How do they choose the horses for Modern Pentathlon?

[DazzlePaintedBattlePants]

Just watched the German competitor leave the arena in tears at the Tokyo Olympics after a fairly horrific showjumping round, where the horse was being a complete sod. I’m fairly sure the horses are assigned randomly to the competitors but where do they come from? Do the organisers phone up their mates and ask for the stroppiest horses going?

I get that horsemanship is obviously the important skill to demonstrate but the horses are a fairly large confounding variable😂

Absolutely agree @LaLaFlottes
Very sorry disply

It’s on Discovery +

Men’s starts at 6.30 ish in the morning.

Come on Jo.

It wasn't the best display of horsemanship ever was it 😩

Haven't watched today's coverage so don't know if the commentators have made this point but modern pentathlon is meant to test the skills of a crack cavalry officer caught behind enemy lines and trying to make his or her escape.

I didn't see that event but if it's the 'modern' pentathlon, and they're emulating a cavalry officer, maybe it's time they replaced the 'ride a random horse' by 'Hotwire a random vehicle'.

Whilst the modern pentathlon is meant to test the skills of a crack cavalry officer caught behind enemy lines and trying to make his or her escape, first and foremost a cavalry officer is a highly trained horseman.

20 minutes is not enough to warm up any horse for a showjumping event, let alone one that you have never sat on before. Especially if it has already had a less than pleasant round with a different rider half an hour previously.

The test of riding is the partnership, and there is no partnership here. It must be incredibly difficult to accept that a random horse can be make or break on your chances of a medal and I can see how, in the heat of the moment, an athlete would perhaps struggle to put the welfare of the horse as a priority when it isn't jumping well, as there is no connection and partnership. In this sport the horse is part of the equipment, not an athlete and part of the team as with other equestrian events, and that is fundamentally wrong.

Modern pentathlon have just released a statement. I think, quite rightly, they should be held to account over this and something needs to change.

@blah3000

Whilst the modern pentathlon is meant to test the skills of a crack cavalry officer caught behind enemy lines and trying to make his or her escape, first and foremost a cavalry officer is a highly trained horseman.

20 minutes is not enough to warm up any horse for a showjumping event, let alone one that you have never sat on before. Especially if it has already had a less than pleasant round with a different rider half an hour previously.

The test of riding is the partnership, and there is no partnership here. It must be incredibly difficult to accept that a random horse can be make or break on your chances of a medal and I can see how, in the heat of the moment, an athlete would perhaps struggle to put the welfare of the horse as a priority when it isn't jumping well, as there is no connection and partnership. In this sport the horse is part of the equipment, not an athlete and part of the team as with other equestrian events, and that is fundamentally wrong.

Modern pentathlon have just released a statement. I think, quite rightly, they should be held to account over this and something needs to change.

Do you have a link?

Thought this was interesting

"The multiple Olympic champion in dressage, Isabell Werth, also expressed criticism of the action: “Pentathlon has nothing to do with riding,” she told the SID news agency: “Horses are a means of transport to which the athletes have no connection. They can you might as well give a bike or a scooter"

Translated from German I think

@Bryonyshcmyony I uploaded an image of their Facebook statement, that is all they have released so far.

Sorry I didn't see that! Thank you

@Bryonyshcmyony

Thought this was interesting

"The multiple Olympic champion in dressage, Isabell Werth, also expressed criticism of the action: “Pentathlon has nothing to do with riding,” she told the SID news agency: “Horses are a means of transport to which the athletes have no connection. They can you might as well give a bike or a scooter"

Translated from German I think

Maybe I wasn't so far off in my comment upthread. Most 'cavalry' officers aren't mounted nowadays afaik, and using horses as 'equipment' is just wrong.

The coach has been disqualified! Good!

The random horse thing is the whole point of it, surely? I love Modern Pentathlon, absolutely brilliant event.

The UIPM have also seemingly disqualified the trainer who punched the horse. Not quite sure what implications this actually has though..

https://www.uipmworld.org/news/uipm-official-statement-kim-raisner-ger-disqualified-tokyo-2020-olympic-games?fbclid=IwAR0-0KvMMn3Rg3FZ6OOvHPZjr67nUar9nABRLLyKTdj44_deRXxzghHmJpI

A quick scan and it is all over the media this morning. Public backlash is going to be strong. Let's just hope that people can see the difference between this event with randomly assigned horses and the pure events of dressage, Eventing and showjumping and that the whole of equestrian sport doesn't get dragged through the mud.

