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The 54-year-old British Olympic equestrian Carl Hester (Carl Hester)
Halfway through the Tokyo Olympics schedule, the dressage in the equestrian event can be regarded as the most artistic event in the Olympic Games.
In the recent Tokyo Olympics team dressage competition, the powerful German team won the gold medal; the American team won the silver medal, and the British team led by British player Charlotte Dujardin won the bronze medal.
At the same time, this is also the fifth Olympic medal that Dujardin has won.
What is dressage
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British bronze medal team riders Dujardin, Hirst and Frey (from left to right)
Dressage is one of the three equestrian events, and the other two are cross-country and show jumping events.
What kind of sport is this? Isn’t it as simple as some people think that athletes ride horses to “dance”?
The 24-year-old international dressage rider Lewis Carrier is preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He has been riding horses since he was 6 years old, and he told BBC News Beat reporter Sam Gruet that things are not that simple.
He introduced that training a horse to participate in a dressage competition requires years of experience and running-in.
He said that this is like learning to dance, it is a technique. You have to train the horse how to use its body and move its steps in a certain way.
The word dressage comes from French, which means training. It requires the horse to obey the rider’s command and perform various steps and movement changes within a specified time with the music.
The key is the unity of people and horses and tacit cooperation. There is perfect coordination between the rider and the horse, and there can be no reluctance or force. At the same time, the movement should be smooth, elegant, rhythmic, and making fewer mistakes is the key to getting a high score.
In Lewis’s words, it’s all based on feeling, and the team cooperates tacitly.
The rider communicates with the horse and sends out various commands by controlling the reins, the movements of the legs and the movement of the center of gravity. Absolute trust must be established between man and horse,
Usually horses and riders need years of experience, experience and cooperation to coordinate closely. This is why the dressage players are slightly older than other athletes.
For example, the 54-year-old Olympic equestrian Carl Hester (Carl Hester) is the oldest in the British equestrian team competition. The youngest is 25-year-old Lottie Fry.
A brief history of equestrian Olympics
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Equestrianism became an Olympic event in 1900.
Equestrianism officially became an Olympic event for the first time in 1900, but it was interrupted for a while, and did not return until the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.
Since then, equestrianism has always been one of the fixed events of the Olympic Games, and individual events and team events have been set up for the three sub-items of equestrianism.
It is widely believed that modern equestrianism originated in England and was introduced to Europe in the 16th century. At that time, it was only enjoyed by princes and nobles, so equestrianism was also endowed with a noble temperament.
On the whole, European equestrian sports have a long history and strong strength. Among them, Germany has won the most Olympic equestrian gold medals in total.
In addition, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom and the United States are also powerful equestrian powers.
China Japanese Japan
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Charlotte Dujardin
In recent years, China and Japan have also begun to focus on equestrian sports.
Among them, Alex Hua Tian, a Chinese equestrian of British descent, is particularly eye-catching. He represented China in equestrian competitions for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In 2016, he created the best result of Chinese equestrianism in the Rio Olympics-the eighth individual in the triathlon.
This time, China was qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Equestrian Triathlon and the Jumping Team for the first time. A total of eight Chinese equestrian athletes came to the Olympic venue.
As for the host Japan, there are currently many Japanese equestrians active in European international equestrian events, and their competitive level has also been steadily improved.
Dressage competition specifications:
- The Olympic Dressage consists of three competitions: Qualifying, Team and Individual
- Each participating country can send three pairs of people and horses
- Each pair of people and horses take turns to participate in the game, and scores are scored by seven point referees
- All players participate in the qualifying rounds, but the top eight scorers in the team competition can enter the finals
- The total score of the team finals is determined by adding the scores of the three players to determine the gold, silver and bronze medals.
- The top 18 individual players who score in the team final can enter the individual competition
Horse descent and passport
Like the participating athletes, horses participating in Olympic equestrian competitions need a certificate to be allowed to enter the host country. This document is the so-called horse passport.
The horse passport is used to record the identity of the horse and is also a proof of the horse’s health and hygiene. If a horse does not have a passport or there is a problem with the passport, it will not be able to participate in the race.
There is also a rule that horses must be partially owned by someone in the participating country they represent before they can participate in the competition.
Lewis said that horse ancestry is very important. Most racehorses are of German and Dutch descent, so it is not difficult to understand the power of German equestrianism.
Lewis said that usually a player trains several horses at the same time so that they can be replaced at any time when needed.
Award-winning horses cannot win medals like riders, but Lewis said they can eat a lot of sugar cubes and carrots to celebrate.