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Equestrian Dressage : London Olympics 2012

Equestrian - Dressage
At the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Equestrian Dressage events will test the ability of horse and rider to display both athletic prowess and supreme elegance.
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Key Equestrian Dressage facts

Venue: Greenwich Park
Dates: Thursday 2 August – Wednesday 8 August
Medal events: 2
Athletes: 50
Equestrian sport can be traced back more than 2,000 years, when the Greeks introduced dressage training to prepare their horses for war. Classical dressage reached its peak with the development of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, which laid the basis for the elegant, graceful sport practised today.

Interesting Equestrian Dressage & Olympics Vignettes

Equestrian is the only Olympic sport in which men and women compete against each other on equal terms. It is also the only one in which humans and animals compete together.
At the Helsinki 1952 Games, Denmark’s Lis Hartel won silver in Dressage despite being paralysed below the knees.

At the Olympic Games horses must be at least eight-years-old for Dressage and Eventing, and nine-years-old for Jumping.

Interesting Equestrian Dressage  Facts

In modern Dressage competitions, the horse and rider perform a series of movements known as a Dressage test.

The tests are performed in a 60m x 20m arena before a panel of seven judges, who award scores for individual movements and for the overall routine.

The Dressage competition consists of a Team event, which includes the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special rounds, and an Individual event, which includes the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle. The Team and Individual events are conducted simultaneously: a rider’s score in a test may be counted in both events.

In the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special, all riders and horses perform the same tests. After the Grand Prix Special, medals are awarded in the Team event.

However, the Individual event continues: the 18 riders with the best scores in the Grand Prix Special then qualify for the Grand Prix Freestyle, for which riders perform their own freestyle routines set to music. The scores in this round decide the winners of the Individual competition.

Olympic Dressage, past and present

Equestrian sports first featured on the Olympic programme of the Paris Games in 1900, which included jumping events, but were then absent until the 1912 Games in Stockholm, when Dressage made its first appearance.

Along with the other Equestrian events at London 2012, the Dressage competition will be held in the beautiful surroundings of Greenwich Park. Dating back to 1433, it’s the oldest Royal Park in London, part of the Maritime Greenwich area that has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

• Canter: A steady controlled gait for which three of the horse’s legs are off the ground at once.
• Full-pass: When a horse moves sideways, bent in the direction of movement.
• Half-pass: When a horse moves forwards and sideways at the same time, bent in the direction of movement.
• Piaffe: A trotting movement, performed almost on the spot.
• Self-carriage: When a horse moves in balance without support from the reins.

Information on the London Olympics & Paralympics 2012