Guaranteed to make your blood boil!

An article from a Hutchinson Kansas newspaper website made my blood boil this morning. It is entitled “Dressage by any name not an Olympic sport” (link to the article here.) Basically it questions why Dressage is an Olympic sport but not roller derby. One of my favorite quotes from writer Mary Rintoul’s entertaining article

“My limited understanding of dressage - a word that rarely escapes my lips - is a handsomely brushed horse that can leap short fences and tiny puddles without knocking down any fence boards or splashing itself with the smallest droplet of puddle water.”

Yeah…those dressage horses leaping fences…definitely at Olympic level horses there…I think she is confused with Show Jumpers and you are right Mary…Those 7ft fences with 7 ft spreads are short fences. Pssht…anyone and their grandma can jump a horse over that! I can see naughty dressage horses leaping the dressage arena fence at a local show, heck my best friends horse did that at the last show. She was eliminated, it’s too bad too because she was really hoping to make it to London this year.

How about this quote.
“True sports fans know the criteria for determining if an event - Olympic or not - is a sport. It should be judged by the number of gashes and bruises on the body, the amount of blood shed and the grass or dirt stains on a uniform. Add an occasional knocked out tooth and you've got yourself a sport.”
You know us equestrians have it SO easy. Basically we just sit there on a pretty pony and let it carry us around. We NEVER get dirty, and we never get hurt! Win!! Have any of you riders out there ever gotten bruised or gashed from your “sport?” Not me! I’ve never shed any blood either, and my breeches are always spotless and free of dirt and grass stains. Yeah that was true when I walked into my very first lesson ever. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve gotten mysterious bruises or shed blood.

Let me ask you this Ms. Rintoul. Have you ever seen a 1200lb roller derby girl kick an average sized girl before? I have friends that derby….and I’ve never seen that. How about that 1200lb derby girl, has she ever thrown another average sized girl to the ground from 6ft in the air? Yeah still haven’t seen that either. And I bet that 1200 lb derby girl has never bitten another girl either.  I understand how intensive Derby is. I’ve seen my friends get ripped to shreds doing it. But you CAN NOT compare dressage to Derby. "Roller derbians" have to be some heavy-duty athletes to survive the wall-slamming shoves and roll-up-your-sleeves punches they endure.” I’ve been slammed to the wall by a horse before…did that hurt less than being slammed to the wall by a derby girl? Jury is still out I guess…Anyone ever had a fat lip or black eye training for dressage? Yeah I haven’t either. My pretty pony is perfect and would NEVER hurt me. I dunno, maybe he has that last blow to the head when unloading my horse mabe erased some of my memories of what my horse has done to me…Concussions will do that I guess.

“But an event where a hangnail likely is the worst injury sustained does not a sport make.”

Dang hangnails, killing the careers of so many promising dressage riders. I don’t know about you but I wish a hangnail was the worst of my problems. Broken bones, concussions, bruises, cuts, scrapes, sprains, aches and pains. Those are NOTHING compared to hangnails.

I guess I am just a silly girl with a silly horse. I chose to take a safe sport than to participate in Roller Derby. Some people are morons….