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Horse riders great athletes ? a bloke of 56 can win a bronze medal for going over the jumps on a nag.
How can horse riders be called athletes when their standard of fitness is a joke.
Horse riding is that physical that women can compete against men, are we to see the female shot putters competing against the men ?
Yes riding a nag takes skill, so does opening the batting against the West Indian fast bowlers that Best did at the age of 46, and neither riders or opening bats are what people would call athletic in the main.
So are we to see darts with a pint next, after all if the toffs have their nags should the working class not have their sport ?
I agree that it's maybe more about skill than athleticism, but you do have to be fit to ride a horse at competitive level. Especially in showjumping or trialling
It's not as easy as it looks. There are lots of subtle skils nobody can see, shifting of weight, squeezing etc.
I know that some of the older men look like they're no stranger to a pie and a crean bun, but it's not quite so important to be lean and mean, just to know how to use what you've got.
Being a horse rider requires enormous fitness, strength and balance, not to mention mental discipline. It takes years to achieve that at an olympic level. If you've ever watched dressage where the rider apparently sits and does nothing but in fact is in full control of everything the horse is doing simply thro the pressure of hands and legs you would know that. If you've ever actually done a jumping course where the jumps can be 6' high and you're riding a $30,000+ animal that you've trained with for years and years or experienced the cross-country where a single mistake can cost you your life you would understand that. Olympic level horse riders are not just people sitting on a "nag". They have invested thousands of dollars and years of training in getting themselves and their animal ready for this event - something a miniscule percentage of people are capable of doing.
There are loads of sports at the Olympics that don't require athleticism. They all require skill but bring athletic is not a prerequisite to being an Olympian.
Horse riders great athletes ? a bloke of 56 can win a bronze medal for going over the jumps on a nag.
How can horse riders be called athletes when their standard of fitness is a joke.
Horse riding is that physical that women can compete against men, are we to see the female shot putters competing against the men ?
Yes riding a nag takes skill, so does opening the batting against the West Indian fast bowlers that Best did at the age of 46, and neither riders or opening bats are what people would call athletic in the main.
So are we to see darts with a pint next, after all if the toffs have their nags should the working class not have their sport ?
You clearly have never been on a horse apart from a leisurely tourist trail ride. If you had, you would understand the physical ability required of it. No, perhaps it does not take quite the same full-body strength of something like gymnastics - but I guarantee if you did one lesson of horseback riding, your legs would be aching for days afterwards. When I was riding as a teen, I'd always complain after a lesson of how sore my legs were (this being during my most physically fit years as a teen!) and my mom would roll her eyes, thinking I was just a big wuss. Then after several years, she took a lesson herself. And afterwards, she immediately apologized for thinking I was a wuss, she said that she never realized the leg strength it required but now she understood because her legs were equally as sore. And my mom is not a wuss - she has a high pain tolerance and she works out regularly. She may have been in her 40s at the time but she was and still is incredibly physical fit.
I also guarantee that horseback riders are more physical fit than the archers! I caught a few clips of archery and while I'm sure they have very good arm strength, some of them had pot bellies! You wouldn't see that on a horseback rider.... so if you're going to pick on a sport for not requiring enough athleticism, I would start with something more like archery, not horseback riding. (No offence to archers, I have nothing against it and do not think it should be removed as an Olympic sport).
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