Dressage - What's the point?

I'm not knocking it, if its what people are into, fair enough, but what's the point of including dressage in the olympics?

I thought the point of the olympic games was for individuals who have surpassed the normal limits of human ability, to compete against each other to see who is the fastest, fittest, toughest in the world.

People have a running race. They run faster than anyone else has ever run and break world records. They jump higher than anyone else, throw heavy objects further, row a boat faster and further etc etc. All these things demonstrate beyond doubt that they are superhuman.

But dressage? That proves that someone can ride a horse and not fall off. They are proving that they can look dignified. They are proving skill, but they are not proving that they are superhuman.

I'm sure the riders have great skill, and I'm not for a second trying to diminish that, but I just don't see it as an olympic skill. If we were to have games based purely on skill, surely we could include chess, or poker?

 

Good point Dave.

I do suspect that its there because the so called ruling classes can't tear Foxes apart for amusement anymore.

So they have to have some justification for still being here.

 

They do get to dress up in funny looking clothes though.
Can't understand why it's not the horses that get the medals as they are doing all the real work.

As for fox hunting as per 'yoiks tally-ho', as Oscar Wilde described it, it's "the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible."

 

There was a horse called 'Mr Poo' and one called 'Damian Hill' that made me chuckle. but as for the Olympics maybe not.

Rusty

 

More BGT than Olympics I think. A dog won the last one , so why not a horse next year.
Then again Dressage is very popular in Wigan , its difficult to find exercise space for our Whippets , with people Dressaging all over the place.

 

It could be worse. Instead of having a dressage they could be having a grand national like horse race, killing several horses in the process.

 

We have a theory in this house, that dressage horses have to be kept separate from the rest so that their stablemates don't take the p*ss out of them!

 

What makes me laugh with all of us we dont mind the muck though !!

I like dressage its amazing to watch and the hours of work and dedication to get to that level. I am just a equine person and have been since I was a kid so probably biassed but thats the good part of GC we all have opinions of one sort or another I was never into fox hunting but their again I dont agree with covering slugs with salt and seeing what happens to them as was mentioned in a earlier post if my slug pub is just as bad I dont know but seems the lesser of the two evils ?.

You could say "Whats the point" " about lots of things we all do , one person said where I live

"you have got too much time on your hands"

When I was trimming all the edges of the lawn and yes you can imagine what his looks like !!!, but I would like to think most on here would agree with me or understand a little taking in to account its a Gardening Forum.

Spruce

 

THANK YOU!!! It's not a sport. If they include that, why not tiddly winks?

Just to add I don't like or watch sports, not my kinda thing. But I saw ont he news we got a medal in Dressage and I had no idea it was IN the Olympics!!!

 

If, through years of dedicated training, you've perfected the art of edging the lawn, and have become one of the very best in the world at doing it, then maybe 'lawn edging' should be in the olympics. It would be as valid as dressage.

I wasn't specifically knocking dressage. Its just that I saw it on the telly and it got me thinking. Shooting is the same. I'm pretty sure many of the world's armed forces turn out a good range of most skilled marksmen who could match the olympic contestants at the shooting game. My point is, the olympics is meant to be about the pinnacle of human physical ability. The kind of games where the human body has been conditioned to be far more than anyone could have expected, so that it can run faster, jump higher, flex/balance better etc. While a dressage rider has to have great skill, and anyone who's ever had any involvement with horses will know you need to be reasonably fit and strong, but they don't necessarily have to be fitter and stronger than everyone else like they would if they were going to try to win the 100m sprint or the long jump for example.

 

Gardening Olympics sounds a great idea

I dont get the BMX bike stuff either , "Horses for Courses" as they say

Spruce

 

I've had both work colleagues who were into dressage plus Mrs Scrungee's relations who are serious national competitors and can assure you this isn't some 'mickey mouse' event.

 

What about Choreographed partial drowning ?



Cheers, Tony.

 

I only found out yesterday that there is even a BMX event in the olympics.

I have to say, I feel slightly uncomfortable about the idea of professional BMX riding. Mainly because its 'grown ups' that do it these days.

Back in the early 1980s, when the term BMX first came into being as a means of branding and capitalising on what kids everywhere have always done, the BMX, which was meant to be a cool abbreviation for Bicycle Motorcross (the X being the cross, because that's cool), and the first BMX bikes hit the market (the Raleigh Burner for many, or the Raleigh Super Tough Burner with black skyways if you're dad was a bit better off), it was very much a kid's game. I remember shaking with anticipation as christmas approached and my dad had agreed to get me my first BMX bike. Mine was a Peugeot one, fairly new on the market and lighter and with slightly higher gear ratio than most, designed for the emerging sport of stunt racing (like generations before hadn't hurtled through the woods on their bikes).

My mates and I, all aged around 10 to maybe 13, practised and practised on our BMX bikes, trying to master all manner of 'death defying' stunts. No helmets, no knee pads, no physiotherapists or nutritionists looking after us. When our bikes developed a fault, we had to fix them. This went on for a few years, and gradually we grew out of it.

Nowadays the BMX riders have taken things to a new level, doing stunts that really do pushed the boundaries, but its still grown ups on kids bikes as far as I'm concerned. I'm not knocking them. Maybe if I was a bit younger or a bit older I wouldn't find it odd, but maybe because I was a kid when the BMX hype happened, maybe that's why I always associate grown BMX riders with people's dads having a go on their kids' bikes.