Don’t let ‘horsey set’ stereotypes blind you to spectacle at Badminton

There’s almost reassurance in how often the dressage element of three-day eventing catches the Irish out. The Germans are brilliant at it. But the Irish like their horse games wilder. Show-jumping is fine but it seems it’s the cross-country that really gets hearts racing here.

There is probably some pathological tie to steeplechasing’s blood-and-guts dash, the rush involved in throwing your heart over a fence, hoping the rest follows, and to hell with appearances. We relish spit-in-your-eye daring rather than precision.

At least that's the stereotype. There's still been enough mastery of that impenetrable but oddly mesmerising discipline of dressage recently to allow Ireland to send a full three-day eventing team to the upcoming Rio Olympics.

Hopes are high the four-person team to be picked next month can improve on its fifth place in London 2012 where Aoife Clark finished seventh in an individual competition which is judged on all three disciplines overall and doesn't reward short-cut speciality.

In contrast just one individual place has been secured by Ireland’s higher profile show-jumpers, who nevertheless remain dwarfed by racing in the nation’s gee-gee affections.

Still, along with boxing, many reckon eventing represents Ireland’s best medal chances in Rio.

If it happens, ‘Google’ searches are likely to skyrocket since even in this horse-mad country eventing remains one of those niche sports that only secure a glimpse of profile during that brief quadrennial angst when we wonder why Olympic gongs are so scarce.

Of course, it probably doesn’t help that when it comes to cartoon stereotypes the whole thing contains enough layers to do justice to the old Soviet maestro, Boris Yefimov.

Money

There’s no getting away from the perception of horse trials reeking of money. Representations of galloping Paddys and Patricias don’t readily stretch to horses trotting down the boulevards of Finglas or Southill.

Those who know such things insist the financial clout required to compete in Ireland are actually a long way removed from show-jumping or racing.

However there does remain the stereotypical image of braying hoorays breezily living out Jilly Cooper novels. The only contact with the sport for many of us is through magazine splashes on Mrs Mike Tindall, better known as Zara Phillips, the Queen's granddaughter who won a silver medal at the London Olympics.

And while that’s tough enough for those charged with flogging it to Joe Public, the temptation to row along with the cartoon must be irresistible sometimes. William Fox-Pitt, for instance, sounds like he’s come from central casting, the sort of cad every horsey Hermione wants to, ahem, bag.

No doubt the cartoonists will be making the most of such material this week when the trials circus stops at Badminton, the sport’s Royal Ascot which, like the racing mecca, attracts as much social attention as it does sporting.

Such attention can be a double-edged sword. Stereotypes can get reinforced but it offer the profile boost that comes with BBC telly highlights, albeit discreetly tucked behind the red button.

That the Beeb have the rights says a lot about public demand but it does allow some welcome wider exposure, especially on the Olympic run-in, which is just one reason why it will be worth examining this week.

Irish

absence

Most of the 10-person squad that Ireland’s Olympic team will be picked from are giving Badminton a miss this year, choosing to concentrate on preparing for Rio instead.

There remains, though, an opportunity to peer into a sport which Time magazine has described as perhaps the most dangerous in the Summer Olympics – to both horse and rider – outlining casualty rates, including fatalities, to put self-consciously 'real' stuff like MMA in comparatively childproof categories.

High risk

In a single 18-month period during 2007-08, a dozen people were killed in trials.

Efforts have been made to reduce the impact on horses of the cross-country sections in particular, which can be as long as the Grand National but with solid obstacles which by their nature contain little give.

There is a welfare debate for another day, but a barrier like Badminton’s renowned ‘Vicarage V’ is a challenge to compare with Becher’s Brook and can be just as visually spectacular. And it is that, rather than any cartoon stereotype, which cuts past the bulls**t to three-day eventing’s competitive heart.

The pluck required to take on the cross-country challenge, the precision needed to show-jump, and that mysterious mix of delicacy and trust which can lift dressage out of the realm of weird curio, demands a unique set of skills, all of them ultimately based on bending half a tonne of wilful animal to your will.

The idea of sending a merely competent rider out at Badminton, just to reflect the difficulty of a task most of us have no clue about, is probably a non-runner on health and safety grounds.

Still, some other ploy that helps illustrate the scale of ability on show at Badminton this week can’t be beyond the authorities’ wit, since the main reason for examining the action will be the perennially bewitching sight of horses and riders pushed to the limit.

It has been 51 years since Ireland's sole Badminton success. The late Eddie Boylan won on a horse with a name a long way from any double-barrelled cliché – Durlas Eile, named after Thurles near where he was bred.

Over 30 per cent of the horses entered at Badminton are Irish bred. In the last two decades half a dozen Irish bred horses have won it. Pedigree always counts in the horse game and Ireland’s three-day event pedigree could be about to get a significant boost this year.