How to make Dressage a proper Olympic Sport

[cthulu2016]

We can all agree that the Olympics is for human competitors, so the horse is technically equipment, like a golf club.

Real sports do not allow meaningful disparities in quality of equipment. When possible, equipment is shared by all. No gymnast gets to fly in their own pommel horse, for instance.

Even when competitors have their own golf clubs or running shoes they are standardized, with limits to ensure that nobody's equipment can be substantially superior to the norm.

The intelligence, temperament and training of horses is not an incidental difference. It is determinative of dressage performance.

So to make dressage a sport for dressage riders, the answer is simple. The Olympics buys a group of untrained horses and riders get a horse based on luck of the draw.

This would make dressage a very entertaining and popular sport! Everyone gets an indifferent nag chosen at random and if they can hop on and make it walk like a ballerina, that would be awesome.

[RedStateLiberal]

1. They are showing this "sport" right now on NBC

and I just don't get it. How is this a sport at all? How is it interesting? Compared to every single other event I've watched so far this is the most boring and un-athletic thing I've seen. It is literally just watching a horse with a rider prance around in circles.



EDIT: Sorry, it's not on NBC - it is on their cable channel NBC Sports Network.

[antigone382]

10. You have to understand the challenges of what they're doing to get it.

I realize that dressage is boring to people who aren't that into horses, their personalities, or the challenges and rewards of building a very strong bond with an animal, such that your most imperceptible movements or weight shifts can tell the horse exactly what you want done and how. If you are into those things, the art and precision that goes into it are an extraordinary thing to watch, and it certainly takes the kind of discipline demanded of most any athlete. You'll notice that riders at this level are not exactly pudgy.

I was fortunate enough to see dressage and show-jumping as a young kid in the 1996 Olympics, and like most people who take up riding (at least English riding, but certainly Western, too), the foundations of dressage--understanding the anatomy, personality, and language of a horse, finding centered balance with the animal, and learning to read each others' subtle signals--were key to my ability to ride and work with a horse.

I've cleaned the stall of a $90,000 eventing horse--I doubt I'll ever own an animal like that and I certainly don't deny that there's plenty of elitism in the horse world. However, I appreciate that horse the same way a lot of people appreciate a really nice classic car, or even a great work of art, for example--something that has a rich history, that represents a pinnacle of beauty and performance.

[RedStateLiberal]

19. Thanks for the explanation.

I understand why some appreciate dressage but it's just not entertaining to the average person so I don't understand why it's being televised at all other than the Romney horse competing. It's a niche sport that I was not even aware of until this Olympics. If some want it in the games because of the long tradition of the competition, I have no problem with that, but watching it on TV is not even as exciting or interesting as golf which is the most boring of all sports as a spectator. At least you don't have to understand the subtleties of golf to know what is happening.

If they show any more then I'll just change the channel. To each their own.

[antigone382]

24. Well sure, but you could say that about a lot of different sports.

Truth be told I don't know that dressage would televise that well--I think I imagine most people would be into the more fast-paced and visually exciting horse events like show-jumping or cross-country, and I'm betting they are showing more dressage than they ordinarily would because of the Romney connection.

But at the same time, I appreciate some effort to show the full range of sports that are featured in the Olympics, rather than just the "sexy" ones. I like the idea of watching a sport that seems "boring" to me and figuring out what it is that draws people to it, if only to increase my own appreciation of our diversity. But as you say, to each their own.

[Fawke Em]

2. Let the horse decided whether to participate?

[petronius]

3. Nah, the only and obvious answer is that the human should carry the horse!

(But in truth, among all the other things I have no real interest it, I think dressage is pretty cool and I don't doubt it's a sport...)

[Gregorian]

4. I cannot understand what horses are doing in the Olympics.

My guess is the rich/republican-like have just as strong a lobby into the Olympic ear as they have on trails that they kicked bicycles off of.

Fuck the horses. And the clowns who ride them. No offense to Democrats who ride horses, as few of you as there are.

[antigone382]

11. I've ridden horses my whole life.

I've also shared rice with my dogs and lived without running water, so I know what poverty is. Horseback riding as a sport has been around as long as humans and horses have been interdependent for survival--from around 4-5,000 years ago until just the last century or so, and even that is only in the places where people are well-off enough to afford cars.

[riderinthestorm]

16. The horse sports are the old military tests - like fencing, archery, shooting, rowing

They were included in 1912 when the rich rode in cars and the 99% rode horses.

Dressage was the test of combat skills for a horse and rider. That's all the tests are - combat maneuvers strung together and set to music.

