Equestrian horses may be getting spooked and a sumo statue might be to blame
They may be used to hurdling over obstacles in front of crowds, but horses are still skittish by nature.
It takes years of training to wean them of their natural behavior and channel their strength into equestrian jumping, but when a life-sized sumo statue is added next to an obstacle, it may compound their jumpy nature.
"As you come around, you see a big guy’s (butt)," British rider Harry Charles said.
"It is very realistic," Israel’s Teddy Vlock added.
The sumo wrestler, whose arms are apart while the body is hunched over in a squat, is positioned on the 10th obstacle in the 14-jump Olympic course and riders believe its presence may have distracted some horses in qualifying for the individual jumping final Tuesday night. Some pairings accumulated penalty points when their horses pulled up short of the barrier, preventing pairs from entering Wednesday's finals.
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With the way the statue is positioned, approaching riders and their horses are greeted by two peach-colored cheeks with a wedgie created by the wrestler’s mawashi. Most hurdles around the arena are decorated with a Japanese theme, but none draw eyes like the sumo wrestler.
"There’s a lot to look at," Ireland’s Cian O’Connor said.
France’s Penelope Leprevost, a team jumping gold medalist in 2016, was among those whose horses may have been victim to the statue's intimidation.
"Maybe," she said. "We tried to relax our horses in the turn, and maybe they’re surprised to see a vertical so close. I don’t know."
Vlock trotted his 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding, Amsterdam 27, to the 10th obstacle before beginning his run to help provide his horse some familiarity with the derriere they would inevitably encounter. Vlock cleared the obstacle and placed 42nd in the 73-horse field.
Still, some riders chalked up the miscues on the 10th hurdle to other culprits like the stadium’s bright lights, the jump's position to the jump and cherry blossoms placed nearby.