To think that equestrian events are ridiculous

[BFrazzled]

In the Olympics.

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

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

Do any of the horsey people here remember a man doing a dressage routine to the 'wiggle, wiggle, wiggle' song? Fat chance I know!

A man with his horse, obviously.

@sadperson16

Blimey,they have dubious taste in music.

The Hamilton soundtrack is banging tbf

@sadperson16

Blimey,they have dubious taste in music.

We leave the radio on for my arthritic oldie - her favourite is Absolute Classic Rock

She loves a bit of 80s rock

@mbosnz

Do any of the horsey people here remember a man doing a dressage routine to the 'wiggle, wiggle, wiggle' song? Fat chance I know!

This one?

(For those not into dressage, this was a charity display, not competitive!)

Yes, thank you so much!

@IceandIndigo

Yeah I agree. I don’t really like the Olympic events that only rich countries can afford to compete in and equestrian events are the epitome of that.

If it were up to me I’d also get rid of team sports (anything involving more than four people) and anything where there’s a major competition that’s more prestigious than the Olympics (tennis, golf etc). It feels like there are more ridiculous events added every time.

That's quite a trimmed down Olympics you'd have then

Where do you stand on the new addition of skateboarding?

Do you realize the difference between being fit in that horse sense and being fit to compete in absolutely any other manpowered sport in the Olympics?

Both are far from everyday or amateur sportsmen level of fitness, but yet very far apart as well.

Do you ride? Because if you do, you'd have an inkling of an idea of how much fitness it takes to do anything complex and demanding on a horse. An hour's hack out, not much. An hour's focussed dressage, a fair bit. Dressage as a career - I don't want to think about it, makes me ache.
And besides that, they are hugely skilled.

I've seen some great dressage to hip hop too. Not suited to every horses movement though.

So of course they are jealous in the sense that for them it is completely unattainable, but I think this is a valid reason why this sport isn't popular with many.
How do you know how many people like it either to take part in or like to watch, my dh an apprentice engineer when i met him , used to go to dressage classes, had to give it up as he was very busy with work etc

@sadperson16

Blimey,they have dubious taste in music.

Mine love a bit of Classic Fm to snooze to on a wet afternoon . Many a day I’ve brought them in early due to miserable weather , turned the radio on and found them snoring gently half an hour later . Tbf , it has much the same effect on me…

@rantymcrantface66

I've seen some great dressage to hip hop too. Not suited to every horses movement though.

My absolute favourite to watch is Blue Hors Matine the world dressage games .

Brilliant .

@BFrazzled

Some horses go best for a small, female rider - others are brilliant in the right hands but require a lot of physical size and strength to keep controlled.

Sorry to hijack your comment but this kind of contradict other horsey posters claiming that horses want to do it all by themselves and just love dancing to music.

Paralympic dressage is a thing: people with limited or no arm or leg function compete at dressage. Watch that and then come back to the thread and tell us that the horse is being forced round the arena.

In the cross country phase of eventing, however, you can get scenarios where a horse moving at 30mph needs to be slowed down before a particularly tricky jump - so that both horse and rider make it over safely. In those scenarios, on some horses more than others, it requires a lot of strength to physically get back in the saddle and put the brakes on (which you do mostly with your core and your legs). It’s easier to do that if you’re 6’6 and have big quads than if you’re 5’ nothing and don’t. Hence the need to match horse and rider.

You're not wrong but horse obsessives are ridiculous

@plominoagain yes that's the one that I remember the most. Absolutely stunning and so suited to the horses gaits. I do remember thinking perhaps they could have picked the radio edit though 😆

Mine love a bit of Classic Fm to snooze to on a wet afternoon . Many a day I’ve brought them in early due to miserable weather , turned the radio on and found them snoring gently half an hour later . Tbf , it has much the same effect on me…

An old boss would only allow radio 2. Apparently it's calming 😆

Dressage is very skilled and takes excellent control to make the horses move in very precise ways. I don't feel sorry for the horses because the risk of injury to them doing dressage is low, much less than when competing in a race. Perhaps you object to all forms of horse riding, as at the end of the day it is about an animal serving humans, but there would be very few horses around if equestrian sports were banned.

This is one of my fave to music

This will always be my favourite.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgxnpXH-pB0

[quote DroopyClematis]@atlastifoundit
Why would I ? It's a stupid idea. [/quote]
There really is no need to be so dismissive of something that many people dedicate their lives to.

@NotMyCat I've seen many a better test ridden but what I liked about that is that the horse was so enthusiastic and happy. He was really having a ball

[quote Polkadotties]This will always be my favourite.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgxnpXH-pB0[/quote]
Come one - that's a horse dancing! 😂

@rantymcrantface66 I think that's why I like it so much. The enthusiasm and the music and how happy/proud the rider is even if it's not technically perfect

Don't love dressage so much but show jumping is 🔥🔥🔥

The winner of the individual gold medal at the Olympics signals a really positive new direction for dressage. For a long time now dressage has been a bit "sick". It's been taken over by very extreme moving horses that are very difficult to keep sound and ride. Jessica is a breath of fresh air and her training style is such a positive one.