To think horses do not belong in the Olympics

[StunningCunt]

They've got this horse prancing sideways with a toff in a top hat on the top, and they are devoting hours of TV coverage because we might get a gold medal in this nonsense?

Why don't they just have a dog show there and be done with it?

Competitive sheep herding?

Motor racing?

LucyellensMum, I would have no interest in making a horse perform like that, and I don't understand the people who do.

I don't mind if that makes me ignorant. I don't like performing animals in any context, in circuses, dog shows, anything that attempts to make them do 'human' or non-natural things for the pleasure of certain audiences.

It leaves me cold. I appreciate that it is difficult. I should add that the commentators were continually saying things like 'don't tell me horses can't dance', so I'm sort of responding to that, because they can't.

Its a posho sport - so what

Leave it out Dolomite.

Ohh thank you very much Fire. :) loved the dressage and it is extremly hard work to get to that level.

Well, there are plenty of sports in the olympics that "leave me cold" im just not rude enough to slate them and take away from the dedication of the participants. I wasn't feeling the thai kwean do (sp) just now, so i switched it off - im sure its very technical and demanding, it just didn't float my boat. Hey ho.

I suspectthere are a lot of jealous women on this thread.

Well SoleSource, i am one of them! Although i prefer the term envious because whilst i am extremely jealous i am not going to get all, well, what do you expect it is all full of toffs!! Equestrian sports were never going to be cheap were they. Sighs, and wishes for a lottery win

The Lady who won the gold medal was not a toff. Her Mother had a London accent and explained that she could not afford riding lessons. Toff isn't very nice.

At least the people who don't get it are few and far between. Little point in getting wound up by it just leave them to it if that's what they think they won't ever know what they're missing out on!

Those of us involved or those of us who simply find it all rather magical just need to focus on the phenomenal success of team GB with 3 gold one silver and a bronze and hope that now the profile can be raised and those who are cynical about it will eventually see it from a different angle.

Emilie, for the umpteenth time, everything the dressage horses do is natural, because it is based on walk, trot, canter, half-pass (moving sideways), flying changes (shifting from one leading leg to the other in canter) and pirouettes (spinning round). Watch a horse or group of horses in a field for long enough and you will see every one of those movements in one form or another. Watch a dressage-bred foal trotting round loose and you will already be able to recognise the quality of its natural paces as bearing a great resemblance to today's horses before it has even had so much as bridle on it, never mind a rider. The riders only refine these natural movements and train the horse to carry itself to maximise its flexibility and suppleness which allows it to incorporate more 'spring', more 'impulsion' into those basic paces.

Putting it to music or doing movements in a set order makes it more entertaining for those who enjoy watching a highly-trained horse showing off its paces with maximum expression.

If you refuse to accept this basic physiological fact then you are wilfully ignorant despite all your protestations to the contrary.

The dressage moves are not unnatural. The horses do them naturally in the wild - think about stallions showing off to impress a mare, etc. All dressage does is harness the natural ability and teach the horse to perform the move on command.

X-posts with Fireandashes

Ya boo sucks to the doubters

Well Said samuel West - i could never afford it, didn't stop me loving horses as a child and cheering on the british atheletes - to see them win Gold was brilliant!

Spanish Walk developed on the battlefields where soldiers on horseback had to ride through fields littered with bodies! Nice huh?

I'd like to develop a mumsnet walk.

I really cannot imagine a wild horse choosing to walk sideways in a susdtained manner in order to impress another horse.

It's not the moves themselves which I think are necessarily unnatural - if you say they're not, then they're not. It's having to do them in a sustained manner for entertainment that seems bizarre to me.

I won't apologise for that and I agree that Tae Kwon do is very dull also.

Sorry life is too short to read 26 pages of comments of another toff vs plebs sports opportunity chat but if we take out all of the sitting down events (equastrian, rowing, canoeing, sailing and cycling then we would well and truly be in the bottom half of the medal table.

Heigh ho it will be September soon and we can go back to MN favourite old chestnut - public vs private school debate

I'm not being obtuse. I just don't think it's an interesting sport, I think it is very bizarre.

If you can't imagine a horse performing any of these moves I. The wild/in a field then you have very limited imagination!
Think about other animals performing to impress the opposite sex, they all do it.

A horse in the wild gas to quick and nimble on his feet to avoid predators.

But plenty of people DO find it interesting emile, just as im sure there are plenty who find tae kwon interesting. It is incredibly ignorant and rude to slate a sport just because it doesn't float your boat.

See, i can understand people spending time on this thread defending a sport which they enjoy, either watching or participating in. What baffles me is why people are putting so much time and energy in it, during the summer holidays, berating it. Surely you have better things to do with your time.

I'm sorry if my rudeness has offended you. I should probably not laugh at something that gives other people pleasure.

Emile have you ever seen a horse in the wild spook? It will go sideways. Have you ever seen a horse in the wild move through deep water or soft difficult terrain or long grass? It will passage. Have you ever seen a stallion in the wild fight with another stallion to the death? It will levade, pirouette, piaffe, rein back and move sideways. Not for 6 minutes but for HOURS.

Humans and horses have evolved domestically over the last 10,000 years. It is of mutual benefit to both up until only 100 years ago. Dressage movements were developed in battle then on for use in sport. It isn't possible physiologically for a horse to do unnatural movements. It's spine does not curve, it has no collar bones, it's legs don't do the splits. Please listen and understand what people are trying to say to you with respect to this issue, just as those are respecting that you fon't get it.

Laugh if you like, it certainly doesn't offend me, why would it? To each his own, if it strikes you as funny, then thats great, you are at least getting some enjoyment from it, instead of totally wasting your time.

Being called a cunt and a fucking prick isn't very respectful.

I can see what you are saying. But a human being making a horse do these movements in time to music still phases me. As I said, I don't like seeing performing animals. It offends me, I don't know why. I suppose I don't like or appreciate man's mastery of beasts.

That's in all seriousness, it's my feelings on the subject and I will leave you all to it now as I can't post properly on long threads, my computer seizes up.

Thankyou for trying to explain, those of you who have been kind enough not to resort to abuse.