Intro to: Equestrian – #Rio2016

 

With the Olympics just around the corner, the whole world prepares to gather round the television and watch the best athletes in the world compete for the prestigious title of ‘Olympic Champion’.

However, no-one ever claims to have knowledge of even half of the Olympic events they watch. Many are glued to the TV watching something they have no clue about. We’ve all tried to read the confusing wiki articles or the general rule book and still have got nowhere with the understanding of the sport. Well, that’s why The Sports Lowdown are here to help.

Watching horses jump and dance is something we seem to enjoy over the Olympic period, but how many people actually know what’s going on?

In the Olympics there are three Equestrian disciplines: Dressage, Jumping, and Eventing.

Dressage

Usually called “horse dancing” by many, dressage is the competitive examination of horse and rider skill. Seven dressage judges watch the performances which are made of a series of pre-determined movements. Each movement is given a score between eight and 10.

There are three different events within dressage, Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special, and Grand Prix Freestyle.

The Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special determine the team medals. Athletes perform  two tests of pre-determined movement. Each nation then combines the scores of their athletes, which then decides the team medals. In 2012 Great Britain claimed the Gold for Team Dressage.

To determine the individual gold, the top 18 athletes from the Grand Prix choreograph their own routine and perform it to music. During London 2012 some music chose was The Great Escape, and even a medley of songs from the Lion King. Great Britain claimed a Gold and a Bronze medal.

Jumping

Jumping is pretty self-explanatory. It involves the horse and the rider navigating a course of 10-13 jumps, all which can be knocked down. The fences measure between 1.6m high and 2m wide.

The riders objective is to guide the horse round the course within the a lot time, whilst also avoiding knocking any fences down. If the rider exceeds the time, knocks a fence down, stops at a fence, or either horse or rider fall, penalties are given.

As in dressage, both team and individual medals are awarded.

Over four days both team and individual medals are decided. A total of 75 athletes compete.

Five rounds are ridden to determine individual medals.

In the first round, the top 60 riders can continue into the second round, including any ties for 60th. The second round sees the top 45 continue on, including ties. And the third round the top 35 progress. However, only three riders per nation can continue onto the fourth round.

In the fourth round – also named Individual final A – sees all rider faults wiped clean. Then the top 20 riders continue to round five – Individual final B.

In round five, a whole new course is given to the riders, and their faults from A and B are added together. The rider with the fewest fault wins Gold.

Whilst competing for individual medals, the riders are also competing for team medals. The results of rounds two and three of the individual rounds are used for the team medals. Teams can have four riders in total, and their final ranking is based on the three best riders from both rounds.

For both team and individual a jump off is done to decide any medal ties.

Eventing

Also known as the triathlon of equestrian sport, Eventing consists of dressage, cross-country and jumping combined. Both team and individual competitions run concurrently.

Dressage within eventing does not have the high level of technicality that pure Dressage in the Olympics does. Although, it does remain the similar. Three judges award marks between 0-10 for the pre-determined movements. The final score is then converted into penalty points for cross-country.

Cross-country sees the rider lead the horse over 45 natural and fixed obstacles across the country inside a certain time. Like Jumping, riders are penalised for exceeding the time as does stopping at the obstacles. The falling of either rider or horse means elimination from the competition.

Jumping in the Eventing competition is similar to pure Jumping at the Olympics, however the jumps are not as high. Two rounds are completed by the riders. The rider with the least number of penalties tops the rankings. However, to determine the final score for the team competition, the three best scores from the teams of five, are added together to figure out the final rankings.