2012 and Olympic Selection

It's finally 2012 and the Eventing season is due to begin any day now, so of course the focus is on the London Olympics. Great Britain is tipped for a medal, with a high chance of Gold - especially when you look at who is in contention for the team. Gold at the World Equestrian Games in 2010 and a (perhaps unlucky) Bronze at the Europeans last year makes us hot favourites to take the top spot at our home Olympics this summer. So who is qualified for our team, who is still yet to qualify and who is likely to take the 5 places on Team GBR?


Perhaps a certainty for the team (although in our sport 'certainty' is never a wise word to use!) is World Number 1 Mary King and the hugely successful William Fox-Pitt. William has managed to qualify nine horses since qualification began in 2011, but with his perhaps favourite (1st Kentucky Rolex 2010, Team Gold and Individual Silver at WEG) Cool Mountain out of work for 2012 due to a tendon injury, William looks likely to be taking Oslo - who had a very impressive 2011 with two 3* wins and a 4* win at Pau. Yet, we can never predict anything in Eventing so take any news at this point in the selection process very lightly. Mary King also has a number of horses at top level, namely her WEG and Europeans ride Imperial Cavalier. Mary will miss Badminton with both him and King's Temptress this year in order to preserve them for the Olympics, instead they will aim for Chatsworth 3* in preparation. Her other 4* rides include the newly acquired Chilli Morning from Nick Gauntlett and Apache Sauce, both who will aim for Badminton this year.

Other likely combinations qualified for the Olympics include Nicola Wilson and everyone's favourite Opposition Buzz. Their pathfinder skills across country are invaluable for the British team and I'm sure everyone would love to see them skipping round Greenwich this July. In addition, Blenheim 2011 winner Piggy French and her top horse Jakata are also in the running after a 2nd place at Badminton and 9th at the Europeans, yet it has often been noted that this horse's way of going isn't suited to the twisty course at Greenwich.

After a devastating 2011 for Tina Cook's ride Miners Frolic their hopes for the Olympic team were perhaps dissolving rapidly, but after a fantastic recovery Miners Frolic is fully fit and raring to go for this season. They aim for the 3* at Ballindenisk this weekend, where their result will be closely watched by many. Part of the gold medal winning team at WEG in 2010 and Olympic medallists in 2008, Miners Frolic and the experienced Tina Cook were perhaps in good contention for the Olympic team going into 2011, but after being diagnosed with colitis shortly after Badminton Miners Frolic was in a critical condition and their season came to an abrupt end. It is up to them now to prove their place on the team in the few months of qualification we have left before the final selection takes place.

Another rider hoping to make Olympic qualification this year after injury in 2011 is Pippa Funnell and Redesigned. They were perhaps a surprise choice for the 2010 WEG team, with Pippa making her first team appearance since 2004, but they proved their worth and finished on their dressage score for a very credible 5th place. This result has most definitely put Redesigned as one to watch for future years, and a few good runs at the beginning of this season will put him and Pippa in good contention for Olympic selection. They aim for the one-day at Burnham Market in April to kick-start their quest for qualification.

Other riders that we can't possibly overlook for the team include Ruth Edge, Polly Stockton, Lucy Wiegersma and Laura Collett. Knowing Eventing and the horse world we simply cannot predict anything accurately though and the results of the spring events, namely Badminton, will be the deciding point for many. The final five team members will be named on July 6th, 3 weeks before the Olympics will begin. Whoever manages to make the coveted places on Team GBR will I am sure do the country proud and we look forward to this season, one of the most exciting years of sport in recent history, with bated breath. Good luck to all.

Is Equestrianism falling into the shadows?

Is Equestrianism falling into the shadows?

For us riders we often believe our sport probably doesn’t get the recognition it deserves nowadays. There was a time when Lucinda Green was a household name, when Milton was a celebrity in his own right and when Princess Anne’s riding career was front page news. Yet now if you asked someone not directly involved in the sport who the likes of Mary King or William Fox-Pitt were, they wouldn’t be able to give you an answer. Is this an indication that our sport is falling into the shadows?

With supposedly two million horse riders in the UK equestrianism certainly isn’t a flailing sport in that sense, yet the sport seems to be becoming more and more closed off from the outside world. The television coverage offered now on non-satellite television is minimal, and the recognition given to our top riders and horses is also trifling. So why is our sport getting so little acknowledgment from the outside world? We can switch on the television at the weekend and see the likes of snooker, golf and darts – sports which probably have a similar following than equestrian - yet we rarely see footage from our top events and competitions.

Perhaps the divide between us and the non-horsey population is due to the stereotypical image we’re all given as soon as we so much as mention the phrase ‘horse riding’. Obviously not everyone brands us with this mark, and certainly not all of us oppose this image, yet this particular stereotype pushes the distance. Many people over the years have made a negative remark about me riding, with the likes of ‘posh’ and ‘rich’ being among the most popular. Yet, for some this cannot be further from the truth. Many of us are not rich because we have horses, not the other way round! This image given to us will instantly put others off the sport. The price tag involved is often way over-dramatized and exaggerated, thus forcing people to think they won’t be able to afford horses even before starting. This may instantly be the reason why our sport isn’t as widely appreciated and recognised as we would like it to be, and why our televised coverage is somewhat lacking. Nobody who isn’t involved in the sport is going to deliberately switch on for instance the Badminton coverage and watch it; equestrianism is one of those sports you have to be involved in in some way in order to appreciate it in all its glory. I’ve realised I’m rambling rather a lot now, I’ll continue on the subject matter!

According to the BBC, the reason they dropped the likes of the Hickstead Derby in 2010 was due to low viewing figures and the fact that they wanted to cover a wider range of sports. Now, call me wrong but I am yet to see any change in the range of televised sports on the BBC. Perhaps the low viewing figures can also be blamed on the lack of advertising and information given to us about when our events are going to be televised. Other sports around the world get quick adverts and media coverage to inform us, yet equestrian sports get none of this. Badminton was not once advertised on television, despite being on the red button all day and on BBC2 for hours. Perhaps the low viewing figures can be blamed on this.

The less televised coverage and media coverage equestrian sports get, the less people are likely to want to know more and get involved. Riding isn’t the sort of sport someone who doesn’t take part in watches – unlike football etc., and so therefore this seriously limits the amount of people likely to watch. I know for a fact many of my close non-horsey friends have no interest whatsoever in watching an equine sport on television, yet will happily watch tennis or football – neither of which they personally take part in.

I think in a sense our sport is falling into the shadows, yet not in a sense of it being a small or unpopular sport – more in a sense of the fact that it’s becoming quite private. We’re almost in our own world now, and it never used to be like this. This pulls us out of the media’s eye (which may in some ways be a good thing!), and thus means our riders and horses do not get the recognition for their achievements as they perhaps should do. I’ll use the example of our team GBR’s fantastic triumph in the World Equestrian Games last year, team gold and individual silver for William. Yet this was disappointingly not acknowledged by our national papers or news teams. In my opinion they deserve so much more credit for what they do, and I hope that the current media state will improve in the future.