Dressage - is it a sport and should it be in the Olympics?

[Mephistopheles]

Everyone to their own, just because I'm not interested in it doesn't mean it shouldn't be there I have a step daughter and when she was a teenager she had an horse it was an Arabian, and she loved everything horsey she still does, I went to eventing with her to show my support of her not the sport.

Actually I don't know where I'm going with this post Jen can you help me out please..

 

[teabagyokel]

My main criteria would be

1. It is objective
2. It requires someone young and fit to compete
3. It is open to the best in the world
4. There is total gender equality

That gets rid of football as it stands, but dressage is ruled out by 1 and 2.

 

[mjo]

So:
Diving, Gymnastics, Archery, Shooting, Synchronised Swimming, Boxing, and Rhythmic Gymnastics wouldn't be olympic sports. (And I wouldn't class a 34 stone Judo player as being young and fit)!!!!!

 

[Mephistopheles]

So:
34 stone Judo player as being young and fit)!!!!!

Judo Player..

 

[mjo]

He's the fat one - Ricardo Blas Jr, from Guam.

 

[GeoffP]

He's not from Guam...... He is Guam!

Anyway, thanks to all the F1 fans who want the FIA and Stewards to stop over controlling racing, I think we now have the Olympics nice and pigeon holed...

 

[Josh]

It not a sport, its people sitting on well trained pets. 50 year olds sitting on well trained pets come to that.
Whats next dog Frisby?

Animals should not be in the olympics. Its about how good you are not how good your pet is.

It's harder than it looks and training a "pet" does require some skill. I also somehow doubt anyone criticizing it has actually ever sat on a horse, let alone rode one seriously (or been able to actually get it to go in the right direction...).

And yes, the horse does matter, but so does the rider. Or do you think a horse knows exactly when to do what?

"Sitting" on a "well trained pet" may not make you the fittest person in the world, or the strongest, but it does require more skill than most people seem to think. Incidentally, most people probably never tried it for themselves and thus have absolutely no clue what they're talking about.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I've ridden horses loads of times I still don't trust the beasties though they are a skittish animal at the best of times, riding a horse at full gallop is exhilarating to say the least, but watching one perform unnatural acts like the dressage is at best boring and at worst just wrong I mean what is the point of it? Why did it ever get invented I mean just why? I don't get it! I don't get it at all...

What is it I am missing?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Mind you having said all that I feel the same way about football and cricket, I don't get those sports either which brings me back to,, each to their own....

 

[Brogan]

but watching one perform unnatural acts like the dressage is at best boring and at worst just wrong I mean what is the point of it? Why did it ever get invented I mean just why? I don't get it! I don't get it at all...

I'm exactly the same.
Show jumping and horse racing I can understand, even if I disagree with it.

Dressage though is a bit like those people who dress their pet dogs up in outfits or get them to stand on their back legs and perform for the camera.

It's unnatural.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I really do not wish to diversify this thread but it has to be said, two horses dying in the grand national and two more dying from electrocution at Newbury this year.

What would people be saying if that many F1 drivers died in one year?

The animals don't ask to be put in this position for our entertainment so why should we make them do it?

I vote for a thread discussing animal cruelty in sport....

 

[Greenlantern101]

It's harder than it looks and training a "pet" does require some skill. I also somehow doubt anyone criticizing it has actually ever sat on a horse, let alone rode one seriously (or been able to actually get it to go in the right direction...).

And yes, the horse does matter, but so does the rider. Or do you think a horse knows exactly when to do what?

"Sitting" on a "well trained pet" may not make you the fittest person in the world, or the strongest, but it does require more skill than most people seem to think. Incidentally, most people probably never tried it for themselves and thus have absolutely no clue what they're talking about.

My sister has a horse I have riden it several times.
Its easy.
Its a hobby not a sport.

 

[canis]

Riding at a very basic level is fairly easy to learn, riding at the level achieved in the Olympics is something that is never mastered but learnt through many years of practice.

If people are saying it is all the horse so is not a sport, you do realise that the horses and riders are in no way interchangeable? If you take the best rider in the world and put them on someone elses horse then they would achieve very little in dressage, it is most definitely a partnership.

Plus those people who say it does not need the rider to be fit, Have you ever ridden a horse at more than a walk? Even at a walk most people would be sore and exhausted after about an hour, these riders use muscles most of us have never discovered and have stamina beyond that of the rest of us.

 

[sportsman]

Greenlantern101 Easy you say.OK Then post a pic of yourself clearing a 4 ft fence on a horse.

 

[Greenlantern101]

I'm done we will have to agree to differ.

 

[The Pits]

I find it quite bizarre that fans of a sport which requires both driver and car to be of a high standard to be able to compete cannot see the parallels to horse and rider.

Imagine how well a driver would fare in an f1 race if they had a 50cc kart? Or, could any driver win in a HRT?

I can question myself whether it is a sport, in the same line as darts, snooker, golf, archery, shooting, amongst others, but it requires enormous amounts of skill, both in training the horse and riding the horse. I agree with Mephistopheles regarding the blue tongue, and this is something I condemn, but I am also not aware of this being prevalent.

I would also just add, I watch people driving very fast for two hours, to see who can get back to where they started the quickest, and I enjoy it. I do not particularly enjoy dressage myself, however, who says anything needs to have a point to be enjoyed?

 

[Kewee]

I'm doing some research on this one. Just waiting for Mr Ed to get back to me.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I think somebody got up one day and was so bored they thought I know I'm gonna teach that horse to dance..

 

[soccerman17]

No.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Dressage riders seem to share some common bonds with F1 drivers. See these quotes;

"We have some super riders in our country — and some super horses — but at the moment, we don't have the horses at the top to compete with the top European horses," said Ebeling, a 53-year-old German immigrant who has been a U.S. citizen since 1998.

"It's the breed. "We don't have the same quality. You see the top five horses here? Just extraordinary quality."

The only reason I even found those quotes was that I was going to post an article about Mitt Romney (Presidential Candidate) and his wife's horse who supposedly created a "buzz" for Dressage in this years games. I haven't seen a single minute.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/aug/08/despite-romney-buzz-us-dressage-team-fails-to/

As for the sports inclusion in the Olympiad. It doesn't bother me.