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After the fiasco of the performance of the rider Annika Schleu at the equestrian competition of the modern pentathlon, it became finally obvious that equestrianism should no longer be a part of this competition. Pentathletes are athletes who have to master several disciplines. This requires a great variety and a lot of different training from the athletes.

Equestrian sport is a discipline in which the interaction with the partner horse must be in the foreground. However, this is completely out of focus in modern pentathlon. Instead, the horse is degraded to a piece of sports equipment that is drawn by lot and assigned. Here, no consideration is given to the animals. Unknown riders, driven by the ambition to win a medal, swing themselves into the saddle and try by hook or by crook to get the animal to perform.

This often happens in complete disregard of the riding teachings, the basis of which is to ride the horse in a healthy manner and for its advancement. The rider has no relation to the horse, it is only the means of transport that has to carry him over the obstacles. It is not really possible to work with the horse as a partner and to respond to the animal in this way.

It cannot and must not be that horses are abused in this way in order to win a medal.

The discipline of riding must be taken out of the modern pentathlon and replaced by another, more appropriate sport. This is not only in the interest of the horses, but also in the interest of the athletes, who will then no longer be faced with a requirement that they often cannot really meet.

Kerstin Gerhardt

classical trainer, rider
former teacher for horse traders/breeders