So I watched some of the women's pentathalon show jumping (didn't get to see the German rider who had a melt down) and I have some Thoughts:
A) A random draw is unfair to the horses and riders. Catch riding can very difficult even when you are a pro, and these are far from pros. From what I understand a lot of them don't even ride on a regular basis (like at least 4 times a week). Do they not have their own horses? Was it too expensive to bring them?
B) Why was the footing turf? And not very good turf at that. There were almost 40 rounds and the footing was looking ROUGH well before the end. That's going to lead to unsafe conditions and accidents. There's a reason most showjumping is in some kind of arena footing.
C) A good portion of these people should not be riding at this level at all. (and it's really not a high level) SO MANY riders I just wanted to jack up their stirrups like 3 holes, they couldn't stay with their horses, and almost none of them should be allowed to wear spurs. They have no idea how to support their horses in the course and how to plan distences.
D) Damn those horses were saints. Such good, good horses. They clearly knew what they were doing and the riders really just needed to be able to stay with them and give a little guidance, but they couldn't even do that.
E) Would it be better if they just did a dressage test?? Far safer, less exciting for sure, but I don't think most of these riders could even have a non disastrous 2nd level test on schoolmasters...
