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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think horses do not belong in the Olympics

759 replies

StunningCunt · 07/08/2012 15:31

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?

OP posts:
MaryHansack · 09/08/2012 18:42

I just don't think it's an interesting sport, I think it is very bizarre well yeh, we know that by now, emilefloge - what makes you think your opinions are so very interesting that you have to keep repeating them?
If you don't like dressage, don't watch it.

there's plenty of olimpic sports that I find piss boring, but hey I don't seek out a thread to whinge about it for hours....

Stinkyminkymoo · 09/08/2012 18:44

I am so going to wait and video my horse do high school dressage in the field he won't do it with me! he always does the most beautiful extended trot in the field. Though to be fair he does an amazing piaffe at plastic bags out hacking does that count?

SamuelWestsMistress · 09/08/2012 18:47

Haha stinky, I have to admit I was rather smug when I saw that the best riders in the world doing a lap of honour have the exact same issues as I do.

The most natural movement of all?

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!"

Hmm
Kellamity · 09/08/2012 18:47

I guess if you don't like it don't watch it. I could never watch a boxing match, I think they are horrendous, I just don't "get" it, barbaric. So I don't watch them, don't buy tickets to see them etc etc

Horses for courses and all that! Wink

EmilieFloge · 09/08/2012 18:47

I realise no one cares what I think Mary.

SamuelWestsMistress · 09/08/2012 18:55

Emilie I think people are being a bit harsh on you but perhaps feel they're going around in circles with it.

I actually completely understand what you're trying to say. Basically what is the point? Sitting on a horse, campy mincing around an arena for 6 minutes then getting off. But we could say that about all sports. It's ok not to like it, it's not wrong for those of us who do (and have dedicated our ENTIRE lives to it!!)

frostyfingers · 09/08/2012 19:03

Toffs on dancing horses have now won Team GB 2 golds and a bronze, toffs on horses leaping coloured poles have won a gold and toffs on horses leaping strange cross country jumps have won a silver - nuff said as far as I'm concerned!

Fireandashes · 09/08/2012 19:04

Of course it's okay not to like it, but when the apparent reasons for disliking it are factually incorrect ("it's a posh person's hobby/it's unnatural") then it's understandable that when people take the time to correct those misconceptions at length and the disliker continues to repeat "it's a posh person's hobby/it's unnatural", people get a bit frustrated.

If you find it boring then fair enough, to the uninitiated a couple of dozen horses doing the same thing one after the other might seem boring. I find golf boring. That doesn't mean I'd slag it off to golf enthusiasts or continue to spout ignorant opinions about golf in the face of evidence to the contrary. I just don't watch it and spend my time on something I enjoy.

SarahStratton · 09/08/2012 19:14

I've been riding since before I could walk. My parents owned horses, and I was put up on a donkey and lead around from a very young age. I've had horses most of my life, been right through Pony Club, had excellent tuition, etc.

I'm a competent rider. I've done dressage very basically. Put me on one of those horses, and they would take the piss mercilessly. Because they know^ when they've got someone skilled riding them. They know when they can get away with doing feck all.

Put a rider like we've seen today on them, and they produce ballet. Quite literally poetry in motion. It's incredibly skilled, incredibly difficult, and the easier it looks/the less you can see the rider doing anything, the more skilled they are.

It is a beautiful and amazing sport. And yes, it is a sport.

SarahStratton · 09/08/2012 19:16

BTW we weren't well off. We never went on holiday as children, apart from camping twice (you can keep camping, it was not my idea of a holiday), my mum made our clothes, grew a lot of our food. Just horses were our passion, and we'd all do without to have them.

Original poster
StunningCunt · 09/08/2012 19:31

I suppose we'd do quite well in sheepdog herding too.

We could get a whole heap of medals in silly non-sports if we paid the IOC enough money.

OP posts:
Lucyellensmum99 · 09/08/2012 19:43

Im not sure sheep herding would count. As skilled as it is there is no physical test. I for one am proud as punch of our "toffs" exceling in a very British sport.

Original poster
StunningCunt · 09/08/2012 19:45

I saw a live cake baking contest once. They built up a full-sized bride made out of cake. That seemed quite a good sport.

OP posts:
MarysBeard · 09/08/2012 19:51

Charlotte Dujardin seems very down to earth and not a toff at all.

Fireandashes · 09/08/2012 20:13

She's a state-school educated Essex girl so no, not a toff at all.

catgirl2012 · 09/08/2012 20:44

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

Come and watch my boy walk past a mare then............even though the daft git has been gelded (think someone neglected to tell him that)

SamuelWestsMistress · 09/08/2012 21:40

Funny how you can have a change of heart about things though. I've always hated boxing. Punching the shit out of someone for sport? Odd and barbaric.

However I'm now in live with Nicola Adams. She is bl

SamuelWestsMistress · 09/08/2012 21:40

Oops

Bloody fantastic!

AitchTwoOhOneTwo · 09/08/2012 21:49

regarding the posho thing, am v interested in opinions on the jennifer saunders thing coming up. ep2 she goes to badminton (or tries to, it's cancelled)... then some other meet a couple of weeks later. it's wall-to-wall money (perhaps money rather than actual line-bred poshness, in retrospect), absolutely astonishing. it's like going back two hundred years, a totally rarified world.

the thing is, she's an ambassador of the sport, so she's supposed to be showing the equestrian stuff in a great light, that's the point of the show. but... imo while you cannot take away the skill or commitment of the athletes concerned (horse and rider, both amazing) the whole thing is a massive turn-off because it just seems so champagne-y and braying and worlds away from the way most people live.

catgirl2012 · 09/08/2012 21:52

I don't think I bray

I'm pretty normal

There are wealthy people with money in equestrian sports, but not all people in equestrian sports are wealthy
I'm not going to pretend it is as accesible as football, but it is not as elitiest as people think.

catgirl2012 · 09/08/2012 21:52

PS - When is the Jennifer Saunders thing on? Would like to watch that

AitchTwoOhOneTwo · 09/08/2012 22:01

it's coming up next week... i think you will like it, if you're into that sort of thing. it's just that to the casual viewer it doesn't do much to dispel the elitist thing, presumably because, well, it is elitist. (as is rowing, i'm sure, and you can't exactly blame private schools for still having their sports pitches when council pitches etc were sold off, but it's the 'i'm not posh and i do dressage' thing that is not reflected in the show. you really are all considerably posher than me. Grin)

catgirl2012 · 09/08/2012 22:02

Well.........I put my kebab on a plate Grin

suebfg · 09/08/2012 22:08

Yes, you're unreasonable. Dressage is a sport, it's incredibly difficult and physically demanding. Most dressage riders are grass roots riders and work hard to fund stabling etc for their horses and two of the three GB riders competing certainly couldn't be described as 'toffs'.

AitchTwoOhOneTwo · 09/08/2012 22:09

lol catgirl. you see? Wink