100 Fun Facts About Equestrian

Since which Olympics have men and women competed on equal terms in equestrian events?

Before 1952 only commissioned military officers and "gentlemen" were allowed to ride.

In which year were equestrian events first held at the Olympics?

Paris 1900 held jumping, high jump, long jump, a hacks-and-hunter event and a mail coach contest.

Which body governs international equestrian sport?

The Fédération Équestre Internationale first ran the Olympic equestrian events in 1924.

Which nation is described as the leading power in Olympic equestrian competition?

Germany's dominance dates from the FEI era that began in 1924.

The 1956 Melbourne Olympic equestrian events were held in which city instead?

Australia's strict quarantine rules kept the horses out, so the riding took place in Sweden months before the main Games.

Where were the 2008 Beijing Olympic equestrian events staged?

Hong Kong had high quarantine standards, existing racing facilities and a long tradition of horse racing.

Which Swedish count is credited with bringing equestrian sport back to the Olympics?

The Master of the Horse to the Swedish king got dressage, eventing and jumping approved in 1906; they finally appeared at Stockholm 1912.

Which Games first staged dressage, eventing and show jumping together?

London 1908 had been the plan, but only a polo event was held there.

Vaulting was held at the Olympics only once, at which Games?

Only Belgium, France and Sweden sent vaulters, and Belgium won both the team and individual golds.

Polo was an Olympic sport at five Games; which was the last?

Argentina won that final polo gold, as it had in 1924.

Who was the first woman to ride Olympic eventing for her country, in 1964?

She competed for the United States in Tokyo.

At which Olympics did eventing's "short format" drop roads-and-tracks and steeplechase?

The change cut the land needed for the sport and was meant to keep eventing on the Olympic programme.

How old must a horse be to compete at the Olympics?

Riders must be 16 for dressage and 18 for jumping and eventing; there is no maximum age for either.

Which Irish rider forfeited his 2004 individual show jumping gold after his horse failed a drug test?

His mount Waterford Crystal tested positive for fluphenazine and zuclopenthixol.

Two horses tied for the 1900 Olympic high jump by clearing what height?

France's Dominique Gardere on Canela and Italy's Gian Giorgio Trissino on Oreste shared the top spot.

What does the French word "dressage" most commonly translate to?

The FEI calls it "the highest expression of horse training".

Which ancient Greek writer's work on horsemanship is a root of dressage?

Federico Grisone's 1550 "The Rules of Riding" was one of the first notable European treatises since Xenophon.

What are the dimensions of a standard dressage arena?

The smaller 20 by 40 m arena is used at lower levels, including lower-level eventing dressage.

At which arena letter does a dressage horse enter the arena?

Ideally the opening at A is closed behind the horse for the duration of the test.

Which mnemonic helps riders remember the small arena letters A-K-E-H-C-M-B-F?

The letters run clockwise from the entry point; X sits on the centre line directly between E and B.

Dressage judges score each movement on what scale?

A 10 means "excellent" and 0 means "not executed"; half marks have been allowed since 2011.

At which arena letter is there always a dressage judge?

Top-level tests can have up to seven judges around the arena so no fault goes unseen.

What is the piaffe?

It is a calm, collected, elevated trot on the spot; the horse must never step backwards.

Which dressage movement is a very collected trot that seems to pause between strides?

Passage and piaffe were introduced to Olympic dressage at the 1932 Los Angeles Games.

What are the highest-level dressage tests called?

Prix St. Georges and Intermediate I make up the "small tour"; Grand Prix heads the "big tour".

The dressage freestyle to music was first held at which Olympics?

Each rider writes their own freestyle within strict guidelines; it helps decide the individual medals.

Which Vienna institution keeps the classical dressage tradition alive?

The Cadre Noir is in Saumur, France, and the Royal Andalusian School in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

In show jumping, how many faults does knocking down a pole usually cost?

A first refusal costs three faults and a second means elimination under the modern system.

What do show jumpers call a performance with no faults at all?

Tied clear rounds go to a timed jump-off over a shortened, raised course.

Which Italian cavalry officer pioneered the forward seat used by jumpers today?

His shorter-stirrup, forward position freed the horse's back, replacing the deep seat favoured by Europe's cavalry schools.

Which 18th-century English laws created a need for horses that could jump fences?

Fencing off common land forced fox hunters to find horses that could clear the new boundaries.

In which city did "horse leaping" come to prominence at an 1869 show?

Lepping competitions reached Britain 15 years later and were standard at most big shows by 1900.

