Underthinking Equestrian

So I was reading this story regarding the sale of Katie McVean's prize horse Dustan Delphi. Apparently this effectively ends her hopes of winning a medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Although given this giant man will be there, I doubt anyone apart from him is in a shot for a medal. Seriously, HE IS JUMPING A FREAKING BRIDGE.

Now equestrian events at the Olympics have always intrigued me, for one thing they are the only event at the Olympics where men and woman compete against each other.

Well...only time it officially happens

They seem to be pretty bad at geography too, in 1956 when the Olympics was being held in Melbourne Australia, do you know where the equestrians held their event?

That's close right?

That's right while everyone else was competing in Melbourne, the equestrian event was already completed, having been held 5 months early in Stockholm Sweden. They claim it was due to the quarantine laws in Australia at the time, but come on Sweden isn't even close, why didn't they do it in Indonesia or Malaysia or NZ or somewhere closer? Why Sweden?

Oh...right.

But the main point about today's story that interested me is the fact she has sold her horse means Katie has given up winning a medal, despite the fact she is an up and coming person in the equestrian world. I mean if some one had brought Sarah Ulmers bike off her before the Sydney Olympics she would still have backed herself to win.

Assuming she purchased a bike of similar qualities to her own

But in horse riding a good horse is very important, and since they aren't manufactured by men, if you have a good horse you should probably hang onto it. You can't just go to the factory and replace a good horse.

"We are just putting the finishing touches on your horse, Sir"

This is alright because a lot of sports having top of the line equipment is essential for reaching the pinnacle, I imagine Sarah Ulmers bike was expensive, so is Michael Phelps swimsuit. But a good horse, could run you into the millions of dollars, and an entry level horse is probably in the thousands of dollars, so you are hardly likely to see some one in the horse world who has worked there way up from the streets.

As much as he tried Fredrick, couldn't get Mr Tubbs to jump the hurdles.

  And the kids with the best horses will always have a step ahead of the others, meaning the best horse rider will always be the richest. Making equestrian one of the most elite sports that exist, don't you think?
I think that all equestrian events should be held similar to the equestrian in Modern Pentathlon, where the competitors are given a random horse, to simulate riding a horse behind enemy lines, this way the quality of the horse is evened out. So every competitor brings a horse, and they are then randomly assigned one from the total pool of horses.

"This only works, if everyone brings a HORSE guys"

 Either that or they should start giving the medal to the horse. 

"Seriously, I get the medal, she is literally sleeping on my back!"