Equestrian is the sport where the participant has to be an expert in horse riding. In the Equestrian events, various forms of horse riding are included. This particular sport consists of three disciplines. The various disciplines of Equestrian are: eventing, dressage and jumping.
Dressage is a ballet performance with horses. In eventing, there is a mixture of jumping and dressage. In jumping, the participants or the horse- riders have to cross the obstacles that are set on the course. The particular sport is administered by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports or FEI.
Equestrian was introduced in the 1900 Paris Olympics, but the event was suspended in the later Olympics. In 1912 Stockholm Summer Games this event was again resumed. Only the army officers were allowed to participate in the Equestrian events till the 1948 London Summer Games. This rule was taken away from the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games and in that year itself women were also allowed to take part in the sport.
In the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, the Equestrian events are present. The Equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong, China from 9th to 20th August. The jumping and the dressing events would take place at the main venue in Shatin and the cross country competition will be held at Beas River.
The International Federation for Equestrian Sports or EFI has the authority to set the rules and the guidelines for the equestrian events at the International level. For the different categories of Equestrian events there are different sets of rules that all the participants are bound to follow.
The participants who have won medals in the particular sport at the International level are Chris Kappler, Rodrigo Pessoa, Leslie Law, Pippa Funnell, Ulla Salzgeber, David O’ Connor, Andrew Hoy, Sven Rothenberger and many others.