[magical thyme]

17. Horses have been part of the Olympics since the beginning

whether you look at the beginning of the modern Olympics, when the military competed in and dominated the equestrian events, or the original Greek Olympics, where dressage got its earliest beginnings with Xenophon.

Equestrian sports require tremendous athletic ability on the part of both horse and rider. Those riders only *look* like they are doing little to nothing. In fact, they are working very, very hard.

Personally, I consider dressage as much as art as a sport. Not unlike figure skating.

For a non-dressage person to find it boring is not a surprise. On the other hand, many sports are boring for non-participants to watch. So just don't watch it.

Also, for the record, a study of athletes from a wide range of sports showed that one type of athlete was in far better condition, in terms of coordination, balance, muscle tone, flexibility, cardio-pulmonary and overall fitness, bmi, etc. than the rest. That was the jockeys.

[xmas74]

18. Dressage has a proud history in the Olympics.

And there are a number of Dems who are country folk, and ride horses on a regular basis. (Or mules, as a friend does. She loves her rescue mules!)

[slackmaster]

5. If you manage to stay on the horse for eight seconds, you win one point

[lonestarnot]

6. LOL! Certainly about the same nutfuckery entertainment for hire only less fancy pants.

[pokerfan]

7. In Modern Pentathlon

In the horse jumping stage, competitors are given horses chosen by random drawing and are given just 20 minutes to familiarize themselves with their horse before moving onto the competition.

[doohnibor]

8. Not going to entertain me

Now if you put the horses in an Olympic size pool with a ball and a couple of nets and trained hippopotamus goalies, then that might be amusing.

[HopeHoops]

9. It isn't a competition. It's animal cruelty.

[cali]

12. that's ignorance.

To the contrary, I don't think it's possible to train a horse for dressage by cruel means. It's the animal and human being in a sympathetic pattern. It's rooted in Xenophon's ancient treatise on training horses humanely.

[riderinthestorm]

15. Nonsense. A horse won't do these things with cruelty or torture. They'll lie down before they submit

or fight back - they have a powerful arsenal of teeth, feet and 1200 lbs.

[magical thyme]

21. bullshit.

Plain and simple bullshit.

Horses are ~10 times the size of their riders and they know it. They do not have to put up with cruelty...and they won't. They are fully able to just. say. no.

My old, FEI-level dressage horse greeted me at the gate of his pasture every day for the 23 years he was with me. He could have just run the other way. He chose not to.

My current young mare can outrun me as well, and she knows it. She occasionally reminds me of that and then, without missing a beat, turns and heads into the barn on her own, knowing I will put on her tack and play with her.

Right now we are in the ground training phase. As a 2 year old, she gave me what-for in the form of a double-barrel kick that broke my rib when I "cruelly" tried to blanket her during a 15-below winter.

And yet I can safely and easily ground drive her from anywhere from 2 to 6 feet behind her butt -- perfect range for her to kick me to ribbons if she chose. Instead she walks along happily, changing direction anytime I ask, stopping if I ask, going if I ask. Her ears are pricked forward, she looks happy and at peace. She enjoys the exercise and enjoys the company even when she can't see, but can only hear and feel me.

(for the record, as a 3 year old, after a very cold winter and a year to think about it, she changed her mind about blankets.)

[Liberal Gramma]

13. Good point. If dressage is an Olympic sport, why isn't NASCAR?

In both cases, it is a combination of the driver/rider's abilities and the horse/car's capabilities.

[antigone382]

22. Because NASCAR isn't a thousands-of-years old tradition that transcends national boundaries...

...is uniquely bound up with human history, and requires an even more unique and very finely-tuned bond between two animals of different species who must learn to act essentially as one athletic unit?

Do some research on Xenephon, the Spanish Riding School of Vienna (which was almost destroyed during WWII), or the use of horses in battle all over the world to understand why the kind of horsemanship displayed in dressage is a highly respected sport, not just in the United States, but around the world.

[riderinthestorm]

14. The horses are all within a certain range of characteristics as well

They all have to be able to perform the tasks to a certain level of proficiency so making people "swap" equipment (horses) wouldn't probably do much - the mechanics of getting the horses to do the movements could be accomplished by all of the riders there. The beauty and "art" of the sport is the partnership and level of harmony.

THAT'S where the medals come from.

Serena Williams could probably win with just about any tennis racquet but to achieve maximum performance, she uses one that's been made for her and that she's worked with for many years, and that she knows its quirks. Its the same for competitive riders and their horse partners of many years.

[FSogol]

20. It is possible to hate the Romneys with dissing equestrian sports.

Just saying...

[SoCalDem]

23. Like Rodeo.. Bucking Ballerina is not a horse you'd want to draw