Sending the horses to the Olympics

[BIWI]

Back in 2008 there was a very funny thread about how people imagined the horses got transported to China. But AS doesn't show anything up.

There was a link to it in one thread I found ( where MN were asking for nominations to classics but the link didn't work.

I have a feeling this must mean it was in chat, but thought I'd check with @MNHQ (and the rest of Mumsnet!)

Does anyone happen to have a stashed copy of it? Is it in the vaults at MNHQ?!

Thanks @LarsErickssong

I had a conversation my dh about this whilst watching the Olympic this week. We didn't have a clue how they got there either. But I did hear the commentator say they go out a few weeks earlier to acclimatise to the temperature

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams thanks for that. What a fascinating watch. Some awful riding and questionable ground handling too. Also very much a lottery. The first British rider was a good rider but had such a hard time with her horse. Some hairy moments too. One rider falls off on the second fence of the treble but doesn't let go so the horse jumps the third part with her hanging on round it's neck. Another finishes the course then jumps clean out of the arena. 😆. The horses will come from large showjumping producers who have huge stablefulls of them. Show jumpers are frequently ridden by someone other than their owner anyway so it's not like it's an owner missing out to give their horse up for the Olympics. Some might even buy a horse hoping it will do that sort of thing.

But the way it's written implies that being Chinese is a good thing and what you would expect. Subsequent posts imply that a Chinese horse would be inferior

I didn't read it like that. More that you'd expect there to be enough suitable horses in China that they wouldn't have to ship more half way across the world when you're just warning to borrow it for half an hour 😆

I remember that thread. It was the 1st thread I read which actually made me cry with laughter. I really hope MNHQ find it.

@rantymcrantface66 just out of interest what is questionable about the ground handling of the horses? (I know nothing about horses but this video is fascinating )

Seems a lot of us know about how horses travel from good old jilly Cooper
I think I might do a Jilly Cooper week and start off by reading riders again 😂😂

[quote leafygreeen]@rantymcrantface66 just out of interest what is questionable about the ground handling of the horses? (I know nothing about horses but this video is fascinating )[/quote]
The ones leading the horses up just looked a bit amateur for such a big competition. Some of the horses were quite excitable but there were a couple not managing it very well which can be potentially dangerous(I used to work in racing so handling highly strung animals from the ground is something I have quite a lot of experience of). Until today though I've had absolutely no knowledge of pentathlon events and it's possibly a new favourite. You don't see such things normally as a novice rider on a novice horse dont tend make such spectacular mistakes because they are both at the same level and not attempting something quite so hard and obviously the pro's know what they are doing (plus they generally know their horses quirks) . That combination of experienced unknown horse and inexperienced riders makes things a whole lot more interesting. I have to say I was surprised that at Olympic level they are quite so inexperienced. I get it must be hard to train for so many events but one person said they ride just 2 times a month when training. Surprisingly when you can lose so many points that way.

@rantymcrantface66

I was also close to tears (I am a massive softy) when an Icelandic horse trekking guide informed me that, due to strict animal control laws to prevent bringing in diseases such as strangles, the Icelandic teams have to leave their horses behind after international competitions. The horses aren't allowed to go home

I didn't know this 😭. Couldn't they just have super strict quarantine measures?

It's true but those who are choosing to compete their icelandic horses internationally know they rules. They therefore only compete the horses that they wish to sell abroad - and frequently do as a method of advertising their own horses etc. Usually the horses have been sold prior to the international competitions. Those whi don't wish to sell their horses compete in iceland where there are plenty of competitions.

@rantymcrantface66

I would imagine Icelandic horses do race with their unique gait, against other Icelandic horses.

They do but only against other icelandic horses.

Thanks for replying ranty. That's so interesting. Are the riders really very inexperienced looking?? Surely they must be quite good riders to be able to do jumping at all??

It's a real mix, some of them looked to be very good and just been unlucky with their rounds and one Korean girl had a totally unsuitable horse for her (I think it was the same horse as the first British rider had actually, she was a much more experienced rider but still struggled with the horse) but others do look pretty inexperienced even their position on entering the ring before they start jumping and there were some quite rookie errors. I suspect some don't have horses of the level some of these are to train on either. These horses are will be far more sensitive and you could see some objecting to too tight reins and being confused about what they were being asked to do. Makes for good viewing though 😆

Another one going to re read riders! Was it her only horsey book? I tried to get into Rivals but didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. I’m not at all horsey but find it fascinating

There is also Polo, mount and jump although I'm sure others are set in the same privileged world where horses may come in to it. It's been a long time since I read them

[quote LarsErickssong]**@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams* the US team horses really are flown on a plane called Air Horse One, @tiredvommachine* wasn't joking [/quote]
Oops, sorry tiredvommachine. I will remember that now!

Felicity, Polo is about polo, so has lots of ponies. Some of the later ones are about racing too.

@rantymcrantface66

It's a real mix, some of them looked to be very good and just been unlucky with their rounds and one Korean girl had a totally unsuitable horse for her (I think it was the same horse as the first British rider had actually, she was a much more experienced rider but still struggled with the horse) but others do look pretty inexperienced even their position on entering the ring before they start jumping and there were some quite rookie errors. I suspect some don't have horses of the level some of these are to train on either. These horses are will be far more sensitive and you could see some objecting to too tight reins and being confused about what they were being asked to do. Makes for good viewing though 😆

Fascinating, thank you!

The rider at 1:34:31 looks so aggressive with the poor horse

So do the horses not know by themselves at all how to jump over the hurdles? They only ever do what they're told by the rider?

Site stuff threads aren't usually this interesting

They do know, and some of them got the riders out of some pretty sticky situations there but the rider has over all control and if they turn the horse in to a jump at the wrong angle or distance or sit badly and unbalance them it can be more than they can manage to get out of it. Some horses are naturally better at it than others, some are more genuine and will try harder to sort it out and some are simply more experienced or clever and can manage despite a bad angle or stride

@Pucarbuile

Site stuff threads aren't usually this interesting

You're welcome

The rider at 1:34:31 looks so aggressive with the poor horse

Tbf I actually didn't see that rider do much wrong. It started off with a bee in its bonnet with the snatching and tail flicking and compared to some riders she wasn't hanging on to it or too unbalanced from what I could see although the camera angle wasn't great at that point. The commentator said he thought she'd gone in to the fence on the wrong stride but I'm not sure that horse had any intention of going over the jump and a more forgiving horse would have done it no problem. It was a long enough approach to be able to sort themselves out anyway. I'm inclined to say she deserved that skelp on the arse if she was indeed being a bit of a pig 😬. (The whips are made of foam like a dense pool noodle so pretty hard to actually hurt them, it's just a little reminder). On the ohenr had it could have had some back pain which would explain all of it and neither the rider nor the horses fault

Wow, so interesting You sound very knowledgeable indeed!

I’m guessing you haven’t had any joy @LivMumsnet?

Hi @BIWI just dropping in to say that we haven't had any luck with finding this one. It was started in Chat, back in the days when it auto deleted after 90 days.

I thought that was probably the case. What a shame

Been checking this thread as was hoping it would be found - sounded amusing!

Jilly Cooperbooks provided me with information as well as entertainment. That’s how I found out that all horses all have the same “birthday” - 1 January in the northern hemisphere and 1 August in the Southern Hemisphere.