So the "Three Day Event", then...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

How fucked up is this as an event?

The first day is twatting about making your horse trot round in a circle, go backwards, parallel park and then complete a three-point turn, and you appear to get anything from 30 "penalty points" to about 50.

The next two days are the real meat and drink for the spectators, the eventing course leaping over fences and hedges and into ditches, and then the show jumping, which is pretty much more of the same except in an arena.

But the last two days, someone can actually get no more penalty points at all! It's like 2 points per second for time on day two, and 4 points for fences down on day three.

Hardly seems to be fair, in a "three-day" event. If this was rally driving, it would be like giving the drivers 30 to 50 penalty points for how well they'd parked arriving at the race, then just letting them actually race and saying "oh, well, you get an extra 8 points for finishing fifth".

Are there any horsey OTFers who can explain to me why you lot countenance this apparent madness?

[Tubby Isaacs]

So the "Three Day Event", then...

Wikipedia tells me that cross country is considered the most important, then dressage, then show jumping, and the penalty point system reflects this. Cross country is apparently the "heart of the event", which sounds fair enough. I assume show jumping is too plebeian.

I got lost on the exact way it works, but does that sound plausible?

[Tactical Genius]

So the "Three Day Event", then...

Dressage is for the Gay horses, Show Jumping is for the gay riders and Cross-country is for the rest.

[Guest]

So the "Three Day Event", then...

Apparently there is some guy competing in this who was also a participant at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

[hobbes]

So the "Three Day Event", then...

Reincarnated as a horse, was he?

[Guest]

So the "Three Day Event", then...

I think the logic is that it's much harder to get the horses to do the various gates and leg yeilding and things properly in the dressage than it is to do the other parts. But it does seem a bit unbalanced doesn't it.

There is a seperate straight show jumping competition to come as well, so if that's your bag then you enter that one. Which is where you usually see the entire Whittaker family, I think there's 5 of them in competition on the circuit.