Dressage is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined by the International Equestrian Federation, dressage is described as "the highest expression of horse training" where "horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements".
Equestrianism, commonly known as horse riding or horseback riding, includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the use of horses for practical working purposes, transportation, recreational activities, artistic or cultural exercises, and competitive sport.
A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. Many different horse breeds and equestrian disciplines hold competitions worldwide, from local to the international levels. Most horse shows run from one to three days, sometimes longer for major, all-breed events or national and international championships in a given discipline or breed. Most shows consist of a series of different performances, called classes, wherein a group of horses with similar training or characteristics compete against one another for awards and, often, prize money.
Reining is a western riding competition for horses where the riders guide the horses through a precise pattern of circles, spins, and stops. All work is done at the lope, or the gallop. Originating from working cattle, reining requires the horse to be responsive and in tune with its rider, whose aids should not be easily seen, and judges the horse on its ability to perform a set pattern of movements. The horse should be willingly guided or controlled with little or no apparent resistance and dictated to completely. A horse that pins his ears, conveys a threat to his rider, refuses to go forward, runs sideways, bounces his rear, wrings his tail in irritation, or displays an overall poor attitude is not being guided willingly, and is judged accordingly. If a horse jogs or breaks gait it is a 0.
The Selle Français (SF) is a breed of sport horse from France. An athletic horse with good gaits, it is usually bay or chestnut in color. The Selle Français was created in 1958 when several French riding horse breeds were merged into one stud book. The new breed was meant to serve as a unified sport horse during a period when horses were being replaced by mechanization and were transforming into an animal used mainly for sport and leisure.
The International Federation for Equestrian Sports is the international governing body of equestrian sports. The FEI headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The United States Equestrian Federation is the national governing body for most equestrian sports in the United States. It began on January 20, 1917, as the Association of American Horse Shows, later changed to the American Horse Shows Association (AHSA). In 2001, the organization changed its name to USA Equestrian (USAE) and, in 2003 it merged with the United States Equestrian Team (USET). In 2017, USEF rebranded as US Equestrian. In 2019, USEF moved its laboratory services to the University of Kentucky.
Combined driving is an equestrian sport involving carriage driving. In this discipline, the driver sits on a vehicle drawn by a single horse, a pair or a team of four. The sport has three phases: dressage, cross-country marathon and obstacle cone driving — patterned after the mounted equestrian sport of eventing. It is one of the ten international equestrian sport horse disciplines recognized by the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI). Combined driving became an FEI discipline in 1970 when Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the then-president of FEI, produced the first rule book.
A sport horse or sporthorse is a type of horse, rather than any particular breed. The term is usually applied to horses bred for the traditional Olympic equestrian sporting events of dressage, eventing, show jumping, and combined driving, but the precise definition varies. In the United States, horses used in hunt seat and show hunter competition are often classed as sport horses, whereas the British show hunter is classified as a "show horse."
Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) is the national governing body for all equestrian sport for Ireland. Established in 2008, it is responsible for the administration of international competitions throughout the island, including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It sanctions Irish riders and horses competing abroad at international events, and implements the rules and regulations laid down by the FEI. It is recognised by FEI, Sport Ireland, and the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
Windsor Grey is a moniker for the grey horses used by the British monarchy to pull carriages and state coaches in ceremonial processions such as those for coronations, royal weddings, Trooping the Colour, and the opening of Parliament. They are named for Windsor Castle where they were originally stabled, though today they live at the Royal Mews near Buckingham Palace.
A marathon carriage is a modern metal carriage that is used for driving competitions, especially combined driving. It is named after the cross-country phase of a combined driving event which, though inaccurate, became known as the "marathon" phase. The carriage is designed for safety and carries a driver plus one or two assistants, called grooms. Drivers direct the horses while grooms counterbalance the carriage on tight turns, and are available for assistance with the horses in case of an overturn or collision, or equipment malfunction.
Driving, when applied to horses, ponies, mules, or donkeys, is a broad term for hitching equines to a wagon, carriage, cart, sleigh, or other horse-drawn vehicle by means of a harness and working them in this way. It encompasses a wide range of activities from pleasure driving, to harness racing, to farm work, horse shows, and even international combined driving.
British Carriagedriving, formerly known as British Horse Driving Trials Association, is the governing body for the sport of Horse Driving Trials in Great Britain. The association is responsible for selection of Team GUBER competitors to resent Great Britain at World Carnage Diving Championships. It is one of the 18 organisations which form part of the British Equestrian Federation.
The London International Horse Show, formerly the Olympia London International Horse Show, is one of the UK's biggest equestrian competitions. It is best known as the host of the UK legs of the FEI World Cup series in dressage, show jumping and driving, however it also has multiple other showjumping classes, as well as fun competitions such as a Shetland pony race and a dog agility competition. Many competitions are broadcast live by the BBC, and all are streamed. The show is held over six days during the week preceding Christmas, and typically involves over 400 horses and ponies.
Para-equestrian classification is a system for para-equestrian sport is a graded system based on the degree of physical or visual disability and handled at the international level by the FEI. The sport has eligible classifications for people with physical and vision disabilities. Groups of eligible riders include The sport is open to competitors with impaired muscle power, athetosis, impaired passive range of movement, hypertonia, limb deficiency, ataxia, leg length difference, short stature, and vision impairment. They are grouped into five different classes to allow fair competition. These classes are Grade I, Grade II, Grade III, Grade IV, and Grade V(Grade Names Changed as of Jan 2017). The para-equestrian classification does not consider the gender of the rider, as equestrines compete in mixed gender competitions.
Para-equestrian is an equestrian sport governed by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), and includes two competitive events: One is para-equestrian dressage, which is conducted under the same basic rules as conventional dressage, but with riders divided into different competition grades based on their functional abilities. The other is para-equestrian driving, which operates under the same basic rules as combined driving but places competitors in various grades based on their functional abilities.
South African Equestrian Federation (SAEF) is the national governing body for majority of equestrian sports in South Africa. These sports include the FEI-recognized disciplines of dressage, eventing, show jumping, vaulting, endurance, reining, para-equestrian, and driving, with the non-FEI discipline of tentpegging. SAEF also develops and enforces the rules for other events at horse shows.
Boyd Exell is an Australian horse driver, trainer, judge and horse owner who specializes in combined driving with four-in-hand teams. He has won the World Cup indoor driving finals ten times, and won six world champion titles during his career. As of May 2024, Exell is ranked #1 in the world for his sport. Exell travels to Australia, the US and around Europe holding events to train drivers. Since 2015, he has been stationed in the Netherlands after spending 20 years in the UK.
