ST. LOUIS — Men and women weren’t the only ones competing in the Tokyo Olympics. For some events, horses were trotting across the finish line.
Equestrian events include dressage and jumping. St. Louis area trainers said the sport is about so much more than jumping high or successfully completing a series of moves. The rider and the horse have to be in sync to be a success.
“You have two hearts together, right? There’s not a lot of other sports that offer that. It takes a lot of time to pull that together,” said Sean Noonan, owner of Noonan Farms in Chesterfield, which teaches equestrian riding.
“Does the horse have the drive and the heart to do it? Does the rider have the drive and the heart to do it? And you put those two together. You're going to have the attention of the Olympic coach,” said Noonan.
He explained there’s a lot of training to make a ride look easy and effortless.
“You can tell that the rider is really well connect with the horse when it looks easy. If it looks easy and it looks good, it is good,” Noonan said.
“You have to have the connection with the horse, and you have to meld together with that horse to get the horse to do exactly what you want it to do, on cue,” he said.
And it’s not just the riders who are going for a first-place finish. The horses are very competitive, too.
“They know what their job is, and they want to do that job,” Noonan added.