War horse and equestrian competitions

Within the modern Olympic Games, the disciplines of Eventing, jumping and dressage equestrian owe their origins to the skills required by the cavalry mounted between the XVII and XIX centuries.

The origins of dressage can be traced through the works of Xenophon and his work on methods of training entitled On the cavalry, but was not recognized until the Renaissance period.

The training methods were designed with the intent to encourage accountability and to adapt to the horse so that the animal can respond quickly to orders from the rider, something fundamental on the battlefield.

The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, was originally established to train the horses of the nobility and aristocracy in the movements that led the military service.

Today, this school is one of the most prestigious schools that train horses and their riders in dressage.

The equestrian competition in the late nineteenth century tests the powers of endurance, and the equestrian athletic ability to jump. The discipline eventually added a phase that of dressage demonstration of the ability of the horse’s step, and a resistance phase to test the capacity and ability of the mount to get messages from one point to another, travelling quickly through difficult terrain.

Finally a jumping phase was added to ensure that the animal was still able to continue after the rigors of the endurance competition. These phases evolve into the modern skills of three phases.

The jump came mainly from the equestrian sport of fox hunting and cross country, as well as informal skills developed by informal civilian riders not attached to direct military application.

However, military units also develop skills to break through formidable obstacles, which was crucial for sending messages and the coordination of movements of troops. Many people who developed the modern technique of jumping fences, such as Federico Caprilli, come from the army.

The equestrian Olympic teams participating in the modern Olympic Games, and originally came exclusively from the armed forces until 1952. After this year, both civilian and military began competing together until almost all the cavalry units were disbanded in the post-war era. The majority of modern competitors are now civilians.

Currently, the equestrian events are the only Olympic competition where men and women compete together.

The modern sport of tent pegging is specifically designed to train the horse and its rider on the skills required for mounted combat. Other equestrian sports are Polo, horse racing, the endurance horse riding, the American rodeo The Chilean rodeo and polocrosse amongst others..