I read the following on eventingnation.com today:
"Congratulations to Shaun White for destroying the competition last night and taking home Gold for the USA. Watching Shaun win reminded me that the complete domination he has shown for so many years in snowboarding is nearly impossible in eventing. When Shaun shows up at a competition, everyone else knows they are going to lose, even to Shaun's b-game. But in eventing, the horse component adds a much higher element of risk. When I say risk, I mean statistical deviation of results due to chance (think luck). The point is that horses get abcesses, they get hot nails, they strain tendons, sometimes they don't feel like jumping, sometimes they jump one inch lower than they need to, sometimes they get startled by the crowd, top owners decide they can't afford a horse any more, etc. None of these things happen completely randomly, but they are much more out of a rider's control than say training 8 hours a day to deliver a perfect half-pipe round. For Shaun White, he has incredible talent and when he mixes that talent with hard work he is a sure bet to win. To rephrase my point, one of the most frustrating things about riding for me is that while there is a strong correlation between hard work and achievement, this correlation is lower than most other sports."
my thoughts exactly...
"Congratulations to Shaun White for destroying the competition last night and taking home Gold for the USA. Watching Shaun win reminded me that the complete domination he has shown for so many years in snowboarding is nearly impossible in eventing. When Shaun shows up at a competition, everyone else knows they are going to lose, even to Shaun's b-game. But in eventing, the horse component adds a much higher element of risk. When I say risk, I mean statistical deviation of results due to chance (think luck). The point is that horses get abcesses, they get hot nails, they strain tendons, sometimes they don't feel like jumping, sometimes they jump one inch lower than they need to, sometimes they get startled by the crowd, top owners decide they can't afford a horse any more, etc. None of these things happen completely randomly, but they are much more out of a rider's control than say training 8 hours a day to deliver a perfect half-pipe round. For Shaun White, he has incredible talent and when he mixes that talent with hard work he is a sure bet to win. To rephrase my point, one of the most frustrating things about riding for me is that while there is a strong correlation between hard work and achievement, this correlation is lower than most other sports."
my thoughts exactly...