[Frequitude]

There is a major misconception in this thread.

Equestrian:
Not one of you could train for 4 years and make the olympics in this sport. Not a single one.

Yes, the horse does the jumping, but it is the rider that controls where they take off from. The olympic jumps are 1.60m high. The margin of error for where to take off from is about an inch. These riders can control their horse's stride to take off from exactly that spot. Err on either side of that and the jump comes down.

There are thousands of Canadians training for this sport 6+ hours a day, and it's still the same group at the top - Miller, Lamaze, Henselwood, Asselin, Cone and a few others. Why, because they're the best. There's a reason Ian Miller has the olympic record for most appearances (something stupid like 9). It takes an unbelievable combination of skill, luck, experience and one hell of a horse.