The Sports of the World Equestrian Games Represent the History of Civilization by John Royce.

Last week, the president of the title sponsor of the 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) uttered these words: “We need help and people to step up and tell the story.” Being someone enamored of equestrian sports, I’d like to oblige with a few posts to the reason for all the commotion: the all-important spectator.

Of course there are plenty of media in attendance to ‘tell the story’ of the Games, but what can be missed is a focus on those not fully intimate with the goings-on of horse sports. Context is needed! There is a great gulf in equestrian sport between the experienced campaigner and layman recruit, and misunderstandings abound, so maybe some ‘color’ commentary would be in line.

First: To Be Fair

There are complaints about the runup to the WEG: ticket prices are too high, there’s too much focus on the organizing and not the sports, the horses seem to have been lost in the scramble … so maybe there’s a better light to put on proceedings.

The WEG is a new, world-encompassing, first-time event for the USA. Right now the organizers are busier than the proverbial ‘long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs’ dealing with the organizational chaos a major horse event presents. It is a real feat to pull off a big equestrian competition; there are many moving parts including not just the horses and their needs (trailer access, stalls, shavings, feed, equipment storage, manure disposal, turnout, grooming and wash areas, schooling rings, competition fields and arenas) but also those of the equine “staff” including riders, grooms, trainers, grounds crew, veterinarians, farriers … not forgetting the facility maintenance (and personnel) and of course sponsors, volunteers, announcers, owners and media. It boggles.

Multiply these logistics times eight separate sports, and the uncomplaining spectator can easily be pushed to the back of the line. Yet the WEG is meant as a spectator event, and if we mere onlookers seem to be crowded in back, let’s be patient and find some fun in the circus. It is there!

The WEG is Something Old, Something New

Horses have been with mankind since before we began the journey of civilization, and watching horses is one of mankind’s most ancient pastimes … yet modern equestrian sports are surprisingly young. In fact, most of the sports seen at the WEG only appeared on the scene with the rise of a broad middle-class in the present era.

Jumping in particular is very new — younger than any of America’s major spectator sports — both Show Jumping and Eventing are still evolving and learning to serve an audience. Dressage is indeed very old, but its expansion into musical Freestyle has caught the imagination of a new generation. The baby of the group, Reining, was first included in the 2002 Games in Spain.

The Importance of Spectators and the WEG

One difficulty with attracting the public is that horse sports have an image of seeming elitist, having been the exclusive domain of aristocracy for thousands of years. Today this is not a true image — horse riding is accessible to the wider public, and the horse itself is without pretension — but it is a remnant of the past even new equestrian sports must face.

Something also quite new in equestrian sports is the unfamiliarity of the general public with horses. People simply don’t know horses like they used to, and have to be introduced to the challenges and excitement of horse sports. In fact, educating the public about horses is a supreme opportunity for the WEG, and makes its success even more important. Equestrian sports have the potential to keep the horse with us into the future, and deserve public support.

Next up: The Sports of the WEG

According to fossilized bones and cave paintings, that’s just how things were between horses and humans 20,000 years ago.

Our clear understanding of the distant past remains shrouded by the passage of time, but there are two important facts we can know about prehistoric horses:

1) Horses have always been with us. Early man spent many thousands of years watching, stalking, hunting … and painting horses. The horse has been part of humanity’s story since the very beginning.

2) It took thousands of years for primitive humans to even begin to learn to use horses to assist in work. Man’s journey from the caves required a change in attitude to seek forms of cooperation, away from seeing horses as only a form of prey. This new outlook took an amazingly long time to happen, especially considering that it was so tangibly rewarded by a horse’s willingness to share his strength with mankind.

Perhaps we can’t know details about how mankind’s attitude toward horses shifted from meal to tamed beast — but the change is a case of old ways of thinking being replaced by new and better ideas. In this way, horsemanship is a living demonstration that cooperation brings new possibilities to human life and can open entire new worlds.
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Copyright © 2010  John Allen Royce, Jr.

“Why are they jumping that?”

“Is that a boy or a girl horse?”

“Why do they go one at a time?”

“What’s on the horse’s legs?”

As intensely as she watched, my niece didn’t care about the teams or the scoring. She just loved seeing the horses.

We humans have had a long fascination with watching horses. Chariot racing, dressage, jousting, polo, flat racing are spectacles of past ages, and today newer sports like show jumping, reining and eventing reflect the athletic and humane partnership we’ve developed with the horse.

(This sport with cross-country jumps is still figuring out what to name itself, having been called the Military, horse trials, 3-Day, combined training, and — the name that seems to be winning — Eventing.)

Of course, horses are not part of our everyday lives as in the past. The challenge for equestrian sport today is to explain itself, to welcome the public to enjoy the beauty and excitement of horsemanship.

Probably few people could have guessed 100 years ago, as the horse was being released from the plow and carriage, that a future generation would be still be watching horses — on a box of moving pictures, no less — asking the same questions they had once asked.

Horses have been recognized as great teachers of youth since ancient times. Here is one modern parent’s opinion:

Eventually my daughter will have to make her own risk management decisions. For years I’ve been letting her make decisions in various controlled environments, the most chaotic (since she was 5) being show jumping. Horses are large, strong and unpredictable. She’s gotten hurt a few times, which freaks out her mother, but she’s learned from both the painful and enjoyable parts of the experience. At 13, she’s smart enough to generalize beyond the show ring.

I think it a dangerous practice to make all decisions for a youngster, insulate them from any risk, and then at the age of 16 or 18 or 20 ask them to suddenly run their own lives for the first time.

Do you agree?

The legislation, drawn up in consultation with the RSPCA, will include provisions to both protect pets and cover how farm animals should be raised, transported and slaughtered. It will also deliver protection for captive wildlife and laboratory animals.

Past efforts to promote animal protection legislation in China have met with steady failure. China is an ancient and conservative society, with all the blind self-orientation and “can’t-do” attitude that implies. The Chinese have a saying for d0-gooders pushing for a better world: chibao le cheng de. (People who have eaten too much food and have nothing better to do.)

The subject of China’s treatment of animals is too genuinely gruesome to detail here. Possibly, hopefully, this action will lead to a step forward. No great leap requested. We’ll see. Breath-holding unwise.

Further reading: “Chinese Animal Protection Law and Other Matters”