Horseless Show Jumping

Hi Ya! How's tricks? Coffee's fresh and the VTs are hot and delicious...no horsing around! Y'know, I seldom watch equestrian events...occasionally Olympics but not much else. Well here's another related sport that won't be atop my list either!

Horse show jumping is a longtime Olympics sport, but for the last 10 years, equestrians have been performing in "horseless" show jumping, in which horse courses are run by "riders" on foot (who, by the way, do not straddle broomsticks).

According to an October report in The Wall Street Journal, an international association headed by retired pro equestrian Jessica Newman produces at least 15 shows a year, with between 40 to 130 competitors galloping over jumps that vary from two to four feet high (five feet in "Grand Prix" events), with the "riders" graded as if they were on horses (timed, with points off for contacting the rails). Explained Newman about the shows' success: "It's just fun to be a horse." [The Wall Street Journal, 10-8-2012]

 So there you have it. I guess one consolation is that you don't have to have someone with a broom and scooper following the contestants...one would hope not anyway, eh! People do all the work and the horses can just lounge around (or whatever they do) and have a good giggle at people stumbling about and knocking bars off the jumps.

See ya, eh!

Bob