What was the maximum fence height allowed in Olympic show jumping as of the 2024 Paris Games?

Water jumps can be up to 4.5 metres wide, while courses are a relatively short 500–600 metres.

Eventing combines dressage, show jumping and which third phase?

The sport has its roots in a comprehensive cavalry test of several kinds of riding.

Eventing was previously known by what name?

Smaller organisations still use the old term, which is easily confused with a "Combined Test" of just two phases.

Which annual English horse trials, first held in 1949, was the first at Olympic level?

It was created after Britain's poor eventing showing at the 1948 Olympics.

Which horse trials, first run in 1961, is the longest-running international event?

The Rolex Kentucky Three Day, held in Lexington since 1978, was the first annual CCI outside Britain.

How long was the endurance ride on day one of the 1912 Olympic eventing?

Riders then went straight into a 5 km cross-country course at 333 metres per minute.

What is a period of play in polo called?

Each one lasts seven minutes, and players change ponies between or even during them.

The English word "polo" comes from a word meaning "ball" in which language?

The game's ancestor, chovgan, was played in Persia, but the name travelled west from Manipur and Baltistan.

Polo's ancestor chovgan was played in which ancient region?

Shapur II learned to play at the age of seven in 316 CE.

Which country is often called the capital of polo?

It has the largest contingent of 10-handicap players and supplies horses to every major tournament.

Which German dressage rider has won medals at seven Olympic Games?

Her 14 medals, spanning 32 years, are the most of any German or any equestrian.

Which horse carried dressage's most-decorated rider to every title from 1992 to 2000?

Gigolo was owned by her coach Uwe Schulten-Baumer.

Charlotte Dujardin's record-setting Olympic partner was which Dutch Warmblood gelding?

Carl Hester originally planned to ride the horse himself before Dujardin took him to a world record.

Why did Charlotte Dujardin withdraw from the 2024 Paris Olympics?

She received a one-year suspension that the FEI upheld in December 2024.

Which Byzantine emperor built a polo ground inside the Great Palace of Constantinople?

Emperor Alexander later died of exhaustion while playing the game.

Horses returned to North America on whose second voyage, in 1493?

Native horses had died out there at the end of the Ice Age.

In rodeo, which event is the only one where men and women may compete together?

A "header" ropes the steer's horns and a "heeler" its hind legs.

What lightweight cart is pulled in harness racing?

The Standardbred dominates harness racing in both its trotting and pacing forms.

Which rock star's daughter Jessica won an Olympic team silver in show jumping at the Tokyo Games?

Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa's only daughter rode for the US team that took silver in team jumping in August 2021, at the delayed 2020 Games.

Which film star was paralysed from the neck down in 1995 by a fall at an eventing competition?

Christopher Reeve, the star of the Superman films, was thrown when his horse stopped suddenly at a routine one-metre fence, the third on the course.

Which Olympic event swapped a show jumping phase for an obstacle course after the 2024 Paris Games?

Modern pentathlon was devised to mimic a cavalry soldier caught behind enemy lines, who had to ride an unfamiliar horse, fence, shoot, swim and run back to his own soldiers.

Which horseback sport did Maryland adopt in 1962, making it the first US state with an official sport?

Jousting in Maryland means ring tournaments: riders get eight seconds to gallop an 80-yard course and spear small hanging rings with a fine-tipped lance.

Hobby horsing, with jumping and dressage courses ridden on stick horses, began in which Nordic country?

Finland holds an annual national championship, and the craze reached a wider public through the 2017 Finnish documentary Hobbyhorse Revolution.

What name is given to the timed decider over a raised, shortened course between riders tied on faults?

Jump-off courses are usually the same track with some obstacles left out, and in most competitions riders may walk the initial course but not the jump-off one.

Jodhpurs, the snug riding trousers, take their name from a city in which Indian state?

Rajasthan's second-largest city, Jodhpur, gave the trousers their name; Pratap Singh, a younger son of its maharaja, popularised them in England, where British polo players rapidly took them up.

Which British royal won the 1971 European eventing title and then rode at the 1976 Montreal Olympics?

Princess Anne was 21 when she took the European title on her home-bred horse Doublet, and she was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1971.

Yabusame, in which a galloping archer shoots at three wooden targets, is a tradition of which country?

Japan's yabusame dates from the start of the Kamakura period, when Minamoto no Yoritomo grew alarmed at how poor his samurai's archery had become.

Which police force's Musical Ride, first officially held in 1887, features 32 of its members on horseback?

