modern pentathlon showjumping - why so few clear rounds?

[basildonbond]

at least half of the riders in the women's event looked like they should be in a beginners' class!

does having random horses make that much difference? Or should they concentrate a bit more on their riding??

Apparently, its always been the way that riding is by far their weakest discipline.

Those horses were absolute saints imo - the way many were riding was appalling

Basically few clear rounds as the riders were shit. Most horses will hold back from jumping their best if they are being continually socked in the gob and having their backs jarred. The owners of the horses must have been cringing at every jump, I know I was.

They sit in the horse for about 10 minutes and are then expected to jump a reasonably good sized jumping course in an arena full of people on a horse they don't know!!!

A lot of the athletes are also not horse riders.

If you are an Olympic athelete and part of your sport is riding- why would you actually just not bother to get good at it? Although the welfare was a thousand times better than Bejing (and it couldn't have been worse than that disgusting display), watching terrified novices plow fences was pretty pathetic. The number who didn't have gloves was pretty odd. The horses were heroic not to dump most of them. Did feel some sympathy for Maihri (sp) who did her best to steady her tanking gray and clearly can ride very well.

Something really needs to be done about the riding, it isn't pretty. Having said that some of those horses looked difficult - Mhairi Spencer's in particular was pulling like a train. Jumping two rounds sets them alight too I think. The silver medallist (Laura?) rode a neat round though.

They ought to have to qualify at a certain level before they are allowed to ride - perhaps before the start of the competition (a bit like the trot ups) - so that any that aren't deemed good enough get chucked out. Maybe then they'll make more of an effort to ride better?

I noticed that some weren't wearing gloves too.Pretty basic I'd have thought.

I don't think "they aren't riders" is a good enough excuse at Olympic level tbh. If they spent as much time training for the riding as they clearly do at the other disciplines involved, they would be reaonably good in a short space of time. I am a rider, but by no means a jumper, but even I can get on a horse and jump a course better than that!
It's basic riding skills, sit lightly, steer gently and most horses will try their best.

Apparently they are all able to go and train on the horses for the week before the competition - they just don't know which horse they will get beforehand. Hardly anybody takes advantage of this.

A lot of the horses were schoolmasters from colleges and performance horse dealers and were schooled up especially for the event.

Well if they can do that I'd have expected them to ride much better!! It was car crash like! I agree with the comments and said to my riding instructor I thought they should be vetted before hand (the riders!)

My friend has organised some really good named show jumpers to come give lessons at the riding school where she worked. They have given demos on some of the school horses. They have made the stroppy mediocre school ponies do amazing things. I think if you are a good rider, then you can ride most things.

If my DH can jump on a strange horse and gallop it safely across the Majorcan countryside having not ridden at all for 10 years and not regularly for 25 years, surely they the pentathlon riding shouldn't be so bad.

By the way it was no fluke DH didn't fall off he did it again the next year. He also like he was 12 again.

Caught a glimpse of this on re-play, shocking riding overall, if you are competing at olympic level and are required to jump a course of jumps as part of your chosen sport then you should be able to do it better than that. On the up side, it stops the general public thinking horse riding is as easy as it appears when the professionals are in the ring!

I saw the mens pentathlon at Greenwich on Saturday. The showjumping was absolutely shocking. It was like a Pony Club gymkhana.

I remember watching the modern pentathlon in Beijing and was at Greenwich on Sunday - I always wondered where the horses came from as there's no way I'd lend a horse for this event! Totally agree about Mhairi, she did a great job controlling that horse who was clearly overexcited, but some of the other riders were simply appalling. After hearing that they can train for the week beforehand on the horses I'm even more surprised...

I have to say though I did feel a bit sorry for the poor sod that got the horse in the second round that had the rider who negotiated the treble clinging under it's belly the first time round -It had clearly become disillusioned with the idea of jumping and was having none of it when presented at the fences a second time!!!

The mens was even worse than the womens.

I think some of the poor horses had clearly had enough by the time they got to the second round.

I recall our yard being asked if we had any suitable horses a few years back, as we were at a competition centre less than an hour from london. We didnt thank god. My horse is a saint, but I would hate to put her through what some of those poor horses went through.

Pony club is a much higher standard than that!

I was really surprised by how many of them looked so uncomfortable on a horse - the commentators said that riding wasn't the 'preferred discipline' of several riders but as the jumping round had such a massive effect on the end result why on earth wouldn't you just concentrate on riding if you knew you were going to be in the Olympics?? After all, none of them would have thrown themselves in the pool if they could only do doggy-paddle ...

I was just wondering if I'd been missing something and that maybe the random horse thing made all the difference and could make even good riders look awful, but it seems not!