I just spent the afternoon watching an equine competition called dressage, which I believe is from the French meaning "having one's teeth drilled" (I could be wrong).  

In higher levels of competition, the rider moves through the various patterns and "tests" to demonstrate the smoothness of movement between the horse and rider.  At the lower levels of competition you can have someone call out the pattern moves, which makes it a bit like slow-motion square dancing without the music.

After a few hours of this, I began to realize how inadequate the word "boring" was in describing the ordeal I was experiencing.  I started to feel like I was trapped in a sensory deprivation experiment, and at one point I thought I could almost feel my own cells dividing.

Anyone that has ever experienced the exhilaration of watching paint dry can understand the adrenaline rush during such a competition in seeing a horse canter on the wrong lead.  It's almost enough to make the crowd swoon.  At any rate, everyone endures this simply so that they eventually can see someone they know go through the pattern (this was for my grand-niece).  

While dressage can be an important training tool for horses and riders, for the spectators .... not so much.  This is where a DVR would be perfect.  That way I could fast forward through the whole thing, where it would at least appear that something more exciting than a brisk walk had just occurred.