EQUESTRIAN

Equestrianism made its Olympic debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

It disappeared until 1912, but has appeared at every Summer Olympic Games since. The current Olympic equestrian disciplines are Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping. In each discipline, both individual and team medals are awarded. It is one of the sports on the programme where women and men compete together on equal terms.

What is dressage?
In modern Dressage competitions, horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements, known as ‘figures’ (volte, serpentine, figure of eight). They perform these movements in a completely flat, rectangular arena, measuring 40 x 20m or 60 x 20m. The arena is skirted by a low rail along which 12 lettered markers are placed symmetrically indicating where movements are to start and finish and where changes of pace occur. Upon entering the arena, each rider proceeds down a marked centre line and halts to salute. In all competitions, the horse has to show the paces: walk, trot and canter as well as smooth transitions within and between these paces.

Dressage is one of the three disciplines in competition at the Olympic Games, the other two being Jumping and Eventing.

What is Jumping?
In modern Jumping competitions, horse and rider are required to complete a course of 10 to 13 jumps, the objective of which is to test the combination’s skill, accuracy and training.

The aim is always to jump the course in the designed sequence with no mistakes – a clear round. If any part of an obstacle is knocked down or if the horse refuses a jump, penalties are accumulated. The winner of the competition is the horse and rider combination that incurs the least number of penalties, completes the course in the fastest time or gains the highest number of points depending on the type of competition.

Jumping is one of the three disciplines in competition at the Olympic Games, the other two being Eventing and Dressage.

What is eventing?

Eventing demands of the competitor considerable experience in all branches of equitation and a precise knowledge of the horse’s ability and of the horse a degree of competence resulting from intelligent and rational training. It covers all round riding ability and horsemanship: the harmony between horse and rider that characterise Dressage; the contact with nature, precise knowledge of the horses ability and extensive experience essential for the Cross Country; the precision, agility and technique involved in Jumping.

Eventing is one of the three disciplines in competition at the Olympic Games, the other two being Jumping and Dressage.

The winning individual is the competitor with the lowest total of penalty points. The winning team is the one with the lowest total of penalty points, after adding together the final scores of the three highest placed competitors in the team

Ireland won a bronze medal with Cian O’Connor in the show jumping event at the London Olympic Games.

National Federation: Horse Sport Ireland

International Federation: Fédération Équestre Internationale

EQUESTRIAN NEWS

Performance Round Up – March

Catch up on the latest results of Team Ireland athletes throughout the month of March. Jack Woolley Qualifies in Taekwondo For Paris 2024 Three years on from the delayed Tokyo Games, where he became Ireland’s first participant in any Olympic taekwondo event, Woolley has again sealed his place in the 58kg division. Jude Gallagher adds [...]

Weekend Recap | Rugby, Athletics, Show Jumping

Ireland dominate to win fifth Wellington CSIO4* Nations Cup The Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team won a fifth CSIO4* Wellington International Nations Cup after an utterly dominant performance at the Florida venue overnight. Michael Blake’s team of Darragh Kenny on Eddy Blue, David O’Brien on El Balou Old, Shane Sweetnam on RR Combella and [...]

Bernard Jackman Appointed Acting Head of Sport at HSI

JACKMAN APPOINTED ACTING HEAD OF SPORT AT HSI  Former Ireland rugby international to oversee high performance programme in run-up to Paris Olympics Bernard Jackman has been appointed Acting Head of High Performance Sport at Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in Paris. The former Ireland rugby union international, who won a […]

Ireland win team silver at FEI European Championship

The Irish Senior Show Jumping team moved up the leader board in Milano to finish second  The Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team delivered an excellent performance to claim the silver medal in the team final of the FEI Jumping European Championship in Milano, Italy, this afternoon, Friday 1st of September. Michael Blake’s quartet of Michael [...]

SELECTED ATHLETES

Heike Holstein

Heike HolsteinEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Heike first sat on a pony at the age of two. She won her first Irish title aged 18 (1990) and has since won it 12 times. She trained with seven-time Olympic medallist Dr Reiner Klimke in Germany for many years and this will be her fourth Olympics. She was 26th in [...]

Sarah Ennis

Sarah has competed for Ireland since 2002 on more than 50 horses in over 280 competitions and beat the legendary British rider William Fox-Pitt in her first international victory. In 2012 she won the three-star at Ballindenisk and was Ireland’s highest eventer on the world rankings. Her individual fifth was vital to Ireland winning silver […]

Sam Watson

Sam WatsonEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Since his international debut (2002) Sam has competed in three World Equestrian Games (2010, 2014, 2018) and contributed to three top ten team finishes. His biggest achievement was 14th individual place in 2018 which helped Ireland to their historic team silver. He was 12th, individually, at the 2015 European Championships and 10th [...]

Austin O’Connor

Austin O’ConnorEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Austin, based at Attington Stud in Oxfordshire since 1994, will be competing in his third Olympics in Tokyo. He was 21st individual and eighth in the team event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and he was 17th individual in the Sydney Olympics (2000). In 1995 he won team gold at the [...]

Shane Sweetnam

Shane SweetnamEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Shane began his Grand Prix career aged 16. In 2004, after qualifying in IT from the University of Limerick, he headed to Florida and got a job with US Olympic veteran Margie Engle and has been based in Florida since. He was eighth individually to help Ireland to team gold at the [...]

Cathal Daniels

CATHAL DANIELSEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY In 2012, aged 15, Cathal won individual and team gold at the European Pony Eventing Championship in France. He won two team golds and individual silver at European U18s (2013/2014) as well as European U21 team bronze and fourth individually in 2015. In 2018 he was part of Ireland’s team silver at [...]

Bertram Allen

BERTRAM ALLENEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Bertram first competed for Ireland in 2008. He won individual gold at the 2010 European Pony Championships. He won team gold (2012) and individual silver (2013) at the European Junior Championships. He was 7th individually at the 2014 World Equestrian Games, 3rd at the World Cup Final in 2015 and a member [...]

Darragh Kenny

DARRAGH KENNYEQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Darragh rode in his first Grand Prix at 14 and debuted in the Dublin Horse Show (2007) when just 19. He was a member of Ireland’s Nations Cup (Aga Khan) victors in Dublin in 2015. In 2007 he won a training bursary to work with a top American coach at North Run [...]

Cian O’Connor

CIAN O'CONNOREQUESTRIAN BIOGRAPHY Cian's introduction to equestrianism started at the age of 14 through his father Tadhg's love of horses. His first horse whom he shared with his father was a chestnut gelding called Radiman, whom Cian had great success with in hunter trial competitions. Having ridden in his first Nations Cup for Ireland at [...]

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