Equestrianism

A junior horse riding event at the Melbourne Show

Equestrianism relates to the riding of horses. This broad description includes both riding horses for practical purposes such as in police work or for controlling herd animals on a ranch, as well as recreational and sporting aspects such as horse riding sports, dressage, show jumping, eventing, vaulting and polo. Other horse riding activities include horse-racing, hunting, fox hunting, rodeo, endurance, jousting and cavalry. Often horses are simply used for recreational rides, which many parks and ranches offer to visitors.

In former times equestrianism was closely associated with the military: medieval knights were equestrians, as were their military successors, the cavalry.

Haute école

The haute école (F. "high school") is a highly refined set of horseback skills.

Leading haute école démonstration teams include:

• The Cadre Noir in Saumur, France.
• The Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria.

See also

• Equestrian nomad
• Domestication of the horse

External links

• International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) official homepage
• E-Equestrian Horse Forums Equestrian Community dedicated to all aspects of riding disciplines and horsemanship.

This sports-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrianism under GFDL