Equestrianism: How Can One Of Our Most Successful Sports Be So Unpopular?

Charlotte Dujardin, the British equestrian, performed a Grand Prix Freestyle, in the Rio 2016 Olympics that would go on to break world records. Grand Prix Freestyle is a dressage test involving a choreographed set of movements to music. Charlotte and her horse Valegro soon became the most successful duo in history, winning every single title and Charlotte has been described as the most dominate dressage rider of the era. The music of the Rio Carnival, in which they performed to, echoed throughout the arena on a hot Brazilian afternoon as Valegro showed off his years of training and elegance. Previously in 2012, the duo also made a statement by winning another gold to the ‘best of British’ music which included Land Of Hope Of Glory and Wallace and Gromit, we can all still remember how good the summer of 2012 was for British sport.

Hannah Rastopoff owner of two horses and has competed for over 8 years said “Dressage requires an immense amount of skill. Horses would not do those movements in their natural habitat. They're following cues from their rider but the rider is so skilled, they make it look like they’re doing nothing. But in reality, they have learned to communicate through the most minute touches. A slight shift of weight in the saddle, a small pull on the left rein, a slight increase of pressure from the legs to change gaits. This takes years and years of training and an incredible amount of skill to be able to communicate with a horse like that.”

The last two Olympics has brought much success for Team GB’s Equestrian team and it can be seen as one of GB’s most triumphant sports. In a small team of just 12, Equestrian’s brought home 5 Gold, 3 Sliver and 1 Bronze. The athletics team is almost 8 times bigger (80) and in last two Olympics won 6 gold, 2 sliver and 5 bronze. This shows that equestrianism really is one of GB strong points.

Over 5 million people in the UK have ridden a horse for a period of time in their lives, such as having lessons as a child or owning their own. However, even with this large amount of horse lovers and the success of the sport, equestrianism is still the lowest ranked Olympic sport according to the polling site FiveThiryEight. Over 57,000 people responded to this survey and shared their opinion of their favourite Olympic sport , only 10 percent of those said that equestrian was theirs. The horse event that came out on top was team jumping  with  21 percent and individual jumping and dressage with only 10 making them bottom of the leader board. Track events such as 100m came out on top with 83 percent of votes.

In the Olympics, there is three events: Dressage, Showjumping and Eventing. Dressage, puts the horse and riders control and skill to the test, this uses the basic three movements of walk, trot and canter to make a sophisticated, picturesque sequence which is judged on quality, submission and precision.

Showjumping, consisted of fifteen fences in which the horse and rider must complete in the quickest time with the least amount of fault, knock a fence down and you are awarded four faults.

Finally eventing, a four-day-event consisted of both dressage and show jumping  but also the cross-country course. This is an endurance test which can vary in size however, Rio 2016’s was four miles of thirty-three jumps and an optimum time of 10 minutes and 15 seconds, anything over and will be penalised, making the score higher.

There is are abundance of four-day events which are good practise for both horse and rider, and help prepare for bigger events such as Olympics - some of the best are in England. The most well-known being Burghley Horse Trails, which is considered by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) as one the top three-day events in the world. British riders saw triumph in 2019 with Team GB sporting hero Pippa Funnell winning both Badminton and Burghley Horse Trails.

So, if we are so successful why is horse riding so unpopular?

There are misconceptions that have been heard a million times, like with most things its misunderstood. Tweed jackets, Range Rovers and “Daddy buy me a pony” are just some of the stereotypes surrounding horses and their owners and this leads to the arguments that the sport is elitist. Chole Baxter, an Australian rider who owns three of her own horses, suggested that every sport it elitist when you get to a professional level, “ With any sport, there is that small percentile of the elite, but that doesn't make it elitist. If you become an NBA or English Premier League player, you are the top percentile of elite athletes. But that doesn't mean people who play basketball and soccer are all elitist or all extremely wealthy. Yes, there is a certain money factor, but like any hobby, you do what you can afford and what works for you individually.” 

The cost of buying horses or paying for travel is astronomical, Julia Ritcher an equestrian from Cleveland, Ohio suggested money is needed to be professional “I would say you have to have some amount of money for the sport. And definitely, as I’ve noticed over the years, if you want to go far and move up in the levels successfully, you have to have quite a bit of money. Out of a lot of other sports, it’s definitely one that requires wealth to be successful, and at least a little bit of wealth to even compete or really be a big part of the sport. The more money you have with riding, the further you’ll go. However, if you’re just riding for fun you don’t need wealth”.

Horses are expensive to keep, but people give up a lot to have them, the dedication required is something that should be admired. People who have horses rarely, if ever go, on holiday or have time to do much other than muck out! Horses stables need to be mucked out, hay nets filled multiple times a day, the field must be cleared of muck, fed, watered and then if you’re lucky you might get time to ride, but to be able to  get on you need to have groomed, tacked up, put your jodhpurs on, by that point you are knackered! If you have your own space cost will typically be: food, bedding, tac and vet bills. However, livery can be more expensive, where horse is kept at stables, full livery where the staff carry out care and sometimes exercise can cost up to £10,000 annually, excluding very expensive vet bills. However, if you love horses and just want to ride, lessons can be as inexpensive as £20 a week.

People are very vocal about their opinions equestrianism on Twitter, during the Rio 2016 games one person tweeted: “idk why horse riding is an Olympic sport, the riders aren’t even athletes. Dressing up like Abe Lincoln and sitting on a prancing horse is NOT A SPORT. If anything, the horse deserves to win the medal” Riders need to be able to judge distances so they can set the horse up for the jump by adjusting their stride. Let your horse get too fast or slow to a jump and you could seriously injure your horse. They need to have stamina to get through a long show day or rigorous cross-country course. Riders stay on their horse by using the strength in their legs, they also need to the balance to rise of the saddle when jumping up to six-foot fences at a gallop which can be fast as 30mph. It is a very unique sport, being that horse and rider are equal and it’s crucial that they are have a strong partnership in able to succeed, it have every characteristic of being a sport it requires: fitness, strength, dedication, rules and competitions.

 Global Champion Tour Grand Prix 2019 winner Abbie Summers, has dedicated her whole life to riding first riding when she was 3 on her Shetland pony and moving into jumping when she was 14, “I think it’s very unfair to us when people say it isn’t a sport. We all work very hard if not more than the regular athlete, as well as looking after ourselves we have to look after our horses. I spend every day from 7:30am until around 5:30pm with my horses, with late checks at around 9pm. The horses are exercised six days a week to keep fit and jumped once or twice a week.”

There are many positive things to come from horse riding at a competitive level as it’s the only sport where women and men are equal and compete in the same event ,Team GB said “The equestrian disciplines are unique among Olympic sports in the sense that men and women compete on the same terms both horse and rider are declared Olympic medal winners.” This is such a modern and momentous stance, that men and women are finally considered the same where they both have the same skill set; however, this has been the case in equestrian event in the Olympics since 1900 in Paris. Something that should be praised and recognised!

Millions of people will watch The Grand National or Royal Ascot and will consider that a sport so why when it’s on a world class Olympic levels it’s not? The fact is that we have been riding much longer than we think. Before the development of the steam locomotive in the early 1800s, the only way to travel on land faster than human pace was by horse. Since travel is one of the defining features of human development, horses are the history of civilisation itself. Horses were used to pull chariots for Queen Boadicea and carts and wagons for transporting produce. These animals started getting used for recreational riding 2000 years before Christ was even born. These misconceptions have been made by the few we see on TV; however, the average rider doesn’t put on a coat and tail to ride round there field or ménage. The successful riders are there because they have put everything they own into their horses – you can’t buy skill.