Equestrian Events at the Olympics
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Anonymous
| I am loving the gorgeous backdrop of Versailles. I watched some dressage and show jumping last night. Wonderful! |
Anonymous
| I’m enjoying it too. I know nothing about equestrian sports or horses, but it’s fun to watch with the pretty scenery. A+ for the organizers for this. |
Anonymous
Yawn |
Anonymous
| It's nice that unathletic wealthy people still have a way to compete in the olympics |
Anonymous
This |
Anonymous
I agree, the setting is so gorgeous. France has done an amazing job as host, holding events in these iconic places. |
Anonymous
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Riders at this level require serious strength, balance plus sensitivity to be in tune with their horses.
Both riders and horses are elite athletes. And it’s a rare sports where men and women across all ages compete together. US rider Laura Kraut is a grandmother. |
Anonymous
Try it. Riding a trained and talented dressage horse is like driving a Ferrari with a mind of its own, while standing on a trampoline someone else is jumping up and down on. |
Anonymous
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The team did so well, I hope they are happy. Laura got a little unlucky and Harry Charles got really lucky and there you go. Silver is still amazing.
The course designers did an amazing job. Great horses and riders, lots of tough questions, but nothing cheap or tricky. The scores were just what you would hope for. I don’t care if people think it shouldnt be in the Olympics or isn’t a sport or whatever. That’s fine. But as a show jumping event, it was spectacular. The venue is insane. The hometown team medaled and it was so fun to watch them. I hope the individuals go as well. |
Anonymous
We seem to have a bit of a tradition going of having three seasoned pros and a billionaire kid. Karl Cook might be a lot of things and he certainly doesn’t have the track record the others do, but you can’t argue with two clear rounds in the clutch. |
Anonymous
It’s definitely more about precision and skill than raw athletic ability, but I think “unathletic” would be a stretch. Sometimes you have kind of extraordinary things like nick skelton in 2012 was clearly not at his physical peak but made up for it with talent and experience. There are other Olympic sports like that though. Some lean more towards athletic feats and some towards skillful performance, no? |
Anonymous
Some sports like artistic swimming you're supposed to make it look effortless, and as a result people think it's easy. It's not. |
Anonymous
😂 |
Anonymous
I grew up on a horse farm, and I competed in dressage and three-day eventing/show jumping for years. You DO have to be athletic, actually. We ran, did weights, and there was intense pressure to maintain a certain body weight and form. Riding is not just sitting, despite what you may believe. I had an aunt who had been a prima ballerina and ran a dance school, and it always seemed to me that the physical demands and pressure re: body image and training on the ballerinas was similar to what you find in the upper competitive circles of elite equestrian sports. (Not that I was ever allowed to or invited to dance: ballet and riding train muscles the "opposite" way, so one destroys the potential and capacity to engage in the other at the elite level). |
Anonymous
What other sport has purchasing housing and transporting a 750k horse as the initial barrier to entry? |