally banned from the games due to athlete doping, but it’s ok you can attend if you don’t say your from Russia

There was an interesting clip on YouTube about transporting the horses overseas- search Olympic horses flying to Tokyo. The care those horses receive is amazing. I do wonder what it's like when their ears pop during takeoff!
I'm beginning to understand dressage now as a friend does it. I like watching the horses!

Well I enjoy the fact that (a) men and women can compete in the same events on their own merits and (b) age is much less of a barrier to success so you get gold medalists who are 62, for example

Plus it’s like gymnastics crossed with the marathon but for animals and with an added human in the mix … not even a fan of it really but would rather watch this 100% than badminton or golf or shooting (all of which have skill and respect them being in the Olympics but honestly I just find dull)

I'm from an equestrian background and I do have a little chuckle to myself when people describe dressage as 'dancing'. It isn't, but anyway, trying to explain why to anybody non-horsey...

It takes an incredible amount of skill and training to compete on a horse at that level.
The horse isn't born able to do that either. Oh and it isn't cruel, at all. These horses are bred for that exact purpose.

@MajorNeville It’s definitely not just the horse! These type of horses are VERY difficult to ride. Any normal person would be thrown off pretty quickly

This ridiculous dancing in dressage, who the hell thought of that?

Almost every culture which celebrates or depends upon horses has thought of it in one millennia or another.

@bluewanda You should see how these type of hugely expensive horses are treated! Better than human athletes in most countries

Typo after typo after typo, sorry!

People say it's the horse but if the same person wins several times in several horses then surely it isn't just the horse. I live every single event, swimming is my favourite but ill watch anything, lol

@Pedalpushers Yes, my daughter does some low level dressage and show jumping competitions and she finds dressage incredibly hard