The horse’s domestication occurred more than 6,000 years ago. Since then, man uses a horse for many of his goals:for transportation, carting and food. And only the best had the opportunity to use horses in sports. Sports horses are a group of special horses’ races that are bred to race. Their keeping, feeding, training require huge expenses. So sometimes the cost of one horse can be tens of millions.
Today equestrian sport is gaining the wide popularity. It develops in a human endurance, strength, courage, and gives positive emotions communicating with horses. The most ancient kind of equestrian sport is dressage, where a rider had the opportunity to demonstrate his skills in managing a horse, show clarity in the movement of horses and must comply with the rules of passage of obligatory figures.
Dressage competitions are held on the marked arena with full size 60m by 20m. During the riding the rider should do some obligatory exercises: stopping, jumping, turning, volts. And if it’s necessary, he should immediately change the direction of movement of his horse.Trot and canter pass, feet-change, pirouettes and half-pirouettes belong to more complicated elements of riding.
Since 1990, the equestrian sport has been part of the Olympic Games. Three types of equestrian sport are presented at the Olympics: dressage, show jumping and triathlon. Triathlon includes the cross, show jumping and arena riding. The main types of modern equestrian sport are: steeple chase and steeplechase at the distance of 4.35 miles (7 km).
- In order to complete the distance successfully, a horse and rider must be integrated. In this the skill of the rider consists.
- Runs on speed and endurance. They are usually held at the distance up to 99, 42 miles (160 km).
- Horse race is the competition for the fastest passage of the distance.
- Vaulting is acrobatic and gymnastic exercises on horseback performed at full tilt.
- Show jumping is steeplechase.
- Dressage is the art of horse’s managing.
Another popular sport is polo. Its history began more than 1500 years ago. Polo by its rules and enforcement reminds all known game – football. For the game special undersized horses ponies are used. Today limitations of the withers should not exceed the mark of 61, 02 in (155 cm). The rules of polo are simple. Two teams take part in the game. If the game takes place in an open area the team consists of five persons, if the game takes place on the arena (its dimensions are much smaller) the number of players participating in the game decreases, in this version there are 3 players in each team. The aim of the game is to score the ball with stick into the goal of rivals.
There is also an interesting variant of polo with the participation of elephants. The only difference from the traditional polo is the length of the sticks. The game is played with three teams of three elephants with the crew. On each elephant back the drover sits, who manages the elephant. Despite the impressive size of elephant, competitors and many spectators and fans aren’t afraid of possible injuries, and inadequate animal’s behavior because any kind of sport is always risky.
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