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?

I am just learning a little bit of dressage at the moment, the very basics, extended and collected trot - it's very difficult. This dressage is very impressive.

For me more so than something like boxing - that I don't get, awful "sport"

Is polo (the jilly cooper type) an olympic sport?

No - I think that probably really is a toffs game.

Oh, Zukie, I used to adore Eddie Macken and Boomerang - it was my treat as a kid, being allowed to stay up and watch the showjumping...

PMSL @ the idea that a horse is going to do what you tell ask it to if it really doesn't want to...

And I'm roaring at the 'toff' bit. I am dead rough common but I love to ride and until DD came along I had my own horse and dressage was my passion. Most riders at our yard were nurses, teachers, one was a cleaner - not exactly rolling in it, any of us!

Mind you, I had to have this conversation with my mother last week so it's a commonly held form of inverted snobbery.

No polo isn't an Olympic sport which is a shame as it's a very exciting game. I watched Princes Charles & William, Harry and (quite randomly) Tommy Lee Jones play polo once, was a great afternoon

Wooo hooo gold! Fantastic I am in awe

Excellent news, gold hope those horses get lots of mints and carrots!

Wonders if dressage will last much longer as an Olympic event ? My google search suggests only 9 countries have teams entered ? Happy to be told otherwise.

YABU

The equestrian bits are my favourite to watch :)

Another gold, well done Team GB :)

Here's some info on water polo and you may like some of these pictures.

what is the rider actually doing though - it's just the horse doing a routine from memory isn't it?

Oh polo should definitely be made an Olympic sport!!

The men, the champers, the designer clothes, the shagging.....

"The men, the champers, the designer clothes, the shagging..... " - bugger I missed the last 3

Nancy - bahahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Er yeah right. The horse is given the dressage test to have a read, then the rider climbs on and the horse does it all from memory while the rider tries not to fall off

ffs....

i admit i know fuck all about it. But the rider doesn't appear to be doing a thing.

what is the rider actually doing though - it's just the horse doing a routine from memory isn't it?
no it really isn't!

The rider is controlling the horse
Asking for minute changes. Keeping a rhythm, balance, suppleness, correct bend, correct positioning. Asking the horse to perform the movements in the correct place. Keeping the horse in the correct outline, the right tempo. You could spend hours listing what the rider does
Put someone who doesn't ride on one of these and it would probably look like a beach donkey or deck them

nancy, the rider appearing to be doing nothing is a measure of their great skill

That's the test of it being good - the rider should basically appear to do nothing. Like gliding effortlessly on the surface when in reality they are paddling like hell

Grimma grateful for explanatory pics but references to nether limbs this early in the day ?!?

I wish Katie Price had been in the team

so how are they communicating all this to the horse then?

She's not a toff

That's the point Nancy66. They look as though they are doing nothing - unless you are very used to watching it. But, honestly, if you look at their legs and hands carefully, they do move. It's harder to see, but their weight is being carefully shifted, and the core muscles are working overtime too (called "using the seat")

omigod, just watched Charlotte Dujardin, so so wonderful! and yes dressage is a) not stuck up and b) probably one of the most difficult things a horse and rider could do.