Equestrian Sports

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What are the main disciplines?

The most popular equestrian disciplines are:• Dressage• Show jumping• Eventing• Racing• ShowingHowever others include polo, hunting,

endurance and vaulting amongst many others.

An Insight into Popular Disciplines

DressageDressage is the training of a horse to perform complex and precise

movements when requested by a subtle aid from the rider. Dressage takes a great amount of control and self-discipline to progress and achieve the top marks. The best dressage riders from around the world include Laura Bechtolsheimer, Anky van Grunsven and Edward Gal (pictured below riding the record breaking horse Moorlands Totilas).

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ShowjumpingShowjumping is perhaps one of the most well known of the equestrian

disciplines involving each horse and rider completing a set course of jumps where the fastest competitor with the fewest faults (faults or penalties are given when a horse knocks down a jump or refuses it). The jumps can be up to 6 feet high and 5 feet wide so the horse must trust the rider and be bold but also agile like a dressage horse to complete the tight turns between jumps without losing balance.

EventingEventing is the combination of dressage, showjumping and cross country held

over one or three days and is again one of the most popular possibly due to the coverage of the higher standard events on national television. Horses and riders that event have to have the qualities of both diciplines discussed so far plus the stamina and boldness required to go across country over huge fences and ditches.

Other DisciplinesOther less well known but equally popular amongst equestrian athletes

include the fairly common polo, hunting and showing to the newer but equally exciting vaulting, endurance and even polocrosse. Horses have been used for centuries for practical and working purposes, particularly in the rural areas, however as these traditions are slowly dying out, they are used more and more for leisure; whether riding is for recreational fun at the weekend or as a professional career there are a great number of people who are involved in some way with equestrian sports.

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Image Sources

(1) http://www.dressage-news.com/?p=2458(2) http://www.eventbusters.co.uk/cgi-bin/eb_pages/magazine-

article.asp?pageid=test(3)http://www.pattersonhorseboxes.co.uk/content/

showteam.asp(4) http://www.horseracingsystemsblog.com/(5) http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178638(6)http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/image_galleries/

show_jumping_andy_hunter_gallery.shtml(7)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/polo/

2460708/Polo-Luke-Tomlinson-a-man-of-conviction.html