The Welfare Of The Horses Must Always Come First
Team GB equestrians have made all of very us proud, collecting medals like stamps.
These equestrians are such an inspiration for so many young people who dream of one day riding in the Olympics.
To become equestrians of an Olympic level takes years of hard work and dedication. The communication and connection between rider and horse is a join up, mentally and physically.
The Olympic equestrian team ride horses who trust them, therefore getting the best from them.
Now, let's take an event in the Olympics that had horses that did not trust their riders.
The event was "The Modern Pentathlon" which includes, fencing, swimming, running, shooting and horse riding. If somebody wants to test their skills and endurance doing many different activities that's great, but why include animals?
The athletes were not allowed to use a horse of their own but were given one randomly selected for them and only had twenty minutes to bond with it. Horses have to trust you to give their best they are not going to be rushed into trusting someone in 20mins!
It ended up with very stressed horses and the coach from Germany punching a horse! Yes, I did say that a horse was punched! Absolutely disgusting and thankfully the coach was disqualified immediately. Riders were whipping and pulling horses and they were wearing spurs, none of that helps to win a horse over.
The more a horse gets stressed the more it's not going to want to do what is asked of it because any trust has gone, it's quite simple really.
Why is it called "The Modern Pentathlon" but still uses horses because of an old story about a French cavalry officer? Apparently, the calvary officer had to deliver a message and complete a mission, to do this he had to ride, fence, shoot, swim and run! The pentathlon first appeared at the Stockholm 1912 Olympic Games, it's now 2021, it's now called "The Modern Pentathlon" but there's nothing modern about it. Bring it up to date and stop using horses. If the powers of above are mortified at the thought of a modern pentathlon with no horses then at least they must be the riders own horses whom they have a bond with.