ET at the Olympics!

[pboy]

Have you guys seen the proposals to make eventing more 'TV friendly'? The headline being that it will become Equestrian Triathlon! e-venting.co.uk/2015/11/equestrian-triathlon-in-the-next-olympics/

I'm a fan of the name change - 'eventing' and 'horse trials' mean nothing at all and don't bring across the difficult feat of having one horse and rider complete three very different tests.

No drop score for the teams will make the team event interesting, we could see some very different results and presumably selectors are going to have to put a lot of emphasis on a combination's cross country results.

I'm sure the 5 minute dressage test will have purists up in arms (that's about the length of a Prelim test I think!) but let's face it, eventing dressage is dull even for fanatics like me ;-)

[racaille]

Having read all that through (great report, isn't it?) I think, on balance, it's all a good idea. Anything that keeps eventing in the Olympics (ice dancing anyone?) And the name will make much more sense to 'ordinary folk' and they are the ones that need to come out and buy tickets to prove that the sport is 'properly' Olympic!

[brigadier]

I totally agree with this. About time!

[haffyfan]

I think the proposals are pretty good but i personally don't like the name change, but i do understand it makes more sense for the non initiated.

I think just 3 in a team may (i can hope) take us back to the old days where the combination had to be strong in all 3 elements and didn't see some riders make a team knowing they were only there for their XC performances/jumping for example as has been a regular thing with our teams this last 10 years or so...or in some countries cases their dressage score as liable to notch up a refusal XC.