The Art Of Equitation

Equitation is the art or the act of riding a horse. This sport divides in four disciplines but today I would explain three of them, Vaulting, Dressage and Jumping.

Vaulting is an equine sport that begins in Medellin about 40 years ago with a teacher named Tilo Koppel, he was a German coach. Then at 1997 the Equestrian Federation popularized at Bogota.

The first competition of this discipline was in 2000, when all the judges where trained to judge.

The vaulting is guided by a coach with a rope of ten meters above the floor and coordinates the horse steps, while the rider realize acrobatics above the horse. This sport is more less like doing gymnastics over the horse. This discipline also helps riders to prepare if they want to jump or to do dressage because this helps for the equilibrium.

In the classes of vaulting first the riders need to warm up, but not over the horse when they are ready they do the exercises over the horse. The competences of vaulting are realized in individual form, in pairs, or in a group of six. They need to do two rounds, in one of them the exercises are obligatory and in the second the riders choose what to perform it need to be choreography with free style. This discipline is also current at Olympics.

Dressage is a discipline that has existed for many years ago it was a form of training the horses. The first school of dressage was at Naples by Federico Grisone. Now a days the Spanish Riding School is one of the greatest in the world. Since the 1900 this discipline has been developing. In the 1912 at Olympics, this discipline was added. This sport consists in the execution of precision movements by a trained horse response to barely perceptible signals from its rider. He or she can’t use the voice for the horse to move or stop. In shows they need to memorize all the movements they need to ask to the horse. There is a rectangular space at specific points are letters and at each letter is a different move, the trainer cant tell you what is next, once entering to the track you need to be concentrated to remember the movements.

This discipline also is individual or in teams.

The last discipline I would talk about is jumping, this is my favorite discipline. In this one you need more precision, concentration, force than in the others. The riders needs to deal with an animal that is 1500punds or more. Then guide them no the jump they need to measure in their minds the distance, they need to know the striding of their horse, the riders also needs to decide if they would jump from far or from near. Riders at showjumping wears white breech, white shirt and a coat. One of the most important competitions named Grand Prix was first at Paris in 1866. At 1912 in the equine disciplines, this one was added in the Olympics.

In competitions the jumps are given by order, so the rider needs to memorize the course before they get to the horse. There is also time to warm up the horse, but in other track. The winner is the one that has no faults, and the one that finished the course in less time. In this discipline the stance is not judged, but the riders need to keep a good one because for the horse is easier to jump.

For each discipline the horses are trained, not every horse can be used for vaulting, dressage or jump. And the ones that are at jumping discipline cant be used for vaulting or dressage because is different and maybe the horse wont understand what to do and he would throw the rider.

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