By Stewart Perrie
Animal welfare group PETA wants horse events banned from future Olympic Games.
The organisation was among many who were horrified at seeing what happened on two separate occasions during Tokyo 2020 that grabbed worldwide attention.
Swiss competitor Robin Godel was riding in the cross country event in his first Olympics on top of 14-year-old gelding Jet Set.
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Midway through the event, the horse copped an irreparable ligament rupture and had to be pulled off the course.
It was later taken to a nearby veterinary clinic to be examined and experts made the heartbreaking decision to put the horse 'to sleep'.
Several days later in the women's modern pentathlon event, German coach Kim Raisner was kicked out for punching a horse when it became unruly.
Athletes are given only 20 minutes to bond with an unfamiliar horse before their round and German athlete Annika Schleu, who had been leading the field, was in tears as she came into the ring.
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Saint Boy, who had already proven a tricky ride for his first athlete, bucked and refused to trot around the course, with a number of people on social media raising concerns about the way Schleu and Raisner were treating the horse.
Video footage shows Raisner punched the horse on the back leg to encourage it to settle down and allow Schleu to finish competing.
PETA believes these events and others that happened at the Tokyo Olympics should spell the end of horses being included in future Games.
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It wrote on Facebook: "Athletes can choose to compete, animals can't. Horses don't belong in the #Olympics."
But the animal welfare group isn't the only one making that call. People have been very vocal on social media about the campaign after witnessing several problematic events.
One person wrote: "This has been the worst Olympics on record for equestrian sport.
"Bleeding horses, eventing horse being put down, jumpers crashing and falling, pentathlon athletes displaying horrific horsemanship and beating their horse. Equestrian is going to be banned soon."
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Another added: "A clearly distressed beautiful living creature is forced into a situation it has no desire to be in and the riders solution is to quite literally punch it. This 'sport' should not be in the Olympics (give the horses the medals) and it should be banned outright."
It would take a hell of a lot of campaigning for a sport to be removed from the Olympics, especially if it's permitted to play out at levels lower than the Olympics.
So, don't hold your breath.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: olympics, Tokyo Olympics, Animal Welfare, Australia
