and you think track's format-tinkering is radical....

[Conor Dary]

How about polo as in The Man Who Would Be King....big head, big ball....little head, little ball...

[bambam1729]

I believe wrestling was one of the original Olympic events. This raises the question, did they have weight class in the first Olympics?

No weight classes - only men and boys divisions

[El Toro]

Should be a YES.
What a great crowd pmeasing event.

In fact they could do the Ekebolon as well from horseback.

Yep, a combination points score could cover both events, keep the horse people happy but make the horse temperament trivial as it just has to move in a straight line.

If you can't get on a strange horse and ride it in a straight line, it's definitely you that needs punching in the head not the horse!

[lonewolf]

If you can't get on a strange horse and ride it in a straight line, it's definitely you that needs punching in the head not the horse!

Horses have been domesticated for centuries/millennia and can be trained to do the will of man but any horse is ridden/controlled only with its permission at the moment.

[El Toro]

Horses have been domesticated for centuries/millennia and can be trained to do the will of man but any horse is ridden/controlled only with its permission at the moment.

True, as with all human/animal interactions, there's always uncertainty. However, these horses have been bred and trained to be better than 99.9999% of horses at doing what's currently necessary in a modern pentathlon.

The fact that they perform very well for strange riders in difficult circumstances is a strong indicator that if used on a simple tasks like riding in a straight line they would do that successfully.

However, if we're talking about random horses bought at auction the week before, well, that's another thing I'd pay to see! And some more if they're unbroken.

On a semi-related tangent, I went to school with a long jumper who also broke horses and competed in rodeo but his main sport growing up in a very uncultered town was ballet. His mother ran the local ballet studio, so he had no choice. He didn't stick with it after he left school.

[gh]

PETA wants horses out of the Olympics, period.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/...an-go-olympics

[bambam1729]

PETA wants horses out of the Olympics, period.
https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/...an-go-olympics

My wife and I have no children and have always had dogs. Both big dog lovers and she is a huge animal lover, in general. But I think PETA's ultimate goal is that there be no humans on the earth and only animals and then the animals could do what they want with us not around to bother them.

[bambam1729]

True, as with all human/animal interactions, there's always uncertainty. However, these horses have been bred and trained to be better than 99.9999% of horses at doing what's currently necessary in a modern pentathlon.

Not exactly in the modern pentathlon. The problem in the modern pentathlon is that the athletes cannot bring their own horses. They ride horses selected from a pool and are randomly assigned to the riders. So the athletes have no idea what horse they are going to get or how good it is at jumping, following commands, etc. That was the problem in Tokyo. The German rider had a terrible horse that would not even attempt to jump a fence. The German rider was leading the competition until then but getting the bad horse basically took her out of contention for the win or a medal. That's why she and the coach were so mad (note: I do not condone punching the horse even despite this, however, although I did comment on twitter that the German coach's new nickname will obviously become "Mongo")

[tandfman]

I'm trying to find words to express how little I care about anything relating to the riding event in thee modern pentathlon.

[rhizobium]

PETA wants horses out of the Olympics, period.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/...an-go-olympics

And water is wet.

[rhizobium]

Perhaps an obstacle course where the humans do all the work would be a good replacememt.

[scottmitchell74]

My wife and I have no children and have always had dogs. Both big dog lovers and she is a huge animal lover, in general. But I think PETA's ultimate goal is that there be no humans on the earth and only animals and then the animals could do what they want with us not around to bother them.

I listen to a Death Metal band called Cattle Decapitation and, well, I like their music but the bold quote above is their basic stance. Humans need to go. I notice they aren't volunteering to go first!

[bambam1729]

I'm trying to find words to express how little I care about anything relating to the riding event in thee modern pentathlon.

I think you just did

[gm]

98912d70-61b4-459f-b5d9-eb4a8938aa85_1.c0a6ff75b3e0315d02348441a6229f5a.jpeg?odnHeight=612&odnWidth=612&odnBg=FFFFFF.jpg
I'm a Life Member...

[J Rorick]

Reminds me of a famous quote. " I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants."