10 Equestrian Sports You Must Try
If you have a passion for horses and love competition, do not miss our article, entirely dedicated to the most popular equestrian sports. It’s not just about jumping or speed racing. Some are even very ancient activities that belong to distant and exotic countries. Are you ready to ride and win? So, fasten your riding helmet and go: here are the best equestrian sports.
Discovering the most beautiful equestrian sports
Equestrian sports can be divided into various categories. There are Olympic disciplines, activities to be done alone or in a team, which require strength, orientation or even endurance. Let’s see together the 10 sports that are really worth trying, to have fun with your horse :
1.- Show jumping
It is probably the first that comes to mind when one thinks of equestrian sports. Surely you will know manifestations and events, such as the famous Piazza di Siena competition which takes place every year, in Rome, at Villa Borghese. Here, the rider must lead the horse in a timed path that provides, in fact, the overcoming of various obstacles and structures.
It is one of the most popular disciplines and, moreover, it is an award-winning discipline in the Olympic Games. There is a table of penalties that discounts the errors committed in the jump, but not only: disobedience, fall of the rider, delay, touch or error in the course.
2.- Dressage
Also known as the “training contest”, it is another of the Olympic equestrian sports and its goal is for the animal to obey the rider in performing geometric movements on a rectangular shaped field. Horses that practice dressage are usually calm, flexible and very focused.
They must be very careful about the orders given by the knight. Often “warm blooded” breeds are used, such as Holstein, Oldenburg and especially the Hanoverian.
3.- Cross-country
The cross-country trials integrate dressage and jumping and can be practiced separately in some local competitions. In this sport, the speed, jumping ability and endurance of horses are tested through a competition with different types of obstacles (water, walls, hedges, etc.).
4.- Gallop race
Turf races are one of the oldest equestrian sports. Think that the first competitions took place in ancient Greece. Even today, on the racetracks, spectators can bet on their favorite horse. The breeds chosen for this sport are the American Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. The specialty used is the gallop and always affects the small stature of the jockeys who, in this way, weigh less on the animal, in terms of weight.
5.- Polo
It is one of the team equestrian sports competitions par excellence. It involves four runners on each side and the goal is to hit a ball with a cue (called a club) and bring it into the goal, i.e. over a line between two poles. It is played on a grass field of 270 x 150 meters and its origins date back to 2,000 years ago, in Central Asia. The game lasts two hours, divided into six sets or “chukka”.
6.- Argentine patato
This sport originated in Argentina and emerged as entertainment for the gauchos (the herdsmen of the Pampas). These were divided into two teams with the aim of grabbing a duck placed on the ground and carrying it, avoiding the opponents, in a circle that marked the “goal”. Today, of course, the rules have changed and a special ball with ropes is used to grab it better.
7.- Tent pegging
This equestrian sport has very ancient origins: it is recognized by the International Equestrian Federation. Within the rules we can emphasize that the knights carry swords or spears to collect various objects, from a ring to a slice of lemon placed on the ground. The equestrian skills of the knights are combined with the ability to use weapons and other tools.
8.- Padovanella
It consists of driving a carriage through an obstacle course. There are three types of punctuation: training (harmony and cadence of the horses), endurance (the course is 22 kilometers) and obstacles (20 in total).
9.- Equestrian Endurance
As the name suggests, it is an endurance test that takes into account the skill, speed and endurance of both the horse and rider. These are very exciting competitions. A route is drawn up in stages, each of which is covered in 24 hours. At the end of each day, however, the vets check the health of the animals.
This equestrian sport was celebrated by the famous 2004 film “Ocean of Fire – Hidalgo”, starring Viggo Mortensen. The film tells the story of the rider Frank Hopkins and the horse Hidalgo who won a grueling endurance race in the North African desert.
10.- Reining
This American discipline, typical of cowboys, means “working with the reins”. The rider must demonstrate that he can handle a horse completely by performing a series of maneuvers. The skill, speed and actions performed (circles, hand changes, backward walk, pirouette, dry stop) used during the competition are evaluated.
Practically, reining consists of the sum of all those activities and movements that the cowboys were forced to perform to drive the cattle. It quickly became very popular in the United States and is currently practiced in 40 countries.
