98 Fun Facts About Equestrian

Which horse event was held at only one Olympics, in 1900?

The long jump for horses was run like a human high jump, with the distance to clear growing after each success; the winner, Extra Dry, cleared 6.10 metres and the event never came back.

Which body governs international equestrian sport?

The FEI was set up in 1921 by eight nations to give horse sport a single set of international rules, and the Olympic events have been run under them since 1924.

As of 2024, which nation tops the all-time Olympic gold medal table in dressage, eventing and show jumping alike?

Germany leads all three tables, even though its riders were shut out of the 1920, 1924 and 1948 Games after the two world wars.

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

Stockholm staged the riding in June 1956, five months before the Melbourne Games opened, because Australia would not relax its six-month quarantine on incoming horses.

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 member of the British royal family rode in the three-day event at the 1976 Montreal Olympics?

Princess Anne rode the Queen's horse Goodwill, took a fall that left her concussed halfway round, and still remounted to finish the course.

In 1912, Olympic dressage horses also had to do what?

Jump obstacles: four fences up to 1.1 metres high and a three-metre spread, followed by an 'obedience test' in which a barrel was rolled towards the horse.

Vaulting has been an Olympic event only once, in 1920; which host nation won both of its gold medals?

Belgium beat France and Sweden, the only other entrants, in a contest for army officers who leapt on and off cantering horses, with a saddle and without.

At the 1908 Olympics, all three teams in the polo tournament represented which country?

Great Britain could not lose: the entrants were two London clubs, Roehampton and Hurlingham, and a team from Ireland, and Roehampton took the gold.

The first woman to ride in Olympic eventing, in 1964, came from which wealthy American industrial family?

Du Pont heiress Lana duPont rode in Tokyo at the first Games to admit women to the three-day event, and came home with a silver medal as a member of the United States team.

Which British rider won individual show jumping gold at the 2016 Olympics at the age of 58?

Nick Skelton had retired in 2001 after breaking his neck in a fall, then returned to the saddle and won the title on Big Star at his seventh Olympic Games.

Which unit is traditionally used to state the height of a horse?

Hands, fixed at 4 inches each by a statute of Henry VIII, are counted from the ground to the withers, the top of the animal's shoulders.

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

Cian O'Connor saw the gold pass to Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa, although the ruling accepted that he had not set out to dope his horse; he had to wait until London 2012 for an Olympic medal, a bronze, that he could keep.

Which show jumping contest tests jumping ability alone, with a wall that is raised round by round?

Puissance is show jumping's high jump: the wall goes up after every round, often past two metres, and riders still level after four jump-offs share first prize.

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

Training is the literal sense: the French verb dresser means to train or drill, and the sport still judges what that schooling is meant to produce, a balanced, supple and obedient horse.

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

Xenophon's On Horsemanship, from the 4th century BC, argued for the mildest possible bit and for rewarding a horse's obedience instead of forcing it, advice trainers still quote.

Which three-beat gait is faster than a horse's trot but slower than a full gallop?

The canter is a controlled, three-beat gait; dictionaries trace its name to the 'Canterbury pace', the easy speed at which pilgrims rode to the shrine there.

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

A is the gate, midway along one short end: horse and rider come in there and ride straight up the centre line, which runs through the unmarked point X in the middle of the arena.

The riders' mnemonic for the dressage arena markers A-K-E-H-C-M-B-F begins 'All King' whose 'Horses'?

Edward's is the name in every version: the endings vary from 'Can Make Big Fences' to 'Can Manage Big Feeds', but the initials always spell out the markers in order round the arena.

Dressage judges score each movement on what scale?

0 to 10 is the range for every movement, from 0 for 'not executed' up to 10 for 'excellent'; the marks are then totalled into the percentage score that decides the placings.

At which arena letter is there always a dressage judge?

C is the middle of the short end facing the entrance, so the judge there looks straight down the centre line; at the top level as many as six more sit at other markers round the arena.

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 takes so long to teach that it was left out of the 1948 Olympic test: after the war there had been too little time to train horses to that standard.

What are the highest-level dressage tests called?

Grand Prix is the level ridden at the Olympics, where three tests carrying the name, the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle, settle the medals.

Which Vienna institution keeps the classical dressage tradition alive?

The Spanish Riding School owes its name to the Spanish horses among the forebears of its white Lipizzaner stallions, the only breed it trains; the school itself goes back to the 16th century.

