A history of Equestrian at the Olympic Games

A history of Equestrian Olympic at the Games

The Olympic Games is an international event that covers a wide range of different sports. The equestrian sports held at the event are dressage, showjumping and eventing with both team and individual medals awarded for each discipline.

Equestrian sport has been part of the Olympics for over 100 years with showjumping, dressage and eventing being introduced at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. This came a massive 2 592 years after horse sport made its debut at the Ancient Olympic Games in 680BC. The three equestrian disciplines from 1912 remain on the programme today.

Equestrian has produced some of the most memorable moments in Olympic history including the performance by Hans Gunter Winkler and Halla in 1956, the 1952 Dressage medal ceremony with Lis Hartel and the demonstration of Australian team spirit at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, to name just a few.

WHEN ARE THE OLYMPICS

The Olympic Games are held every four years.

MOTTO

The Olympic motto is "Citius Altius Fortius", which means faster, higher, stronger.

SYMBOL

The Olympic rings are the symbol of the event. They were designed in 1913 and adopted in 1914. They were first used in the Antwerp Olympics in 1920.

OLYMPIC SHOWJUMPING HISTORY

• Showjumping was included in the 1900 Olympic games in Paris, France, with the courses being smaller than they are today. Horses were required to carry a weight of 75kg. Only male cavalry officers were allowed to compete.

• In the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, the course included approximately 15 jumps, some of which were jumped more than once. The height of the jumps was around 1.4 metres. The width of the water jump was around 4 metres.

• At the 1924 Games in Antwerp, there were 14 obstacles. The height of the fences was 1.3 to 1.4 metres high. The water jump was 4 metres wide.

• The 1932 Olympics consisted of 20 jumping efforts, with the height of the course increasing to between 1.4 and 1.6 metres high with the width of the water jump increasing to 5 metres in width.

• By the 1952 Helsinki Games, men and women civilians were allowed to compete.

• The showjumping height is now 1.6 metres, with the width of the fences being a maximum of 2 meters or 2.2 metres for a triple bar. The water jump distance is now a maximum of 4.5 metres. The competition today takes place over 5 rounds.

OLYMPIC DRESSAGE HISTORY

• In the 1900s, only male cavalry officers were allowed to compete.

• At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, the dressage test did not include any piaffe or passage and was held in a 20 x 40-metre arena. The horses had to perform various school movements such as figure of eights, rein backs, flying changes and circles. As well as completing a dressage test, the horse and rider had to jump a small course of show jumps and then ride around an obedience test.

• By 1920 the dressage test included some collected walk, trot and canter; extended trot; counter canter; and 4, 3, 2 and 1-time tempi changes.

• In 1932 piaffe and passage were included in the test.

• By 1936 canter pirouettes and five loop serpentines were added to the test.

• At the 1948 Olympics, renvers, half-pass, tempi changes and canter pirouettes were included in the test and piaffe and passage were removed due to the lack of preparation time available before the Olympic Games due to World War 2.

• In 1952, men and women civilians were allowed to compete as well as cavalry officers.

• In 1996, the Grand Prix Freestyle was introduced. The freestyle gives the rider the chance to put together their own sequence of set movements and then put them to their own choice of music.

• Today, the format for the dressage begins with the Grand Prix test to determine which teams and individuals will go through. The top eight ranked teams qualify for the team final (Grand Prix Special), while the top two individual athletes from each heat, plus the next best six ranked athletes, qualify for the individual final (Grand Prix Freestyle). The Grand Prix Freestyle was introduced in the 1996 Olympics, and is set to music.

OLYMPIC EVENTING HISTORY

• At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, eventing was first introduced, but it was only open to military personnel.

• The eventing programme was held over five days.

• The first day was the endurance phase, which involved 55 km within 4 hours on the roads, followed by a 5 km cross-country course. The horses were given a day off on the second day. On the third day, a 3.5 km steeplechase course that comprised approximately ten fences was undertaken. The fourth day was the Jumping Test which involved around 15 jumps of 1.3 metres high. The fifth and final day involved a dressage test, which was much simpler than the modern tests today, and all the horses were to be ridden in a double bridle.

• At the 1912 Olympics, horses also had to carry a minimum weight of 80kg. • At the 1920 Games, the dressage test was completely removed. Horses were required to carry a weight of 75kg. The first day had the endurance test, which was reduced from 55 km to 45 km and was to be completed within 3.5 hours and was still followed straight away by the crosscountry phase that comprised approximately 18 fences of around 1.10 to 1.15m. On the second day, competitors had to do a further 20 km on roads and tracks followed by a 4000-metre steeplechase course. The horses had to pass a vet inspection after the roads and tracks phase to continue. The showjumping phase consisted of approximately 18 jumps of 1.25 metres high.

• At the 1924 Games in Paris, the dressage phase was reintroduced. The dressage was held on the first two days due to the number of competitors and the size of the arena was increased to 20 by 60 metres. On the third day, competitors had to complete 5 phases known as Phases A, B, C, D, and E, also called the long-format. Phase A was 7 km of roads and tracks, followed by phase B, a 4 km steeplechase course, then phase C, a further 15 km of roads and tracks, followed by phase D, an 8 km cross country course and finally phase E, a 2 km canter. The showjumping phase was held on the last day.

• In 1952 at the Helsinki Games, women were allowed to compete in the Equestrian Olympics.

• In the 1968 Mexico Olympics, the 2 km canter after the cross country phase was removed entirely.

• The weight that horses were required to carry was reduced to 70kg in 1996.

• At the 2004 Games in Athens, the format for the cross country changed from the long format with phases A, B, C and D being reduced to just phase D the cross country. This format is known as the short format and is still used today.