Equestrian sport has got to be one of my favourite “horsey” related sports. My main reason for becoming fascinated with this was I enjoyed watching Princess Anne, HRH of Great Britain competing, and subsequently her daughter Zara Phillips. What I didn’t realise for a while was just how long equestrian sport has been around and how it began. The history of this sport dates back over 2000 years and began with the Greeks using dressage to train their war horses.

War horses continued to be trained by using dressage and later on three day events were introduced to test their stamina further. These events consisted of Show Jumping, Cross Country and Dressage.

The Olympic Games, in 1921, started to include Equestrian Events as part of its line up and its popularity started to soar.

One of the most famous people who certainly put this sport on the map not just because of her skill but also because she was a member of the British Royal Family is HRH Princess Anne. Princess Anne, was born in August 1950 and is tenth in line to the British Throne. She is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Equestrian sport runs in Princess Anne’s family. Her first husband Captain Mark Anthony Peter Philips) is a former Olympic goldmedal winning horseman. He is also the father of Zara Phillips who is an Eventing World Champion. In 1971 and 1972 Mark Phillips won the Badminton Horse Trials and in 1972 he was part of the British Three day event team which won a gold medal at the Munich Olympics. Interestingly he designed the cross country venue at the Red Hills Horse Trials. These trials were a qualifying event for the Olympics.

Zara Phillips is twelfth in line to the British Throne, Daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and grandaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Zara is an outstanding horsewoman who not only won an individual gold medal on her horse Toytown but also helped the British team win Silver at the World Equestrian games in Germany. Zara has been voted Sports personality of the year by the BBC and awarded an MBE in 2007

I guess whilst we are watching equestrian showjumping on the television it doesn’t look to hard. Well everything looks easy on the TV. This sport,however, is very demanding and is designed to test the following ability. Dressage - how the horse performs walking,trotting and cantering. Cross Country tests jumping,bravery, speed and stamina. The equestrian showjumping shows control,accuracy and athleticism. The winner will be the competitor with the least penalties at the end.

Tags: Horses