I don’t understand the rules for Olympic dressage. For example, Ann Romney’s horse is part of the American team, but its rider is German. Who gets the medal, the rider or the horse? In any case, I watched Rafalca perform this morning and I was very impressed. I was rooting for her. Apparently, she finished the day in 13th place, which doesn’t sound too promising for winning a medal, but it’s not too shabby either. I really don’t see why Mitt is so embarrassed by his wife and her hobby.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Who gets the medal, the rider or the horse?
I think it goes to whoever gets the tax writeoff.
That makes sense.
Rabbits don’t eat Trix. Silly rabbit.
And horses don’t eat medals.
Money eats medals.
Bet on it.
AG
P.S. And Romney is not embarrassed by the wife and hobby.
He’s embarrassed by the
Trix…errr, ahhhh…fix. He’s doing about as well at it as a couple of the U.S. gymnasts who tanked on their very first tests. His tomato can is being too plainly presented. He may ruin the fix.AG, are you off your meds? That last sentence made less sense than a Hungarian lyric poem run thru google translate into Spanglish via Swedish.
Ah, give the poor guy a break, willya? It’s hard to snark effectively about the PermaGov conspiracy when you clearly don’t know bupkis about the subject you’re trying to shoehorn into it.
* trots away, nickering for herdmates *
What exactly did you not understand? Maybe I can elucidate some of the content of that last sentence for you.
Or…more likely…maybe I can’t.
There is sense in it it, DerFarm. Keep trying. You’ll get there if you try real hard.
Start with simpler things.
“See Jip run.”
Like dat.
Then move on to more complicated things. Like “See the fox run.”
And then on to stuff like “See the gyppers run the fix.”
You’ll get there.
Have faith.
I believe in you, anyway.
Nighty night…
AG
AG- you’re just getting called on your lazy analysis.
It’s not that Romney isn’t trying to win. It’s not like there aren’t billionaires out there giving him them couch change in a desperate effort to help him. There are Fixers on both sides.
Remember, Ali won the third fight, but it almost killed him.
I really do not know what to make of the Mittster. Is he privy to the fix? It’s hard to think otherwise. Could he be that stupid?
But then again…
Poor Jerry Quarry thought that he had been put in there to win, too.
Twice.
Before Quarry died he was a punchdrunk shell of his former self.
And Ali is not much better off.
10, 20, 30, 40 years from now…will Obama and the Mitttster be in any better condition?
Punches to the head, punches to the honor…as above, so below.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Or cat a scan.
Bet on it.
AG
Sorry about the double post of Ali-Quarry II. Booman…is there no way that you can modernize this site so’s we can see what we are posting from YouTube before the final version is uploaded?
Please.
AG
Jan Ebeling is a naturalized citizen of the United States, like Phillip Dutton, born and raised in Australia but another naturalized citizen who now rides for the American team in eventing. It’s not uncommon, at least in the equestrian world, for world-class athletes to take the citizenship of the country where their sport is most prominent or the training and competition levels are highest, and where gaining citizenship status is not difficult. The U.S. fits those criteria.
Rafalca did very well. The Europeans, especially the Germans, always dominate dressage; in fact the Germans have won the team gold in every Olympics since 1984. The United States has been able to capture a few team bronzes in dressage, but that’s it.
So, it’s the rider who gets the medal?
The horse is sporting equipment. You don’t give a trophy to the racer, but the driver.
ARGH!
In horse racing the owner wins the purse.
True, but there are established percentages that go to the trainer and rider.
In the equestrian events the medal goes to the rider.
Exactly what I was going to say. He’s an American.
Forget Dressage. I’m too busy rooting for Women’s Gymnastics.
If you care about “spoilers” then dont’ click on the link, but the picture is too beautiful not to share (IMHO).
TIME Magazine Cover for this week
If it’s the picture I think it is (accidentally spoiled the surprise for myself esrlier), that’s awesome.
Yup, as awesome as she is.
It probably is. I gotta say that I don’t even care about spoilers in this case.
The one thing I kidna irrationally hate about watching sports live is that it’s live soo you have no idea if ur team wins are loses. I know that’s the fun in it, but main I have been way too close to the wrong side of a stress headache over my sports teams (darn Saints) and I’ve seen way to many drunken fights between winner and losers, so a little spoiling doesn’t bother me one bit when it comes to sports.
Now movie or TV spoilers…I hate those.
I really don’t see why Mitt is so embarrassed by his wife and her hobby.
Yes, you do. It’s because he’d seem too elitist, even to the rubes down South.
Why is Willard embarrassed?
Years ago I was crew foreman on a barn we were building for the heiress to the Levi-Strauss fortune. She needed the barn to house her dressage horses while she went for a place on the Olympic team the next year. While we were building it (50,000 square feet, plus the apartments for the workers), she was living down the street and training on the site, and we used to watch her during breaks.
The sport is not for the faint of heart. She took incredible spills. Her coaches (she had two) would run over to her and yell at her to get back on the f&$king horse, right f$&king NOW. No taking a break after a spill. she didn’t make the team, second alternate.
BTW, they were without a doubt the best owners I ever worked for. Die hard democrats, who backed it up with their wallets. But one year after we finished the 8 million dollar barn, she decided she wanted to keep her horses back east.
.
Yeh, not for the faint of heart indeed. Now imagine doing eventing, where besides dressage (first day), wherein you execute finely controlled movements on a horse bursting out of its skin with GO! RUN! energy, you compete (second day) in cross-country (galloping miles over varying terrain and jumping humongous obstacles along the way) and then (third day) try to go clean over a show jumping course, on a tired horse, where merely brushing the rail can bring it down for penalty points.
Those horses and riders are the triathletes of the equestrian world, and simply amazing. Also crazy. People get killed doing it.
Wiki on eventing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventing
And in case you’re wondering: The horses aren’t forced to perform, certainly at the upper levels they like their jobs or they wouldn’t succeed. The great gray Murphy Himself used to pull his riders arms off, he was so eager to run and gun:
http://youtu.be/rGtYCXwEzPo