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😂

What? I'm not particularly horsey, but both our daughters rode for 8 years or so and I love horses, even the stubborn ones. There is no way that punching horses achieves anything good. Why would you even think that.

As for smacking dogs. Wrong again. Only idiots need to smack or otherwise hurt an animal to make it "behave". I hope you don't have dogs or horses.

@AtomHeartMotherOfGod

I heard the names are pulled out of a hat. It seemed unfair to have a horse like that as part of the mix.

Punching seems cruel to me but I'm not a horsewoman; that trainer may have had success doing that with other horses. I know dog training can involve smacking in response to undesired behaviour.

My last post was in response to this.

On the BBC they were just saying that in Paris the showjumping will be first and the bottom half of the field will be eliminated after that. Might help to make the riding more important and get the athletes and coaches to take it more seriously. If you can be cut after the ride you’ll want to get it right.

the german girl Annika is 31 and has been in the modern pentathlon since 2012, so not inexperienced.

@MadameMinimes

On the BBC they were just saying that in Paris the showjumping will be first and the bottom half of the field will be eliminated after that. Might help to make the riding more important and get the athletes and coaches to take it more seriously. If you can be cut after the ride you’ll want to get it right.

provided they add in more rules for rider elimination for unkind behaviour in either rider or coach and insist on no gags, spurs or other harsh tools.

On the BBC they were just saying that in Paris the showjumping will be first and the bottom half of the field will be eliminated after that. Might help to make the riding more important and get the athletes and coaches to take it more seriously. If you can be cut after the ride you’ll want to get it right

I will keep my fingers crossed then. Yes the prospect of been eliminated should put the wind up them.

That seems a bit unfair if they really do get a naughty horse, but maybe it will improve things. I doubt it.

@knittingaddict

What? I'm not particularly horsey, but both our daughters rode for 8 years or so and I love horses, even the stubborn ones. There is no way that punching horses achieves anything good. Why would you even think that.

As for smacking dogs. Wrong again. Only idiots need to smack or otherwise hurt an animal to make it "behave". I hope you don't have dogs or horses.

Hell yes, who would do that? My old farrier used to punch horses, horrible man.

the german girl Annika is 31 and has been in the modern pentathlon since 2012, so not inexperienced

Still not experienced enough........

I've got 20 odd years driving experience. Doubt I could safely blast a F1 car round a track in a timed competition with only a handful of lessons off the stig here and there before hand.

That horse was clearly very upset and if they had done more preparation with their riding, then things might have been a lot different. That German rider was shameful to watch. Yes the horse was not cooperating, but crying your way round whipping it and jabbing it with your spurs was absolutely not the way to go. Absolutely disgraceful. That not go down well at a grassroots riding event in the UK, let alone an international event with a global audience. Nothing that couldn't have been avoided with better preparation riding many different horses several times a week which surely should be standard preparation for someone hoping to be selected for MP at the olympics? If that had been my daughter I would be absolutely ashamed of her. And the trainers been kicked out and sent home in disgrace for punching the horse which is at least something.

@CrotchetyQuaver

That horse was clearly very upset and if they had done more preparation with their riding, then things might have been a lot different. That German rider was shameful to watch. Yes the horse was not cooperating, but crying your way round whipping it and jabbing it with your spurs was absolutely not the way to go. Absolutely disgraceful. That not go down well at a grassroots riding event in the UK, let alone an international event with a global audience. Nothing that couldn't have been avoided with better preparation riding many different horses several times a week which surely should be standard preparation for someone hoping to be selected for MP at the olympics? If that had been my daughter I would be absolutely ashamed of her. And the trainers been kicked out and sent home in disgrace for punching the horse which is at least something.

My dd said it reminded her of the worst spoilt brat pony comp riders that had tantrums and then whipped their ponies.

The way the British showjumping team have behaved towards their horses seems to stand in fairly stark contrast. I was a bit about some of the commentators who couldn’t seem to grasp why you wouldn’t just “give it a go” on a horse that only had a slight injury or why they’d choose not to risk a run with an uninjured horse once they were out of medal contention. Someone even asked why they couldn’t swap Brash and his injured horse back into the team. Maher’s response was great though.

she is 31 ! She is a pentathlete, competing in 3 olympic games
i doubt very much if a lot of you had had the same attitude
towards a british competitor

@AbsolutelyPatsy

she is 31 ! She is a pentathlete, competing in 3 olympic games i doubt very much if a lot of you had had the same attitude towards a british competitor

All the more reason then with her age and experience for her not to act like a pony club brat on the world stage...

@AbsolutelyPatsy

she is 31 ! She is a pentathlete, competing in 3 olympic games i doubt very much if a lot of you had had the same attitude towards a british competitor

No British competitor that had come through Pony Club would behave like that, so that's a non argument

She must be mortified about behaving that badly. If she'd tried gently encouraging and dropping the reins and waiting, and the horse still didn't cooperate, she would have come out of this at least looking as though she cared about the horses. Her behaviour was an absolute embarrassment.

I fucking would judge a British rider and have done in the past.

I'm not sure what you are trying to defend here? It certainly isn't animal welfare.

I've have had horses all my life and have worked in the competitive industry and competed when younger too.

I can't help noticing poor riding skills and bad horsemanship 🤷‍♀️

I will repeat 'horses are not equipment'

Tbf I didn't think Jamie Cooke ride that well either.

The South Koreans were some of the nicest, quietest riders in the men's comp

It amazes me that someone with that level of experience and the skill required to be at the Olympics would even attempt to continue with the horse in that level of distress and expect to achieve anything at all. What was she thinking? The dogs on the street could tell she was winning nothing on that horse.

Yep. She should have handled it better. The horse may have still refused to enter the ring but at least she wouldn't be being vilified now. She's deleted her social media, probably very wise

the horse had refused another rider earlier.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/07/german-modern-pentathlon-kim-raisner-coach-thrown-out-of-tokyo-olympics-for-punching-horse-annika-schleu?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Azb6E__1Xst3mwMxfhmItEpWDGVyfCEXgTtbSz9GNUvYfon7zGUPfL2g#Echobox=1628327486

[quote AbsolutelyPatsy]the horse had refused another rider earlier.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/07/german-modern-pentathlon-kim-raisner-coach-thrown-out-of-tokyo-olympics-for-punching-horse-annika-schleu?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Azb6E__1Xst3mwMxfhmItEpWDGVyfCEXgTtbSz9GNUvYfon7zGUPfL2g#Echobox=1628327486[/quote]
So? That's Modern Pentathlon for you

@Bryonyshcmyony how does she come back from this? Absent a serious amount of therapy, riding instruction from the start upwards, followed by a very public published explanation and apology (which may not work), she’s destroyed her own career as a competitor, coach, sponsorship prospect in the most public way possible. She needs a very genuine hair shirt to be able to compete at any serious level again

Saint Boy had already refused to jump for another rider, Russian competitor Gulnaz Gubaydullina, earlier in the competition and the German Modern Pentathlon Union said he had been “traumatised by the previous rider” even before Schleu’s round, during which he bucked and refused to trot around the course.

FFS!! And despite all that, and knowing he was traumatised they didn’t pull him? They stuck another rider in him and sent him out? Serious questions need to be asked about horse welfare at the Olympics.

agree @MotionActivatedDog

she is 31 ! She is a pentathlete, competing in 3 olympic games
i doubt very much if a lot of you had had the same attitude
towards a british competitor

So she should know better. I'd be horrified by anyone behaving that way