The on-fire Swiss rider Daniel Etter and his mount Peu a Peu won the event in a 10-horse jumpoff to match their World Cup Qualifier victory last weekend in Oslo. USA rider Lauren Hough on Quick Study took second only 1.08 seconds behind the leader, the best result for a US rider in this early season.

European World Cup Jumping is an exciting indoor series because of the large public crowds and media attention. Show jumping was originally developed in Europe and still leads the world in spectators and dynamic, innovative presentation of the sport.

The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy (second volume to be published in the summer of 2010) incorporates the idea of such “great” horses in history, for the horse is an athlete and–like human athletes–special equine champions actually exist.

One such horse is Snowman, a horse that was saved from slaughter by beloved horseman Harry de Leyer–and went on to become one of America’s top international jumpers. The horse’s story reads like a fairy tale, so it is welcome news that a new book is coming out about Snowman appropriately titled, “The Cinderella Horse.”

Festivals and horses are an ancient tradition. Milling crowds, vendor booths and concessions, programs and barkers–the moving color and pageantry of our favorite public events trace a lineage through mounted cavalry exhibitions and roaring chariot racing “circuses” of antiquity.

Not so much has changed: clay tablets were once sold to eager audiences by shouting ushers of Roman times. Triumphal “parades” of horses drawing chariots marked victory in ancient ceremonies, and horseback entourages of through Medieval towns were an occasion of spectator celebration that continues in the parades of today.

Equestrian exhibitions of dressage in Renaissance Europe were the predecessors of the three-ringed Circuses of Barnum & Bailey and others:

Since its foundation more than two hundred years ago it has remained in the hands of one and the same family – the Knies – whose youngest and oldest members alike take an active part in circus life … The show remains focused, however, on the two fundamental elements in western circus tradition:  the dressage [of the horse] and the clown.

Even the modern Fair owes its beginning to harvest festivities with horse-racing and other competitive spectacles orbited by farmers’ stands and open-air markets.

Today equestrian sport has reinvented itself to keep pace with the modern world, and the ancients would have been amazed at the level of partnership seen in our modern horses and riders.  Today’s international equestrian sports place the welfare of the horse at the core, and the “thrill” of older sports like chariot racing and jousting have been replaced by new thrills in highly competitive, colorful and technical sports that demand the utmost partnership with the animal.

It is amazing–and heartening–to see the reinvention of horsemanship in our modern age. The crowds have changed, the sports have changed, but the atmosphere and tradition of the festival continues in echoes of what has gone before.

A century ago we seemed to be at the end of our ancient partnership with the horse, since the animal’s use in transportation was made obsolete by the invention of the internal combustion engine. Today there are more horses than ever, largely due to equestrian sport and recreation … and one of the big drivers of that growth is the international sport of Show Jumping.

So it is great news to hear of the sport’s continuing success as a spectator attraction, as was seen last week at the Canadian jumping hot-spot of Spruce Meadows in Calgary. A record crowd of over 70,000 spectators attended the closing Masters competition, sitting in lawnchairs at 6:00am to secure the best seats. Congrats to Spruce Meadows for showing again that well-presented and promoted Show Jumping is a sport for the future.

Additional links:

Chronicle of the Horse (by Tricia Booker)

Ward & Sapphire win $1,000,000 CN International Grand Prix (Meghan Chevrette-McIvor via Hunter Jumper News)

The only lack was in the Announcing. Show jumping is like a storybook with pictures: it must be narrated. The story needs to be told.

Those who already love the sport will forgive transgressions against their spectator interests, but that is no reason for complacency. The key to creating new fans is engaging them.

Entertaining spectators at a horse show is as easy as talking to them about horses. This is not “easy” at all, in reality, as it requires talent combined with professionalism and love for horses and the sport. However, it would be pay great dividends for the sport to develop just such talent.

We have chosen to honor the “Olympics,” but there were actually four major Grecian Games, the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. These were held in yearly cycles, so that the largest Games near Olympia were held every four years. The equestrian events were the most popular and religiously significant. The contests included flat Racing, Dressage and Chariot Racing (today the sports are Dressage, Eventing and Jumping). Note that Dressage is the definition of “classical.”

The fact that the ancient Games were religious in nature has given a special moral character to the modern Olympic movement. There were two sports in the original Games: Athletics and Equestrian. Each type of competition held a specific meaning. Athletics represented the striving for human excellence, and Equestrian events represented man’s survival and conquest against the elements.

Inclusion of horses ennoble the Games, and the honorary aspect of equestrian sport is the origin of the famous “Olympic spirit.” The integrity of the Olympic ideal is upheld in the equestrian sport above all, for it is the horse which competes for no prize except the joy of taking part, and horsemanship which puts the mount’s welfare higher even than the Olympic rewards of money and fame.