1936 Olympics Cross Country Footage, Part 2

[@stefreinhold219]

Riding in the 1936 Olympics was still a 'cavalry competition'. There are exclusively cavalry men at the start. The Germans therefore found it appropriate to trick the opponents. By today's standards, not very sportsman-like. These guys and horses were much tougher than today's athletes.

[@rawr1ruby]

apparently there was a huge whole underneath the water that the germans all managed to intuitively locate and dodge -_-

[@rideinrain]

How deep is that water! How crazy! Poor horses! Tough riders! Things sure have changed for the better!

[@Ferreneh]

History fact: this was fence #4, the first official water jump, that was new and unusual to the cross-country competition at the Olympics. The water was 3 foot deep, so it was difficult for horses to land safely. Of 46 horses 18 fell on it. Unfortunately and infamously 2 horses had to be euthanized due to breaking their leg on the jump. These are ones of the few horse deaths that have happened during the Olympics. Fortunately safety regulations have changed since, but water jumps persist (typically not deep and never more than horse's knees deep, which is less than 2 feet). Cross-country is still one of the most dangerous sports in the world.

[@SaraNightfire1]

I read in a book that they rigged the water jump to be near impossible to cross except in one spot. The Germans knew about it, but never gave the memo to the rest of the teams, hence why it was such a hellish ride through the water and even deadly (Some animals had to be euthanized due to the rough landings they had.) for man and animal. If you watch the German team, it's obvious they knew the spot where to jump, where most of the riders jumped in the middle where it was the deepest, the Germans jumped to the far side where they only had one deep part, even that it wasn't really that deep compared to the rest of the landing spots.

[@sarahtherrien6730]

I was dying laughing at the horse in the water who just wouldn't move and then just drank some water XD

[@jjeherrera]

He was probably hurt.

[@natblundellequest]

OMG poor ponies! Some very brave horses and riders here! We only have to be glad for regulations these days.

[@AmandaPhillipsHorses]

Brave horses! Fences are literally deceiving on purpose. No wonder they all rode crazy TBs! Only a TB would have enough bravery and heart to jump these crazy courses. Fearless!

[@JosephDungee]

The Germans knew where to jump but their final rider must have missed the memo and still got drown at 3:47 !! The other (2) riders didn't even their shirts wet.

[@Bobina261]

dneska bez helmy a vesty ani ránu a tihle borci to jedou jen v čapce....frajeři a voda teda dost hluboká...

[@valleyhillschleich]

Wait. Suddenly the 3 events are swimming, dressage, and showjumping

[@JosephDungee]

That water was deep enough to drown the Titantic! It was Crazy Deep like 5 Feet+

[@brianatimmerman]

Wow! Did none of them "walk" the water!?! SOOO deep!! You'd have to literally walk the horse over that fence and into the water to survive that!

[@windowsill9724]

They all walked the course but the germans cheated. That‘s why the german riders all went through just fine. Three innocent horses had to be destroyed because of the Fuhrer‘s aryan ideology.

[@rawexplorer8373]

Czechoslovakia!!❤️🇨🇿🇨🇿

[@ILLJILL]

no offense to x-country riders/3 day eventers but d*mn this is insane history. so dangerous for the horse back then. I'm glad they've cleaned up the sport because that's just asking for injuries...yikes

[@shortie173]

This is disgusting, I'm glad things have changed

[@JosephDungee]

That probably would have consider that "Unsporting" and been ridiculed by their fellow swimmers, I mean riders :D

[@Dreiarmkater]

Obviously it was a Trakehner horse that won the competition ...

[@realityrider]

Brutal water jump!! Don't horses just LOVE getting their heads wet............;-(

[@JosephDungee]

The horse is laughing at his rider after near drowning him for making him jump all of that water a 0:22..lol

[@rudigerschmitz1997]

Zu was für eine Schande sich der Mensch her gibt! Unglaublich!

[@TikvehOr]

Painful to watch!

[@taosholly]

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@catherineprendergast9611]

Where the Irish horse

[@nataliekurek3469]

Who thought this was a good idea lol