Paris Olympics 2024… hopefully some real progress will be made about the treatment/mistreatment of horses:
-Let dressage riders compete without spurs
-Ban belly bands
-Ban nosebands designed for tightness (such as crank nosebands)
-Ban twisted bits
-Ban tandem/combination bits
-Ban gag/elevation bits in combination with martingales
-Ban whip use in excess of once per event (twice in warmup)
-No horses must take part who have undergone any type of neurectomy
-Provide enough turnout areas for all horses to have access
-Loose boxes must be at least 4 m on one side
-Antidoping tests up to one month before Olympics
-Antidoping testing labs selected by tendering process
-Strict no-tolerance on even tiny amounts of blood on the horse
-No placing the horse’s nose behind the vertical anywhere on the Olympic grounds.
-Jumping team event before individuals
-Full clinical exams of eventers before competing
-100% of XC obstacles must be frangible
-Modern Pentathlon horses assigned 24 hours before competition
-Modern Pentathlon fences max 110 cm
Just ban horses its easier
Part of the Equestrian events are taking place just outside Macon and we might try and get tickets.
Horses and man have been working together since time immemorial, as with dogs.
There is nothing better than to watch a good partnership with a working animal and its master.
It’s good to see animal welfare standards being given careful thought.
However, I continue to be horrified at the amount of money spent globally on preparing for and staging the Olympic Games. The Tokyo games cost the Japanese government $28 billion. I can’t find a reliable source for the cost to participating nations. but I have found a reference in Forbes to an average cost per participating nation of $250 million which equates to over $50 billion. Probably at least $80 billion in total.
And that’s all for two weeks of blanket TV coverage and personal glory for the winners.
(edit to add: apologies for bringing the mood down. 1st May does not seem to have imbued me with the joys of Spring!)
I think the same can be said for the whole shebang of international sport.
Flying all over the place with all their supporting staff and then their supporters as well.
It’s hardly green.
A hint that you’d like to see Olympic sheepdog trials?
Where would it all end…?
When they try to organise cat team events!
Certainly not.
I’m quite surprised at quite a lot of things on that list. It’s worrying that people would be doing these things anyway.
I would pay to see that 