Olympics. Should things change.

OldRio

Question really.
We are not delivering. Why?
We have some of the best horses and riders and yet ?

Great result in the eventing but showjumping?

Will we change our approach or just pretend everythings grand?

GB invested £13.3 million in their equestrian team.
Incredible amount of cash.
We cannot compete on the money front but surely something should change.

Anyone any thoughts?

marley123

I really think Dressage is the biggest downfall in Ireland @ the moment - Not one rider here who is capable of performing a top 10 test - I think if we could dramatically improve on this who knows how the eventing team could do in Rio.

Esroh

OldRio wrote: »

Question really.
We are not delivering. Why?
We have some of the best horses and riders and yet ?

Great result in the eventing but showjumping?

Will we change our approach or just pretend everythings grand?

GB invested £13.3 million in their equestrian team.
Incredible amount of cash.
We cannot compete on the money front but surely something should change.

Anyone any thoughts?

Prior to Olympics

Riders. Denis Lynch ,Billy Twoomey and Shane Sweetnam are the only 3 ranked in world top 50. Cian 75th, Jessica 85th and Richie Maloney 94th make the top 100.
Billy and Tinka are the only combination in top 50.
Denis is in top 100 with 2
Billy has another and Conor Swail is there as well.

In Eventing Geoff Curran39th and Sarah Ennis 44th are the top ranked riders. The Olympic riders are all in the top 100 as well.

We may have the Talent rider wise and there are plenty more like them at home and abroad but they do not have the horse power. All the listed Jumpers apart from CO'Connor are based abroad depending on foreign owners,
If you look at Germany v Ireland re where wealthy people with a passion for horse put their money. Germany its into Sports Horses. Here its Racing.
Where Ml O'Leary goes for the Gold Cup if he was in Germany his Horses would all be Ryanair X,Y or Z and be aimed at a Gold medal. Racing is to Germany what Dressage is to Ireland and its still quite important in Euro racing terms.

In eventing terms although we are closing the gap in dressage the days when our ability over both jump phases meant we maybe scraped a medal at the odd championships every 20 years are long gone as the new format makes dressage even more important.
Even though Irish breds did themselves proud in London 2012 we no longer dominate the breeding rankings like we did.
I only going on what I saw on TV but the Xcountry course looked boring. Its now all about accuracy and control than natural xcountry ability and not one fence looked like it would frighten the life out of you. Thats what used to make Badminton, Burghley, Punchestown and Beoklo stand out as the must rides.
European Horses can now cut it cross country.

Irish ponies have always dominated in Sj and Eventing at Euros for other countries but for our Eventing riders to take 2 medals and the Team Gold is a big step up. It will be interesting to see how the Juniors go.
These are the riders who will really show the benefits of the high Performance pathway in eventing and in reality its Rio after 10 years that is where we will know has it worked.

The big question is money as I said above the potential owners who could refuse big money for horses with potential would rather have a gold Cup winner.

Just look at the Brit Dressage team. The horses were held for London 2012 but will they be able to refuse the offers they will get now.