The Canadian Mounties kept the Musical Ride going even after 1966, when riding on horseback ceased to be part of police duties for new members of the force.

Which part of a horse, chosen because it stays level while the head moves, is the standard point for measuring height?

Withers are the ridge between the shoulder blades, and dogs are measured there too, whereas cattle are often measured to the top of the hips.

In a horse's height written as 15.2 hands, what does the figure after the point stand for?

Two inches, not two tenths: the hand is split into quarters, so 15.2 comes to 62 inches in all and is said aloud as fifteen-two.

The wall of a horse's hoof, into which shoe nails are driven, is made mainly of which protein?

Keratin builds up in the hoof's skin cells, which die and dry into tightly connected layers, making the wall the anatomical match of a human fingernail.

Which debut novel by Nicholas Evans became a 1998 film directed by and starring Robert Redford as a gifted trainer?

The Horse Whisperer was modelled chiefly on the real trainer Buck Brannaman, who doubled for Redford on screen and served as the film's consultant.

On the correct diagonal in rising trot, the rider sits as which of the horse's legs touch down?

Inside hind, outside fore: learners check with a quick glance at the outside shoulder, and riding the right diagonal helps to keep the horse balanced.

Which movement swaps a cantering horse's leading leg without a walk step, and is repeated in dressage tempis?

Flying change happens while the horse is in the air between two canter strides; top-level tests can ask for one at every stride, the one-tempis.

Which grooming tool, worked in circles to loosen dirt, is generally too harsh for a horse's legs or head?

Curry comb teeth are short nubs of rubber or plastic on a pad that slides onto the groom's hand, and it is usually the first tool used in daily grooming.

Which exercise works a horse in a circle on a line of about 25 feet held by a handler at the centre?

Lungeing takes its name from the French allonge, to lengthen, and the handler directs the horse mostly by voice, the line and a long-lashed whip.

What term do horse people use for a horse's left, where handling such as mounting traditionally starts?

Near side is the left, where by tradition everything done around a horse begins; the right-hand flank is known as the off side.

Which word from British India, originally a place of assembly, now names an event of timed mounted games?

Gymkhana classes are timed speed events such as barrel racing, pole bending and flag racing, and some organisers add an egg stomp or a sack race.

Which show jumping fence is made of two rails set one behind the other, at even or uneven heights?

Oxer rails set with the front one higher, a descending shape, are banned in international sport because the optical illusion they create can endanger the horse.

Which show jumping high-jump contest is built around a single wall that is often raised beyond 2 metres?

Puissance takes its name from the French for power; Franke Sloothaak cleared 2.40 metres indoors in Belgium in June 1991, a record that stood for more than 30 years.

Which English showground, opened in 1960, sends horses down the Derby Bank's 10 ft 6 in slope?

Hickstead was the country's first permanent showground for equestrian sport, set up by Douglas Bunn, a former barrister who made his fortune in caravans.

Captain Alberto Larraguibel and Huaso jumped 2.47 metres in 1949 to set the equine high jump record in which country?

Chile was also Huaso's birthplace: first named Faithful, he had six years of failure behind him before he was prepared for over two years for the record attempt.

Which British show jumper broke his neck in 2000, yet won individual Olympic gold at his seventh Games in 2016?

Nick Skelton became the oldest British Olympic gold medallist since 1908, and he and his horse Big Star retired together shortly after the 2016 Games.

Which show jumper was disciplined in 1971 for a V-sign to the judges after winning the British Jumping Derby?

Harvey Smith had the punishment overturned on appeal, and during the 1970s he spent his spare time competing in professional wrestling.

Which grey gelding ridden by John Whitaker was the first horse outside racing to win over £1 million in prize money?

Milton was singled out as a youngster by Caroline Bradley, who told her parents he would be her Olympic mount; Whitaker took over the ride in 1985.

Which stallion, ridden for the Netherlands by Edward Gal, was the first horse to score above 90 in dressage competition?

Totilas, nicknamed Toto, set a string of world-record scores with Gal, and one American journalist called the pair rock stars of the horse world.

Which Dutch rider won individual dressage gold at three successive Olympic Games, starting in Sydney?

Anky van Grunsven won most of her top titles on just two horses, Bonfire and then Salinero, and collected nine Olympic medals in all.

Which royal gave up polo in 1971 for carriage driving, a sport whose early rule book was drafted under his supervision?

Prince Philip went on to become a world champion with the British national driving team in 1980, nine years after he took up the reins.

