My interest perked up when l heard a female competitor had left the event following the release of a video of her doing something inappropriate with a horse. It turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax though.
That ^^^ was a bit odd because I thought that’s how they trained them tbh, having seen the Spanish horse dancers
Everyone is acting like this is something new. Horse trainers throughout the last 50 years have been “exposed” for their cruel training practices. She got caught in one instance of what I’m sure was many more. Andy
AFAIK the vid was 2+ years ago, I doubt she changed her training tactics since. Still this has ended her competition riding permanently, so I expect she will get a commentators job at the BBC, after a stint on Strictly...
Sacre bleau!!! SNCF says it’s been a victim overnight of a "massive attack aimed at paralysing the network”. Fires were started at three points on TGV lines running west, north and east of Paris. A fourth arson attack on the line running south to Lyon and the Mediterranean was foiled. The result is that TGV trains are being diverted onto other lines, leading to delays of up to two hours and some cancellations. Repairs will not be completed until after the weekend. France's rail network disrupted by 'malicious acts' ahead of Olympics opening ceremony - BBC News
I'm surprised to see something like that happen with President Macron's firm grip on the levers of power.
Bring back the old days I say when the likes of town planning and ice sculpture were considered likely Olympian sports
We had quite good fun watching the Sevens quarter finals yesterday. Apparently almost 70.000 people in the Stade de France. I am amazed at how quickly rugby’s popularity is increasing in France. In comparison, football games feel so dull and boring… Semi-finals tomorrow: The Boks look strong. Revenge is on though!
French secret police arrested a Russian suspect last week I believe. Putin is the sort of Cnut to do stuff like that. He’s got much of Europe’s right wing as putty in his hands.
It’s a very murky business. If the whistleblower was so concerned about animal welfare then why did she wait 4 years before going public, during which time no doubt many other horses were being mistreated? And today, another competitor (a German guy, ranked #3) is being accused of training horses to jump higher by lifting the bar as they clear the fence in order to rap their shins. Anyone who thinks that this sort of thing doesn’t go on all the time is very naive as horsey type country folk tend to be very much of the “tough love” school of thought when it comes to training animals. Thoroughbred horses can be incredibly hard headed, so anyone who thinks you can get them to perform unnatural actions by positive persuasion alone is living in cloud cuckoo land.
I seem to remember back in the 60's and 70's stories of trainers of showjumpers nailing hedgehog skins along the top pole of jumps to make the horses lift their legs higher...
You only have to look at that creepy dressage event. You telling me all they do is ask the horses nicely to prance around like tits lol?
