dancing horses

dancing horses

Monday, August 9, 2021

WTF was that? Modern Pentathlon



 Historically I've been a fan of the Olympics. I have found myself emotionally invested in the outcome of sports that I never paid attention to in my daily life. After the glow of the medal ceremonies fade I return to my normal life and never think of it again. 

This year I haven't been so into it- mostly because of the misogyny and racism but I did watch the Olympic dressage and plan to watch eventing and show jumping when I have a chance. Then my FB feed blew up over the women's Pentathlon equestrian phase. It appears that a german competitor lost her shit during the show jumping and ended up losing her gold medal because the horse 'would not cooperate'. There were cries to remove the sport from the olympics and petitions to stop the show jumping phase. 

let me interrupt this rant with a picture of 
two patient souls waiting for me to get it together

 Now, I try to not jump on the bandwagon without delving more. Turns out that the Modern Pentathlon is comprised of five events: fencing, swimming, running, shooting and show jumping.  My initial thoughts on reading the news stories about the 'naughty horse' was that 'a bad workman blames his tools'.  But it's easy to look at a few examples posted and believe I know all about it. 

So I watched the entire equestrian phase (Canadians can find it here, about 3 hours in.  I don't know if the link works for other countries).

And I was appalled. I did see competitors who knew how to ride but most of them not at that level. I did see horses who understood the job but still needed a rider to put them in the right spot for the jump and very very few did. These horses gamely tried or stopped because it was not safe. Most riders wore spurs and had no business doing so. 

I saw riders come off and get back on. Like, how is that even allowed in this competition since it's not allowed in any other equestrian sport- if you fall off you're done. I saw riders with a death grip on the reins and kicking the horses forward. Most of the horses were confused. 

And then I saw Annika Schleu's ride. Normally I don't believe on piling on and I'm sure that this woman is getting her fair share of hate online. But honestly, she crossed so many lines I don't know how to feel sorry for her. I have spent a long time working on improving my horse knowledge. I did not see a horse that was feeling 'uncooperative'. 

I saw a horse that was terrified and in full self-protection mode. And in that state,  he was hit again and again and again. Finally he went forward only to be ridden really poorly to jumps and he had to either destroy them or refuse. I am sure that his belief that he needed to get out of there was reinforced by all the emotion coming from Annika. Which got him beaten again. finally his nightmare was over. Yet we're supposed to feel sorry for Annika? 

I don't fucking think so. We've all been there with horses- maybe it's a competition, maybe a clinic, maybe a trail ride and our horse has a melt down. We stop, pat the horse and go back to the stall to stew, maybe cry and then build a plan. Blaming the horse in this situation is like blaming the loss of a hurdle race on the trip hazards on the track. 

Can you imagine if the final event was a canine agility course and she beat the dog like she did that horse? She'd have had to go into hiding. 

Saint Boy did not stop Annika from getting her gold medal. She didn't deserve it. 


Let's summarize the failures of this event: 

1. animal cruelty. Honestly, is that not enough?

2. if your sport includes riding horses you should fucking learn to ride. If I don't know how to swim I'm not going to enter a swimming competition. 

3. lack of accountability. There was so much:

 The UPIM issued a statement that it ""regrets the trauma suffered by Saint Boy in this high-profile incident and has penalised the coach who violated the UIPM Competition Rules by striking the horse from outside the ring." Her penalty was to be thrown out of the games but nothing more. The is inadequate. I doubt that Saint Boy even registered the punch but it speaks volumes to her view of animal welfare. What about Annika? She needs to be penalized as well. 

A horse is not a motor cycle. It is a living being with feelings and needs to be respected. Who is speaking for the welfare of the horse? A dressage horse was eliminated because he had a bit                  of blood on his mouth. A rider in the other sports can be eliminated for excessive use of the whip.  Why did this not happen? 

 I looked at the Canadian FB and website the pentathlon. It was silent. On the FB page there was a photo of riders kissing their horses. How sweet. I'd prefer that they take a look at the FEI rules for the welfare of the horse and actually apply them.  

4. A failure to secure the safety of the horse and rider. A horse in the state that Saint Boy was in is a danger to himself, his rider and those around him. Letting this ride continue as it did put Annika in danger. That he did not flip over on top of her was a minor miracle. 

Saint Boy was screaming for help and the Olympics failed him. But they also failed all the other horses in this competition. If we, as horse people, don't stand up for the welfare of the horse who will? I'm terrified that this will be add to the argument that riding is cruel or that competitions are cruel. 

The Olympics started with misogyny and racism and ended with animal abuse. Not exactly the gold/silver/bronze that anyone wants to win. What a legacy. 



 

23 comments:

  1. It was really, really horrifying 😳

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah. All of this. I watched the modern pentathlon once a few years ago, and I just... I can't. It's so unsafe-looking even in years where there's not abuse like this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find it amazing that this is considered okay in this day and age.

      Delete
  3. I refused to watch any Olympics this year... for the last few of them in fact- and reading about this makes me never want to support the Olympics in any way at all. The whole thing is totally unnecessary; in fact it has become nothing more than political posturing and a hugely unnecessary expense. I am all for healthy competition, but when you have an event on this scale and it becomes all about winning by any means it completely lacks sportsmanship. I'm sure there were some good moments, but the whole event needs to disappear. For good.
    Rant over.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am getting there as well. It's like the original purpose of sport has been lost and it's about money.

      Delete
  4. I have not watched the olympics but the other day I looked over my husband as he read the German news, "Is the horse event cruelty?"

    Now I have a little context, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome. The riders need a wake up call.

      Delete
  5. I’m not a fan of the Olympics but I did watch the show jumping and wasn’t real impressed. I saw the whole Annika Saint Boy debacle too. I felt sorry for Saint Boy, he was terrified and confused. I’ll never understand how riders can keep whipping a horse and think that it will make it behave. If you tout yourself as a top athlete shouldn’t you know by then that whipping a horse to make them behave is never going to work. Show the horse respect and understanding and he might get over his fears and do what’s asked. If not get off and chalk it up to try another time. And crying because you can’t control the situation is unacceptable, just makes you look like a spoiled brat. That said there are some very talented riders that treat their horses fairly but for the most part I feel they’re all spoiled rich people who care more about themselves than the welfare of their horses. End of rant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know that there are riders at all levels that view the horse as a tool, nothing more. But we simply cannot accept that anymore.

      Delete
  6. I can't figure out why they jump so high? Fine if riding needs to be one of the five sports, but make the fences 2'6". Or ride a low level dressage test. This format is incredibly unsafe and unfair.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I didn’t watch any of the Olympics. Sounds very sad though. Now I’m glad I didn’t.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did see some really nice and diplomatic dressage rides and for the cross country phase as well.

      Delete
  8. I couldn't believe people were allowed to fall off and get back on again and keep going... like... what? Isn't that the whole point is to stay on, jump all the jumps without knocking any and be within the time? What's the point of the competition then?

    I saw a few clips, and it was astonishing that they were allowed to rack up so many penalties too. What happened to 3 refusals and you're out?? Some of them had upwards of 40 penalty points just FROM REFUSALS.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I absolutely sympathise with the thought that showjumping should be removed from pentathlon, but I think a lot of these issues could be solved if the showjumping is run under FEI rules. If people HAVE to get less than three refusals in order to avoid elimination from this phase, then they will learn to ride. If they WILL be penalised for whip use, then they will not beat their horses. It is a disgusting but undeniable truth that there will always be humans out there, in every domain of equestrian sport, for whom winning is everything. It is absolutely our job as riders, trainers, and coaches to teach riders not to be this way - but it is also the job of the governing sport to prevent horses from suffering, at least at competitions, as a result. I don't think the FEI's rules are perfect, and there were definitely welfare concerns in some of the FEI sports at the Olympics (looking at you especially, eventing and jumping), but the rules do help and they do catch a lot of cruelty before it can happen. Ultimately, Saint Boy would not have suffered the way he did if MP showjumping had been run under FEI rules. He would have been eliminated before he had the chance to get beaten the way he did.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I read about it and couldn't bring myself to go watch the video. It is inhumane what happened to those horses amd simply must never happen again.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Megan (aenterspooking) and I were talking about it this weekend. They've modernized the shooting portion of the event (laser guns) they should remove the horses and have the people fly a drone course to fit the 'modern warfare' aspect of it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think this post is far stretch, and Annika was a victim of the system of the sport. It was not only Annika Schleu's fault, but the horse had already got terrified in the previous round with another Russian player. Here's the link. https://youtu.be/_yTUpYAY5Js From 3' 15" to 3' 38", you can see that the Russian player had already problems with the horse, using whips, which must have affected the behavior of the horse in Annika's turn. Why do some people entirely blame on Annika Schleu and even not talk about what previously happened? The organizers should have replaced the horse. During Annika's ride, the horse behaved same(and even worse) that he already did with Russian(standing in the corner, moving backwards and with the bell ringing calmly walking to the exit). It was not only Annika's fault, but there was something obviously and already wrong with the horse in the previous round.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree that Annika is not the entire problem with the pentathlon. I disagree that there 'was something wrong with the horse'. what was wrong was that very few riders had the basic riding and horsemanship to deal with the situation. And that no official stepped in for the safety of the horses and riders.

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment. I love the feedback.