VA Tech Massacre

Yesterday morning on April 16, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history occured. 32 students lives were tragically taken on the Virginia Tech campus before the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, took his own life...this was the largest school massacre in history since the 1966 shooting at the University of Texas when Charles Whitman stole 16 lives. Let your thoughts and your prayers go out to all the family and friends of the students at VA Tech.
God Bless


photos courtesy of Virginia Tech Vigils

The History of Jumping

photo courtesy of Rusty Jarrett

Both exciting and easy to follow, show jumping is a very popular discipline. Originating from Ireland, with its passion for fox hunting, jumping requires horse and rider to complete a course of about 15 obstacles, including triple bars, parallel rails, water jumps and simulated stone walls. Penalties are incurred if jumps are taken in the wrong order, if a horse refuses a jump or knocks down a rail, and if time limits are exceeded.

photo courtesy of Hulton

The History of Eventing

There are three equestrian disciplines contested at the Olympics, with an individual and team event in each, making six events on the Olympic programme. The three disciplines are jumping (or show jumping, or Prix de Nations as a team event), dressage, and Eventing. Jumping consists of negotiating a series of obstacles with the goal being not to disturb the fences. Dressage is a sort of ballet on horseback in which the rider guides the horse to perform certain intricate manoeuvres of stepping. The scoring is done by judges who evaluate how well the horse executes the moves. Eventing combines the above two disciplines, and adds a third competition of riding a cross-country course on horseback. Scoring is by a series of tables evaluating each day's performance.

photo courtesy of Al Bello

History of Dressage in the Olympics

Equestrian is the only Olympic sport where man and animal are established team-mates, and one of the few where men and women compete on equal terms. It is the ultimate in team sports, a horse and rider working together for years to hone feats of grace, daring, agility and speed. Chariot races and horse riding appeared in Greece's ancient Games, but most of the equestrian programme as we know it began in the Olympic Games of 1912. It includes three disciplines - dressage, jumping and three-day event - each with individual and team competition. Often described as horses performing ballet, dressage has changed little since the Renaissance. The term stems from a French word for training, and European cavalrymen developed the idea for use on the battlefield and the parade ground. The horse performs set movements, or tests, in response to its rider's subtle aids and signals. The event is conducted over three rounds. In the first two, horse and rider perform a set routine of dressage movements, including passages, pirouettes and piaffes in a walk, trot and canter. The third round is freestyle, with routines individually choreographed and performed to music. The scoring is done by judges who evaluate how well the horse executes the moves. During the Olympics four days are devoted to dressage.

photo courtesy of Olympic.org

HIstory of Equestrian as an Olympic Sport

Equestrian events were included in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1900 and then in 1912, in a format very similar to that which was used at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. In the past, the three-day event (Eventing) was restricted to military officers, while the jumping and dressage competitions were open to civilians, but only a handful of civilian riders competed up to 1948. Up to that time, the growth of modern sport had been rapid, but relatively few competitors were involved in international competitions. They all knew each other and the judges and were accepting of local variations to the fairly simple rules which existed. With the inclusion of the sport in the Olympic Games, it became obvious that some internationally recognised rules for the three Olympic disciplines were essential. In May 1921, delegates from 10 national equestrian organisations met in Lausanne to discuss the formation of an international federation. Equestrian consists of three disciplines: Jumping, Dressage and Eventing (Three-Day Event).

photo courtesy of Olympic.org

Olympic Rider Suffers Serious Injuries

An Olympic equestrian rider, Edmond Gibney, who competed for Ireland in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is in the hospital with serious head injuries after a motorcycle accident in Southampton, England. He is understood to be in the intensive care unit of a Hampshire Hospital.

Gastric Ulceration Common in Racehorses

A recent veterinary study of 171 New Zealand racehorses revealed that 88% of the animals had some evidence of gastric ulceration. The study, reported in the February 2007 issue of the New Zealand Veterinary Journal, revealed little difference in the occurrence of ulceration between horses that were stabled fulltime and those spending some of their time on grass. It focused on 171 racehorses in work with 24 trainers. Thoroughbreds totaled 133 (78%), with the remainder being standardbreds. The animals were examined using gastroscopy during 2003 and 2004. Evidence of gastric ulceration was present in 151 (88.3%) of the horses. Ulceration was evident in 89% of the horses kept at pasture for at least four hours a day, in all 13 (100%) of horses kept at pasture full time, and in 16 out of 17 (94%) of horses stabled full time. The prevalence and severity of ulceration did not differ between horses stabled full time, kept at pasture for part of the day, or kept at pasture full time. The severity of ulceration did not vary significantly with the quality of the pasture, nor with the duration of training. Despite the high prevalence, the cause of gastric ulcers in adult racehorses remains unknown.
photo courtesy of HorseTalk