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

Four faults is the price of each fallen rail, and of a splash in the water jump too; this is a sport in which the lowest score wins.

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

A clear round is rarely enough on its own: riders who are still level go into a jump-off over a shortened, raised course, where the fastest time without faults wins.

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

Federico Caprilli studied photographs of horses jumping without riders and concluded that a rider should fold forward with the horse; until then riders had leaned back over fences.

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

The Enclosure Acts turned open common land into hedged and fenced fields, so riders following the hounds suddenly needed horses that could jump whatever stood in the way.

Which city's horse show, first held in 1864, staged one of the earliest 'leaping' contests in 1868?

Dublin's 1868 show, the first run solely by the Royal Dublin Society, put horses over obstacles for prizes; a London show followed with its own leaping contest a year later, and show jumping grew from there.

After a coach punched a horse at the Tokyo Olympics, modern pentathlon decided to replace its riding phase with what?

An obstacle course took over after the 2024 Games, ending more than a century in which pentathletes had to show jump on horses assigned to them by lot.

Eventing combines dressage, show jumping and which third phase?

Cross-country is the test the other two are built around: a gallop over solid fences and through water that goes back to cavalry trials of a horse's stamina and nerve.

Which older name for eventing did the sport's national association in the United States keep in its title until 2001?

Combined Training was what Americans called the sport; in Britain the name means a smaller contest of dressage and show jumping only.

Which English horse trials did the Duke of Beaufort start in 1949 so that British riders could prepare for the Olympics?

Badminton is the duke's own estate: he offered its park after Britain's riders had struggled at the 1948 London Olympics.

Which English horse trials began in 1961 when the Marquess of Exeter offered his estate after another event was cancelled?

Burghley House was the home of the Marquess of Exeter, himself an Olympic gold medallist in athletics; he stepped in when foot-and-mouth disease stopped the three-day event at Harewood.

Which craftsman makes and fits a horse's shoes and trims its hooves?

A farrier takes the name from the Latin ferrum, iron; the job joins a blacksmith's metalwork to a working knowledge of the anatomy of the hoof and lower leg.

What is a period of play in polo called?

A chukka lasts about seven minutes, short enough that players change to a fresh pony for the next one; the word comes from the Hindi for a circle or round.

The word 'polo' comes from Balti, a Tibetan language of the western Himalayas, where it means what?

Ball is all it means; the first Europeans to take up the game were British tea planters in Assam, who founded a club at Silchar in 1859, and the name travelled on with them.

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

Persia first valued the game as battle practice for its cavalry, and over the centuries it grew into the favourite sport of kings and their courts.

Which country has dominated international polo for decades?

Argentina announced itself in 1924, beating the United States 6-5 to win Olympic gold at its first attempt, and went on to become the game's uncontested master.

As of 2024, which dressage rider has won medals at seven Olympic Games?

Isabell Werth's medals span 32 years, from Barcelona in 1992 to Paris in 2024, even though she missed the Games of 2004 and 2012; eight of her 14 are gold.

Which horse carried one rider to four Olympic dressage gold medals between 1992 and 2000?

Gigolo retired weeks after the last of them, at Sydney in 2000; without him, his rider did not win another Olympic medal for eight years.

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

Valegro was only on loan to her: Carl Hester, her employer and the horse's co-owner, let her ride the novice meaning to take him back, but the pair stayed together and won three Olympic golds.

Why did Charlotte Dujardin withdraw from the 2024 Paris Olympics?

A video showed her whipping a horse repeatedly, in footage shot several years earlier; she pulled out days before the Games, one medal short of being her country's outright most decorated woman Olympian, and was banned for a year.

Besides polo, Prince Philip excelled as a competitor in which horse sport?

Carriage driving also owes him its rule book: as president of the sport's world governing body, he called the 1969 meeting that produced the first international rules.

Horses returned to the Americas on whose second voyage across the Atlantic?

Christopher Columbus landed horses in the Caribbean in 1493, a homecoming of sorts: the horse family evolved in North America, then died out there about 10,000 years ago.

In which Western cattle event are the two riders known as the 'header' and the 'heeler'?

Team roping has the header rope a steer's horns and the heeler its hind legs; it grew out of ranch work, where a full-grown animal was too much for one rider to hold still for doctoring.

What lightweight cart is pulled in harness racing?

A sulky seats the driver and nobody else, and the name is said to come from that: a vehicle for someone who would sooner sulk alone than share.

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.