| LiquidTurbo | 08-06-2012 09:17 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by MindBomber
(Post 7994877)
It takes a significant amount of time for a relationship to be built between horse and rider. If the relationship does not exist, the horse will no listen to the rider.
Without a human, the horse will not do any of the things we ask of them in competition. It all comes down to the individual humans balance, muscle control, timing, ability to command respect. It's fair to say, it's 100% human effort being judged.
It's easy to criticize a sport you do not understand, which is whats happening here. There's a lot more to equestrian than what meets the eye.
Every horse goes through a health assessment upon arriving in London, and I believe another before and after every round. I'm not sure if there are also random checks or if this was discovered during a scheduled one, it's definitely a bad ruling though.
| Without the horse, the human wouldn't even be capable of competing. Therefore it's fair to say the horse is essential to the competition. So how can you say it's 100% human effort?
All you seem to be saying is "You guys don't understand, you don't know a damn thing about the sport." Well, I want to learn exactly why it deserves a place on Olympic stage.
For example it's pretty easy to defend why Badminton or Table Tennis can get a spot in the Olympic games. I sincerely hope that events like Equestrian will be toned down in the decades to come or removed completely. Something is wrong when a dude like this can compete in the OLYMPICS. It's technically possible to win a gold medal at the age of 71 (Hiroshi Hoketsu of Japan)! http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...u_2158258b.jpg
I'm probably an extremist, but I feel events like this are border line animal abuse. Just let the horses roam wild and do their thing. It's the 21st century and we still have people riding horses? But no, let's force them to do grueling training regimes and make them jump over things for no purpose whatsoever! | 