Which US state's Horse Park staged the 2010 World Equestrian Games, the first held outside Europe?

Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington was also the first venue to stage every event of the Games on a single site, and para-equestrian events made their debut there.

Which breed, usually born bay or black before turning white, is named after a stud farm village now in Slovenia?

Lipizzan foals lighten a little every year, and the greying is complete only between 6 and 10 years of age; the stud farm at Lipica remains active.

Which granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II won eventing's world title in 2006 and Olympic team silver at London 2012?

Zara Tindall won the world title on Toytown, the horse that had already carried her to individual and team gold at the 2005 European Championship at Blenheim.

Which formal hat, matched to the rider's tailed coat, was the traditional headwear at the upper levels of dressage?

Top hat and shadbelly, as the tailed jacket is known, set the upper-level rider apart, while lower levels wore a derby or hunting cap; helmets have since gained ground.

At Mongolia's Naadam festival, horse races of 15 to 30 kilometres are ridden by jockeys from which group?

Children are chosen as jockeys because they are lighter, and they train for months before races that are meant chiefly to test the horses rather than the riders.

In British usage, which word, borrowed partly from the magpie, describes a horse patched in black and white?

Piebald joins pie, from magpie, to bald, meaning a white patch; a horse patched white on any base colour other than black is a skewbald.

Which New Zealand rider won back-to-back Olympic eventing golds in 1984 and 1988 on Charisma?

Mark Todd was named New Zealand Sportsperson of the Year in 1988, and Charisma was retired to a Waikato farm after the Seoul Games.

Which British rider in 2003 became the first to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, earning a $250,000 bonus?

Pippa Funnell had struggled to establish herself as a senior rider and admitted to nerves that threatened to ruin her career before the big wins came.

Which lateral dressage movement sends a horse along a diagonal line while bent in its direction of travel?

Half-pass is a haunches-in ridden on a diagonal instead of along the wall, and at higher levels riders string several together in a zig-zag across the arena.

Which quality forms the base of the six-step pyramid followed by dressage riders, a scale that ends in collection?

Rhythm here means the sequence of footfalls, which should show only pure gaits; relaxation, contact, impulsion and straightness follow before collection.

Which air above the ground, considered the hardest of all, has the horse leap up and kick out with its hind legs?

Capriole means leap of a goat, and horses learn it by way of the croupade, the same jump with the hind legs kept tucked under instead of kicking out.

Which eventing obstacle has the horse jump rails, drop downhill to a ditch, then climb to a second jump?

Coffin fences, also called rails-ditch-rails, are ridden in a slow, powerful canter that eventers have nicknamed the coffin canter.

Which mare jumped a faultless final course at the 1956 Olympics while Hans Günter Winkler rode with a torn groin muscle?

Halla is the only horse to have won three Olympic gold medals in show jumping, and she began her working life being prepared as a steeplechaser.

Which French town is home to the Cadre Noir, the corps of riding instructors named for their black uniforms?

Saumur received the corps in 1828, after its founding at Versailles, and its historic task was to prepare officers for the French cavalry.

Which city's CHIO, held each summer, has been billed since 1992 as the World Equestrian Festival?

Aachen, once Charlemagne's capital, stages show jumping, dressage, eventing, driving and vaulting at one meeting; CHIO stands for Concours Hippique International Officiel.

Which one-day ride of 100 miles across California's Sierra Nevada has been held almost every year since 1955?

Tevis Cup riders who beat the 24-hour limit on a horse judged fit to continue can claim a silver buckle; the trail runs from the Lake Tahoe area to Auburn.

Which clip, named after carriage harness straps, shaves a horse's lower neck and belly but leaves the back and legs?

Trace clip lines follow the path of a carriage's traces: the coat comes off from under the throat, along the jugular groove and halfway up the shoulder and belly.

Which former plough horse, bought for $80 on his way to a slaughterhouse, became a US show jumping champion?

Snowman was sold on to a neighbour but kept jumping high fences to get back home, which persuaded Harry deLeyer to keep him and make a show jumper of him.

What do riders call two fences set so close that a horse lands and takes off again in the same stride?

Bounce fences, also known as no-strides, teach a horse good balance and to push off with its hind end, and they slow down a speedy horse that might rush a single jump.

Which American trainer wrote The Man Who Listens to Horses after showing his methods to Queen Elizabeth II in 1989?

Monty Roberts built his nonviolent method around a concept he called Join-Up, and by his account it was the Queen who urged him to set it down in a book.