Olympics question! Is this possible?

Question

You know how most olympic riders ride someone else's horses or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a horse to ride in the olympics? Well do you think its possible for a rider to breed and raise and train their own olympic horse?(working VERY hard, of course)

Answer 1

Yes of course it is possible. You have to breed for talent and not bloodlines and of course work hard with proper training, but yes it can be done.

The reason most Olympic rider ride someone elses horse is time and money. Most of the Upper level rider only ride & teach as their full time job. (some yes do have other jobs but most don't)

When you have a barn to run and your budget is a bit tight you don't have the money to buy a trained horse or one with potential those ones start for around 20,000 dollars. So wealthy people who don't really ride but want a horse buy horses either for the upper level rider or just to have a nice horse which an upper level rides.

Beezie Madden picks out nice horses she wants and then has rich people buy them for her. Nice deal huh?

Answer 2

Why wouldn't it be?  Princess Anne once participated in the Olympics equestrian events.  I'm sure she used her own horse.  

If you can afford the horse, and you know how to train the horse and yourself, then you should be able to do this.  You might need some advise from someone who has done it though to make sure you are covering everything that will be judged.

Answer 3

It would be a LOT of work but certainly not impossible.  Breeding is hard work, raising is hard work, training is hard work and of course riding is hard work.  All of it takes time and money.  If you have the money, time, blood, sweat and tears, it's completely possible though.

Answer 4

Anything is possible.  Read this:

A packhorse with potential

For an Olympic horse, Poggio II comes from a unique background. Tryon found the 15-year-old gelding ten years ago in the classified section of the Seattle Times in a listing that read "Former mountain packhorse with a Thoroughbred pedigree." Tryon's friend bought the horse for $2500, thinking she would resell him. Seeing the opportunity, Tryon worked out a deal with her friend to trade one of the horses in her stable for Poggio II. "For me, financially, it's reality," she told the Kansas City Star in 2004. "I come from a modest background. It's never been reality to be able to buy expensive horses. All of the horses I ride come from the racetrack outside of Seattle or kind of in the back woods."

Answer 5

Gina Miles - eventing silver medalist, did most of the training of that horse herself as well.

It is possible.  Olympic riders usually ride other horses in the US because it is more lucrative.  You don't pay for the horse and someone pays you to ride the horse.  Hinrich Reineke is a pure amateur - dentist during the day and rides every night.  He trained his horse up from green also.  He won the gold for Germany in eventing.

Answer 6

Of Course!  For example, Megan Jones.

Megan and her family breed horses.  Irish Jester was bred by her family and is owned by her mother, Margaret.

Megan and Irish Jester won silver in the team eventing and came fourth in the individual at Beijing

Irish Jester's profile

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BI...

Megan's profile

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BI...

Though they are the exception to the norm, I think.