An Olympic horse danced to Santana's 'Smooth,' and it was glorious

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According to the International Olympic Committee, “the ancient Greeks recognized that if rider and horse were to survive in battle, complete cooperation was necessary between the pair and developed dressage as a method to train the horses for war.” Surely, they envisioned a future in which someone would compete in equestrian dressage at the Olympics to Santana’s “Smooth,” featuring Rob Thomas.

“Freestyle is the pinnacle of dressage execution and when it works, the result is magic,” the IOC suggests in its description of the equestrian event, and never was that more evident than when Spanish rider Severo Jesus Jurado Lopez led his horse Lorenzo in a grand prix freestyle dance to the Grammy-winning 2000 Song of the Year, followed by a smooth segue into Jon Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”

Just as the ancient Greeks imagined.

Stunningly, this performance failed to capture gold. Jurado Lopez and Lorenzo mustered merely a fifth-place in Monday’s grand prix freestyle competition, but in our hearts it went sextuple platinum.

Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardi earned gold, followed by Germany’s Isabell Werth and Kristina Broring-Sprehe, but as far as we know none of them had the moxie to parade their horses around to the sweet strumming of Santana set to the dulcet tones of Matchbox Twenty’s lead singer.

“Smooth” is listed in the book “Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits” as the No. 1 song of the rock era. “The secret to its success is longevity,” according to author Fred Bronson. “The single stayed in our top-10 for 30 weeks, setting a record for the longest top-10 visit by a No. 1 song.” Of course, Boyz II Men’s 1994 hit “I’ll Make Love to You” ranks fifth on this list, so we’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Then again, we’re 17 years removed from the song’s June 1999 debut, and “Smooth” is enjoying quite a resurgence in Rio de Janeiro. In a since-deleted tweet that received some 30,000 likes, Twitter user Jimmy Donofrio began the tune when U.S. swimming legend Katie Ledecky touched the wall for her world record-breaking 800-meter freestyle victory over the weekend. Ledecky finished 11.38 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, long enough for Santana’s extended solo guitar intro to play and Thomas to start, “Man it’s a hot one,” before Great Britain Jazmin Carlin finished her final lap in second place.

Long live Ledecky. Long live Lorenzo. Long live Santana. And Lord willing long live Rob Thomas’ hoop earrings. According to the IOC, dressage made its resurgence at the Spanish Riding School in 1729, so it’s only right that Spain found a way to change the equestrian game from elegant to “Smooth.”