Equestrian events have been a part of the Olympics since 1900, so it is only expected that there will be tonnes of interesting facts associated with the same. Here are some facts you probably did not know about horse riding and the Olympics!
– Horses have been involved in Olympics from long before 1900, actually. Chariot racing was one of the biggest highlights of the original Olympics, in 682 BC.
– Polo was once an Olympic sport, along with horse long jump and horse high jump.
– The 1936 Berlin Olympics was the first one to be televised, and Germany actually won all the equestrian events that year.
– Dressage was included as an equestrian event only in 1928!
– Till 1952, all athletes participating in equestrian events had to be military officials.
– Women did not participate in equestrian events till the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. That was the year when Danish horse rider Lisa Hartel won a silver medal in the dressage category. The interesting part? Lisa Hartel was paralysed from the waist down and could not even get on her horse without help!
– Even though the 1956 Olympics were held in Australia, the horse riding events had to be held in Stockholm, Sweden. This was because of the fact that Australia had quarantine rules and regulations that were incredibly difficult to meet.
– In 1968, in Mexico, two horses died while competing. This forced the committee to strengthen its rules about the safety of the horses participating in the games. Since then, not a single horse has died while competing in the games.
– A number of really old people have participated in Olympic equestrian events- Hiroshi Hoketsu, a dressage rider from Japan, was 67 years old. Ian Miller, from Canada, was a show jumper, and was 61 when he won. Lorna Johnstone, a dressage rider, was 70!