This is the problem I have with the dressage thread - I’m only a rank beginner, I’m a soft touch, and I completely accept that high level dressage riders use the tiniest aids, but the vast majority of riding I see in life and online involves heavy hands, sawing, kicking, hitting, heavy riders on small horses etc. I’m not even sure why this horse was considered fit to be included in this round given that it crashed right down across a fence in the earlier round. I’m glad the coach was disqualified at least.

HarebrightCedarmoon
The random horse thing is the whole point of it, surely? I love Modern Pentathlon, absolutely brilliant event

it's not the random horse thing that's the problem though. It's the complete lack of horsemanship skills. Horses are not equipment.

You clearly don't have anything to do with pony club @Gremlinsateit

I judged a pony club dressage competition this week. The children were under 10. There was absolutely no ridiculously exaggerated kicking, no sawing, no whips and no fat kids. Some had easier ponies than others but all of them, even the tinies, rode with care. Its drummed into them that it's never the ponies fault, always theirs.

I've seen some terrible riding among the older riding club generation it must be said. Heavy riders are my bugbear. Normally they have horses who look unwilling and refuse a lot - jolly good for the horses imo

I remember a child whacking and whacking a pony many years ago. The trainer stepped into the ring, grabbed the whip off her, snapped it over her knee and said if I ever see you using a whip again I will use it on you. 😅

There’s a petition doing the rounds.

Thing is for the non horsey people on thread.

Can you imagine having an event where the contestant had just passed their driving test and then got in a F1 rasing car to do a few laps as fast as they could? there would be crashes and carnage all over. no one would blame the car.

yet if you put a living breathing brain in the car who also knew what a crash feels like, or how painful and unbalanced rider/driver feels slamming down on their back from a miss place lead to a jump, or the feel of someone pulling on your mouth/steering wheel just to take a corner.

Some horses are going to quite naturally not want to do the job, under the circumstances.

These horses are veterans at what they do, they deserve better.

That German male rider rode a very nice round

@NewYearNewTwatName

Thing is for the non horsey people on thread.

Can you imagine having an event where the contestant had just passed their driving test and then got in a F1 rasing car to do a few laps as fast as they could? there would be crashes and carnage all over. no one would blame the car.

yet if you put a living breathing brain in the car who also knew what a crash feels like, or how painful and unbalanced rider/driver feels slamming down on their back from a miss place lead to a jump, or the feel of someone pulling on your mouth/steering wheel just to take a corner.

Some horses are going to quite naturally not want to do the job, under the circumstances.

These horses are veterans at what they do, they deserve better.

Absolutely they deserve better, which is why there is such shock that supposedly world class competitors were riding at a lower standard than a decent pony club teen

UK grassroots modern pentathlon is very closely associated with Pony Club, I’ve only ever known competitors being horsey first, athletics second (or actually, horsey kids who also happen to excel at athletics at school, so join the pony club MP team)

As someone said upthread, yesterday’s display looked more like taking some decent swimmers/runners and give them a quick 101 in showjumping and send them to Tokyo

But they are all horse owners and should know a LOT better than to treat horses like equipment and be so surprised when rough riding with hard hands doesn’t get a good result

As someone said upthread, yesterday’s display looked more like taking some decent swimmers/runners and give them a quick 101 in showjumping and send them to Tokyo

That's exactly what does happen

Well, not to the Olympics, but how a lot get into MP

Sparechange
my point exactly. I found this on twitter, Says what I was saying earlier, the jumping is a side show. When it should be the main feature. especially as its supposed to emulate a Cavalry officer!

Until they start expecting and demanding better Rider ability to qualify for this competition, it should run without horses in it.

@wendytmomof3
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5h
Replying to
@gusbruno7
My daughter competes in Modern Pentathlon . The problem is the athletes don’t take the riding portion seriously bc it doesn’t earn the most points. As an equestrian it’s stomach turning watching them ride at any level. Take some lessons for goodness sakes!

Some come through Pony Club and they are good riders. But the fence is the most influential phase