ESPN
The equestrian show jumpers have been raising their eyebrows at a life-size statue of a sumo wrestler on the course at the Tokyo Games, with one rider saying they believe the horses might be “taking a spook” at the poised rikishi (wrestler).
The statue at fence No. 10 might have messed up a few show jumpers’ hopes of making the final on Wednesday. Housed in the corner of the arena, a sumo tower and rikishi make up one of the Japan-themed fences.
The Associated Press delved into the subject and found the sumo wrestler had caught the eye of a number of riders. Great Britain’s Harry Charles said he “did notice four or five horses taking a spook” at the statue. He added: “As you come around, you see a big guy’s [butt].” Ireland’s Cian O’Connor said: “There’s a lot to look at”. More
Why in the world would the organizers put something like that in the ring???
A statue of Mike Obama would really make them nervouse.
Facsimile of Sheila Jackson Lee.
Supposed to bring good luck to horses.
You know what pisses me off? That Team Handball and prancing horses are in the Olympics but not Sumo Wrestling and MMA. Fuck that shit!
Stacy Abrams is Governor of Tokyo…
Anything that keeps springsteen’s daughter out of contention is OK with me.
Doesn’t every body have a statue of a scantily clothed Fat Man at their training sites?
Step up the difficulty, put a statue of a mountain lion at one of the jumps. Whoa Nellie!
Help me try to understand. A statue of a fat man/person disrupts you and your horse, but not others. I cannot fathom how you would practice ignoring that. A 300 LB person in a sudo-terry cloth wrap. Yup, I would be disturbed and probably run away screaming, but I am not an Olympic athlete.
Did someone yell Frau Blucher.
Anything that looks like a person standing stock still would spook a horse. Horses are a little nutty to begin with. I watched a Mustang Makeover (I’m into these things) where there was a metal cut out of a cowboy as part of the arena decor. None of the horses would go near it. Those sneaky Japanese probably trained using the sumo wrester thing.
I past years I would participate in the daily parades through the fairgrounds in Topsfield, MA towing a 25 foot long submarine model behind my Jeep. Most years the RCMP (Canadian Mounties) Musical Ride team were also part of the parade, and more than once it was requested I move the submarine away from the staging area where the horses were brought out because many refused to approach or pass the float. Horses can take a dislike to something they have never encountered before and nothing will convince them to go near it!