German modern pentathlon coach Kim Raisner has been chucked out of the Tokyo Olympics for punching horse Saint Boy during competition.
Rider Annika Schleu was struggling to control the horse during the show jumping round of the women’s modern pentathlon, with Raisner trying to help her get the rattled nag under her spell.
However, the coach went too far and struck the beast, which has led to her disqualification from the Games.
Hitting the horse was not only reprehensible, but clearly did no good as Schleu could not get Saint Boy to cooperate and rode around the arena in tears as the animal refused to do any of the show jumping that the Germans were looking for.
The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), the governing body for modern pentathlon released a statement confirming Raisner’s punishment.
The statement read: ‘The UIPM Executive Board (EB) has given a black card to the Germany team coach Kim Raisner, disqualifying her from the remainder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
‘The EB reviewed video footage that showed Ms Raisner appearing to strike the horse Saint Boy, ridden by Annika Schleu, with her fist during the riding discipline of the women’s modern pentathlon competition.
‘Her actions were deemed to be in violation of the UIPM competition rules, which are applied to all recognised modern pentathlon competitions including the Olympic Games.
‘The EB decision was made today at the Tokyo Stadium before the resumption of the men’s modern pentathlon competition.’
The horses are randomly assigned to riders ahead of the show jumping and riders get just 20 minutes to try and bond with their new equine teammate.
Schleu had been in gold medal position after the first two events, and had finished fourth in Rio five years ago, was already in tears as she came into the ring, realising that Saint Boy was absolutely not in the mood to comply.
As a result of the disastrous spell atop Saint Boy, Schleu tumbled from first to 31st position on the leaderboard.
‘You can see that it’s largely rider error, the mistakes,’ Murray told the BBC.
‘She was quite put off. When this horse first went into the arena in the first round, with Gulnaz Gubaydullina of the ROC, she was eliminated on this horse.
‘That probably set a bit of a panic off for this athlete. When she got on the horse she would have been a bit stressed.
‘That transcends into the horse, horses can’t see you they can only feel you when you’re on top of them.
‘You need composure, be very decisive with what you’re going to do when you’re riding.
‘In the moments she was crying and panicking, I understand why she was like that, but I wish she would have let her reins loose a bit, rode more with her leg and give the horse as much positivity as possible
‘When she came to the fences correctly, the horse jumped.’
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