‘The morbid appeal of equestrian cross country’
Greg Wyshynski’s story, “Watching London Olympic equestrian cross country for the crashes,” investigates an aspect of the sport that the rest of us are way too polite to mention.
His article begins with this brazenly unapologetic lead:
Equestrian cross country can best be described as the Olympics’ profuse apology dressage.
The rest of the story is predicated on Wyshynski’s delightfully misinformed observations as he wanders around the Greenwich cross country course, keep his eyes peeled for “uh oh” moments and grilling spectators on the appeal of what he accurately terms a “risk sport.”
Would anyone admit they were hanging at this obstacle for the crashes?
‘I want to see some people fall off,’ said Katie Cousins, a Brit, with a laugh. ‘As long as the horse and rider are fine.’
‘You know, if the Germans accidentally have a few tumbles. Because they’re in the lead,’ she continued.
Read the full story here.
- Send an email to wylie, the author of this post at wylie@horsenation.com
I wouldn’t consider it a “morbid” appeal. It’s more of an appeal for action and a superior form of athleticism that you just can’t find in any other horse sport. Why do people hang around the water jumps, the coffins, the banks etc.? People fall off more at those jumps because they are more challenging. So I guess you can say, people are attracted to the “crash questions” on course, but hey, if we wanted to get our “morbid” fix, we would be interested in other lame sports like fencing (where whole premise of the sport is to stab someone else in the jugular).
Ginny is a mare, not an “it”. Just saying…
Go Riding and Go Olympics!