Author: Brianna Ballard

A spotlight on an overlooked yet fascinating and compelling sport

How many athletes can say that their teammate is a 700 kilogram animal?

Equestrians face unique challenges, but they also take part in one of the oldest and most traditional sports out there. According to Discover Magazine, humans have been riding horses since nearly 3000 BC, and since the year 1900 equestrian has been considered an Olympic sport. It’s also one of the few Olympic sports where men and women compete together.

There are three equestrian events in the Olympics: dressage, show jumping and eventing. Dressage involves the showcasing of various movements that can only be attained through intense physical training on the part of both the animal and the rider. Similar to figure skating, the routine is judged. In show jumping, the athletes are timed over a series of obstacles reaching heights of 1.6 metres and widths of two metres. Faults are incurred by knocking down obstacles, refusing an obstacle, or going over the time allowed. Eventing combines dressage, show jumping and cross-country, which involves jumping over fixed, natural obstacles made of stone walls, logs and water and ditches in a three-day event.

As an equestrian, I can say that competitive riders are like any other athlete; they train with a coach, sometimes up to six days a week, and have intense schedules that are both physically and mentally demanding. But the addition of a horse as a teammate adds a different dynamic that other athletes can never experience. The horse is just as much of an athlete as the rider, and it’s the rider’s responsibility to maintain the fitness and health of the horse. Inevitably, riders develop very strong bonds with these animals.

The biggest criticism I’ve faced with the sport is that many people think it isn’t one. It’s been said that the athletes “just sit there” or “the horse does all the work,” to name a few common jabs. Mostly, these comments come from people who have never ridden a horse (riding one on a beach during a family vacation in Cuba that one time doesn’t count). Riding a horse takes enormous physical strength, and that strength has to be precise.

When someone is on their back, horses can feel everything; every tiny muscle movement, every breath the rider takes and every shift of their body weight, meaning that the rider has to have complete control of every muscle in their body. It also becomes the rider’s job to balance the animal properly—an animal weighing 700 kilograms, as you remember.

Riders communicate with their horse through their legs, and balance themselves through their back and core muscles. They have very good endurance, often training on horseback for hours at a time; even when standing still, being on a horse works the rider’s muscles, as they are in constant tension to keep the rider balanced.

While it is a difficult sport, it is also a dangerous one. According to TIME, equestrian eventing is one of the most dangerous Olympic sports in the world, with over 12 deaths reported in just a year and a half between 2007 and 2008.

Regardless of the danger or the difficulty, horses are beautiful animals and incredible teammates. Equestrian sports may not be well known, but the sport is one of the most unique and most rewarding ones out there. Working with an animal in that way is something that teaches patience, discipline, athleticism and sportsmanship in a way that you can’t find anywhere else, in any other sport.

Negotiations are underway to save the Blainville Equestrian Park from closing down

The provincial equestrian circuit in Quebec may lose one of the main facilities used during the season. The search for an alternative has many equestrian athletes in and around Montreal worried about the future of provincial competitions in Quebec.

In September, the City of Blainville announced that the Blainville Equestrian Park would be shut down and replaced by soccer and baseball fields. The park has hosted competitions on the provincial equestrian circuit for over two decades. It typically hosts six competitions during the Quebec show-jumping season each summer, which represents half of all Quebec provincial competitions, according to the Fédération équestre du Québec (FEQ). It also hosts competitions for other disciplines such as Western and dressage.

Now, Quebec and Montreal equestrians are looking for other options.

Saint-Lazare is a prominent equestrian community in Quebec, as many equestrian athletes originate from and train there, according to equestrian athlete and Saint-Lazare resident Kennedy Simpson. Two provincial competitions are already held in Saint-Lazare every spring and are run on private property, but athletes say the number of competitors have been dwindling.

“A lot of people are turning to the Ontario circuit or even competitions in the States,” said Simpson. “Ontario competitions are very well-organized. There are a lot of different divisions at different levels, the prize money is a lot better, there are a lot more participants too, so there’s more of that actual competitiveness.”

She also said that with the closing of the Blainville Equestrian Park, this situation could continue to get worse for the Quebec circuit. There has even been talk of including competitions held in Ottawa in the Quebec circuit, meaning that points collected by Quebec riders in Ottawa would count towards their Quebec point total, according to l’Association de Chasse et Saut d’Obstacles du Québec (ACSOQ).

Saint-Lazare Mayor Robert Grimaudo said that while the equestrian community of Saint-Lazare is very important to the town, the town itself doesn’t have the means to host large provincial competitions.

“Are we equipped? No. Is [our equestrian community] important? Absolutely,” said Grimaudo, adding that while the town does not have a facility like the one in Blainville, he believes the local barns are perfectly capable of hosting provincial competitions. “The town does support the Saint-Lazare Horse Shows and will continue to support them.”

According to the  FEQ, the number of competitors in the Saint-Lazare shows have gone down considerably in the past six years. There were 89 entries in 2009, compared with 57 entries in 2015. This is a comparison between divisions that were held in both years; divisions that were dropped before 2015 or new divisions that appeared after 2009 were not included in this data. This is a trend seen not only in Saint-Lazare competitions but in competitions held across the province.

In the past, Quebec competitions drew in large numbers of spectators from the various communities. Olympic team members such as Ian Millar, Jill Henselwood and Eric Lamaze

also attended and competed at these events.

According to L’ACSOQ, it is currently looking for alternative facilities that can accommodate competitions next year. They are also in negotiation with the Société équestre de Blainville to try to come to a compromise, where the park would be renovated to accommodate the soccer field, the equestrian facilities and a baseball field.