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 apologise for my bad spelling today.

ird thanks, i wasnt sure, its bloomin horrible. Sure horses love water & swimming but thats something else!

at the horses doing the test from memory. That makes them even more talented than the horses that can climb in and out of a swimming pool.

I did wonder Pets

Slarty
The riders tell the horses which jump to go to, how to get there, and set up the horse for succes (or failure) by how they tell the horse to arrive in front of the jump. Once there it is up to the horse, but the horse will have been very carefully trained over a long period to teach it how to jump big fences or different types.

And there's me imagining all sorts Pets!

rofl, i thought that was some criticism of the dressage petinmy...

AIBU to think that whores do not belong in the Olympics?

Oh go on Oaty start a thread !

The whores would do whatever it takes to get gold though

They would probably do it from memory too! But it's all little leg movements, hand movements and adjusting your weight.

I don't really care what the background to the sport is, I like the opportunity to see lots of different sports at the very highest level. Class doesn't affect my enjoyment. I either enjoy or I don't.

Not sure how you define what's 'Good enough for the Olympics' or not, but in my opinion, its any sport that requires skill and training. Which equally could include competitive sheep herding, motor racing or Olympic Hook A Duck.

Pets - that was the funniest auto-correct I've ever seen on here and I have tears running down my cheeks

YABU and curiously have echoed exactly what my DH said this evening. Dogs have no place in the Olympics, why should they? As everyone who has anything to do with horseriding has already explained, the riders are actually doing a LOT to control their horses through the exercises and over jumps - it's a human form of sport that involves horses. There aren't any of those involving dogs that I know of.

Ahh Kellamity, I lol'ed long and hard at that

YABU

This is the only Olympic sport in which men and women compete against each other on equal terms.

I love the equestrian events and they're a great mixture - dressage is like gymnastics or synchronised swimming, the jumping is similar to high jump, cross country is racing. The event shows as much versatility, skill and variety as many of the other Olympic sports.

You can have dog agility
Id watch that x

Dog agility

I love watching the horses, they are so beautiful.

Irrespective of skill the fact remains the result of an equestrian event is as much down to the performance of the animal as it is the human. The Olympics is meant to be a showcase of the limits human skill and performance not animal. If equestrian events belong in the Olympics then so does crufts.

If the riders horse was chosen at random from a pool of animals then it might ve worth keeping in but not as it stands.

Gosh, I had no idea that dressage riders did so much with their 'seat'.
So, they are essentially talking out of their arses?

But many olympic sports rely on very excellent machinery as the grounds for the performance of the sportsperson. A rowing boat costs £20 000 and its precise manufacture is essential for the rowers to even stand a chance of winning. It is the controol of the animal by the human that is being judged, not simply the animal itself.

The Olympics is meant to be a showcase of the limits human skill and performance not animal.

says who? I reckon there's a significant difference between the physicality of riding versus any of the dog-related sports, where its largely voice and handsignals not actual physical skill on the part of the doghandler.

The performance of the horse is down the rider training the horse for years as well as the horses natural ability. Dogs agility just doesn't cut it compared to that.

My dog is currently in training for the terrier racing.

Ooh, that's an interesting point, grimma -- the physicality of the rider, the very bodily nature of their control of the horse, requiring a very developed and highly individuated use of a range of muscles throughout their physique. I hadn't thought of that.