Equestrian: Then and now

The history of Equestrian sport dates back over 2,000 years, to when the Greeks introduced Dressage training to prepare their horses for war.

It continued to develop as a military exercise through the Middle Ages, with the Three Day Event - which includes Dressage, Cross Country and Show Jumping tests - designed to reflect the range of challenges horses faced in the army.

In its modern form, Equestrian owes much to its inclusion in the Olympic Games, which led to the creation of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) in 1921.

Through its development of international competitions, the FEI has helped to spread the popularity of horse sport outside its traditional army base.

How to play – and win

Equestrian is the only Olympic sport in which men and women compete against each other on equal terms. It is also the only one in which humans and animals compete together.
In each of the three Equestrian events – Dressage, Jumping and Eventing – the aim is to create a harmonious partnership between horse and rider.

Dressage

Dressage tests take place in a 60m x 20m ‘all-weather’ (sand-based) arena.

Two competitions run at the same time - the Team medals are decided in one round and the Individual medals over three rounds.

In each round the riders have to perform a Dressage Test, made up of a series of movements to be performed by the horse.

The movements are set in a compulsory order for the first two rounds but, for the third and final round, the rider chooses what he or she will show the judges, and the programme is set to music.

Horse and rider are marked by five judges who will be looking for accuracy of movement, calmness, suppleness and flexibility.

Jumping

Jumping (known as ‘Show Jumping’ in the United Kingdom) takes place in an arena, around a course of approximately 15 fences.

Jumping courses are now highly technical, requiring boldness, scope, power, accuracy and control from both horse and rider. The fences are designed so that if the horse hits them as they jump them, part or all of the fence will knock down and the rider will be penalised with ‘faults’.

Faults are also awarded if the rider does not complete the course within a set time. The winner is the rider with the fewest faults; if there is a tie, the result is decided by jumping a shortened course as fast as possible without knocking fences down (“against the clock”).

The Team medal is decided over three rounds by four riders and the Individual medals over five rounds.

Eventing

The Eventing competition (formerly called the Three Day Event) takes place over four days. Days One and Two are Dressage, Day Three is Cross Country and Day four is Jumping.

The Dressage and Jumping phases are similar to the pure Dressage and Jumping competitions. In the Cross Country event, riders have to complete a course over natural terrain of between 6270m and 7410m.

The course contains solid obstacles that test the nerve, boldness, scope and partnership of horse and rider; faults are awarded for run-outs, exceeding the specified time limit and falls of either horse or rider.

The rider with the fewest penalties at the end of the competition is the winner, with the Team Medals decided by the best three scores from each nation.

Equestrian at the Games

Equestrian has been part of the Olympic programme since Stockholm 1912, when 62 competitors from ten nations with 70 horses were involved.

To begin with, only military officers were allowed to enter the Eventing competition; Dressage and Show Jumping were open to all, but few civilians took part.

This changed at the Helsinki 1952 Games - when women also took part for the first time. Today, Equestrian medallists come from a wide range of backgrounds and countries.

Facts about Equestrian

• At the Olympic Games, horses must be the same nationality as their riders, and each horse must be at least seven years old.
• At Helsinki 1952, Denmark’s Lis Hartel won silver in Dressage, even though her legs were paralysed from polio eight years earlier.
• At Rome 1960, Australia’s Bill Roycroft broke his neck in the Cross Country phase of the Team Eventing competition. Knowing that his team could not win the gold unless he continued, he discharged himself from hospital the next day to complete his Show jumping round and help Australia become Olympic champions.
• HRH Princess Anne, the daughter of HM Queen Elizabeth II, was a member of the GB Eventing team at the Montreal 1976 Games. Her own daughter, Zara, became European Eventing Champion in 2005, World Eventing Champion in 2006, and hopes to compete at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games.
  

Jargon buster

• Fault: A set number of penalty points for making a mistake.
• Schooling area: The warm-up area outside a Show Jumping ring.
• Run-out: When a horse gets out of the rider’s control and runs around a fence instead of jumping it.
• Half Pass: A forward and sideways Dressage movement where the horse crosses its legs as it moves sideways.
• Gallop: The fastest movement of a horse - equivalent to running.

Get involved

If you're new to the sport and want to find out more, the British Equestrian Federation website is a good place to start. See 'related websites.