ANCIENT ORIGINS

CHARIOTS OF FIRE BALANCED BY DRESSING FOR DRESSAGE

Horse races, including use of chariots of varying shapes and sizes, were popular among Egyptians, ancient Greeks and Romans. Chariot races were first held at the ancient Olympiad in 688BC and the welfare of the animals was secondary for the need to triumph. Horses and riders often risked life and death and many died. The sport was a brutal extension of warfare and hunting, in which the horse was sometimes, for need's sake, treated with more respect than it was in racing.

That element of the sport stands in bleak contrast to a later development, the dressage. The discipline is today what it was during the Renaissance, dressage being French for training. Some see it as the ultimate test of the relationship between rider and horse.

Jumping events became popular much later, competitions in the 19th century a test of which horse and rider could leap the highest over one fence in much the same way that human high jumpers perform.

It was only as recently as 1902 that riders started to lean forward in their saddles when taking a jump, the style introduced by Federico Caprilli, of Italy.

Grand prix showjumping of the kind we know today was made popular in France and England in the mid-19th century and in 1900 became part of the modern Olympiad.