Wikipedia:Equestrian at the Summer Olympics
Equestrianism made its Summer Olympics debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. It disappeared until 1912, but has appeared at every Summer Olympic Games since. The current Olympic equestrian adisciplines are Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping. In each discipline, both individual and team medals are awarded.
Until the 1952 Summer Olympics, only male cavalry officers were permitted to compete in any Olympic equestrian discipline. From 1952 onwards, however, equestrianism became one of the very few Olympic events in which men and women (civilian as well as military) compete directly against one another. In team competition, teams may have any blend of male and female competitors, and are not required to have minimum numbers of either gender; countries are free to choose the best riders, irrespective of gender.
Equestrian disciplines and the equestrian component of Modern Pentathlon are also the only Olympic events that involve animals. The horse is considered as much an athlete as the human rider.
Insights[]
Equestrian body concerned about Olympic status[]
- The governing body of equestrian sport opens its annual assembly in Argentina (also known as ARG)
in November 2008 warning members they must not take the sport's Olympic status for granted after a spate of doping scandals. [1]
- Princess vows to solve horse doping issues - 04/12/09 - When Princess Haya of Jordan (also known as JOR)
took over as president of equestrian's world governing body, she was tasked with fighting the sport's increasingly public doping problems. 
Avoid the use of recreational drugs, performance enhancing drugs and steroids. See: Drugs
