Would it be wrong to cheer if Romney's horse doesn't medal?

[magical thyme]

41. no teevee, cable or satellite and dialup internet (pays for my horse's hay)

so watching the Olympics is pretty much out for me. I actually stopped watching much years ago, due to NBC's nonstop babbling which is annoying as all get out. I will probably go to the library to watch video of the top rides and gymnastics after the fact. I'm good with that.

Dressage used to be more accessible than it is now. The 80s and 90s saw an influx of big money and "adult amateurs" that crowded out a lot of small timers. Boarding out became a total nightmare, with "dressage queens" taking over barns. I never want to board out again; too many times I've been sabotaged and too many times forced to subsidize the wealthy clients.

There still are places to learn, but they are few and far between. For example, Vitor Silva set up a training farm in Massachusetts where there was room for working students. When I met him some years ago, at his 1st facility in NH, he was very generous with his upper level Lusitano, Trovador, allowing even rank beginners to sit on him. Lusitanos are very generous and very forgiving horses. Silva is not into competition; he does exhibitions of Iberian dressage at events in Mass and now down in Florida. His training is absolutely classical; it was a blast for me to see the look on his face when, after about 10 minutes of "getting to know you," Trovador was performing pirouettes, half passes and passage with a total stranger off the street on his back. While Silva is Iberian school, I was trained in a combination German/Austrian/British school. But the fundamentals remain the same; it's at most a change in dialect and really more about the individual horse.

I was lucky when I was young to have been able to take lessons with a 2-time national combined training champion who later trained at the Spanish Riding School and became a successful international coach. These days, I wouldn't be able to be in the same barn as he was. I was also able, through him, to ride 2 GP horses owned by a 1%er in my lessons so I could learn the movements from experienced, correctly trained horses. These days, the 1%ers don't loan their semi-retired GP horses to aspiring young riders; they sell them off as schoolmasters at top dollar usually to other 1%ers.