Misbehaving horses wreaked havoc and killed dreams in the weirdest event at the Olympics

• Badly behaved horses caused chaos and killed dreams during the Olympic modern pentathlon.
• Horses bucked off their riders, refused to jump fences, and just generally caused mischief.
• One athlete slipped from 1st to 31st when her horse refused to jump, while another was thrown twice.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

There's an old saying in showbusiness – never work with children or animals.

That old adage rang true on Friday as a string of badly behaved horses wreaked havoc during the Olympic modern pentathlon.

The event, created specifically for the Olympics, pits athletes against each other in five disciplines – fencing, swimming, horse riding, running, and shooting – designed to reflect the tasks completed by infantry soldiers in the early 20th century.

It's as wacky as it sounds. The event has appeared at every Olympics since 1912, having been invented by Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern games.

At Tokyo, four of the five events went off without a hitch, but one, the horse riding, was plagued by chaos caused largely by the horses involved in the competition.

To ensure fairness in the event, competitors aren't allowed to bring their own horses and must ride a randomly drawn horse assigned to them just 20 minutes before they ride.

They must then complete a showjumping course, with athletes awarded points based on how quickly and cleanly they complete the course.

It's simple in theory, but horses are notoriously skittish animals and sometimes don't want to do what you want them to do.

Unfortunately for several competitors in Friday's modern pentathlon, not one but many horses decided that they did not want to play ball.

The most notable and brutal incident came as Germany's Annika Schleu took to her new equine companion - Saint Boy.

Schleu led the pentathlon going into the showjumping competition but would plummet down the order as Saint Boy refused to jump over any fences, leaving her unable to finish the course.

So belligerent was the horse that Schleu was reduced to tears while still on his back.

Schleu scored zero in the showjumping and eventually finished 31st overall, but may take some comfort from the fact that it didn't seem that Saint Boy had anything against her personally.

The horse also refused to jump for Russia's Gulnaz Gubaydullina, who finished 32nd in the end, also scoring a zero in the showjumping.

Saint Boy wasn't the only tearaway pony, however, with a total of six athletes registering zero points in the showjumping thanks to their badly behaved mounts.

Italy's Elena Micheli, who was in a strong position after the fencing and swimming portions of the pentathlon, was particularly hard done by her horse, Cristbal 21.

If Saint Boy was the horsey equivalent of a grumpy teenager, Cristbal 21 seemed to be out to actively hurt Micheli, bucking her off twice and even running straight through one fence with no attempt to jump it.

Brazil's Ieda Guimaraes also registered a zero when her horse, Caleansiena YH, went rogue, throwing her off.

Naughty horses cost a medal shot

While Saint Boy, Cristbal 21, and Caleansiena YH were extreme examples, other horses also misbehaved. Constantin, ridden by Uzbekistan's Alise Fakhrutdinova and Ireland's Natalya Coyle, was notable for refusing several fences, which potentially cost Coyle a medal chance.

Fourth before the showjumping, Coyle got just 234 points, 60 fewer than eventual gold medalist Kate French. She ended the pentathlon 24th, 117 points off the lead.

-RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 6, 2021

Coyle's disappointment caused outrage on Irish TV, with former Olympic pentathlete Hugh Forde telling RTE: "To be quite frank, it's not good enough."

"Those horses have been tested around those tracks, but that behavior from that animal, you would expect a higher standard at this level. It's too cruel."

Speaking about Schleu, Forde added: "Everything she worked for is out the door because of that horse."

Great Britain's Kate French, who broke the Olympic record, eventually won the event, scoring 1,385 points.