Riding Disciplines
Welcome to Riding Disciplines which covers every English and Western riding style! The English riding covers Dressage, a ballet on horseback, Driving which features both the beautiful horses and the carriages they pull, Foxhunting, Eventing, Jumping, Saddle Seat, and even the sport of Polo.
The Western riding category includes Pleasure, Reining and all Rodeo events involving a horse, so look for Barrel Racing, Bronc Riding, Chuck Wagon Racing, Cutting, Pole Bending and Roping.
Want to know the date of your favorite horse show or rodeo? Don’t miss it! Dates and locations are included in the in both the Calendar of Events for English Riding and the Calendar of Events for Western Riding. Are we missing a category or event? Please use the useful feedback link and let us know!
The Olympia London international horse show is one of the greatest equestrian festive now named as London international horse show. It is held in the capital of the United Kingdom for over seven days as a pre-Christmas ritual. The best part of its competition is showjumping however horse showing driving mounted games dog agility and dressage are also part of it.
Background
The first horse show was held at Olympia in 1907 and achieved massive popularity and halted only during two world wars. However, the show lost acceptance partially due to rising mechanization. Revived in 1972, the organizers decided to resort the show back to Olympia by handing out free tickets to run the festive again, which cannot be imagined in this era. The London International Horse Show which was planned to be held from 15-20 December at Olympia was canceled due to Covid-19 restrictions. There is a surge of Online betting in Colorado & around the world that is why state regulators made it legal and available since May 1st, 2020. Since then Coloradans can now engage in online betting via sports wagering!
Main Event of the Festive
Generally, the main part of the show takes place from Thursday to Monday just before Christmas. Moreover, two days Tuesday and Wednesday were added only to dressage, a few years back. While show jumping is the main feature of the rest of five days and each day consists of two performances- a matinee and an evening. On the other hand, the dressage days solely have evening performances.
Move Over Pencils and Pens
Having been a show jumping judge for several years, this “old dog" had to learn a new trick, paperless scoring.
Covid-19 protocols and regulations are mandating ‘contact-free’ creation and management of the paper score sheets that have been a staple at horse competitions for decades. No more flapping sheets secured to my clipboards. This past July weekend at the Oakhurst Horse Trials in Ashton, Ontario, I used a straightforward and powerful app on my tablet called Compete Easy.
And indeed, the Compete Easy app from Australia, did make it easy. Made for the 3-Day Eventing discipline, dressage, show jumping and cross country scores were uploaded immediately and posted globally for people to see.
Handling dressage score sheets was removed from the equation. No more shuffling pieces of paper back and forth. With the WIFI-connected app, judge and scribe were able to write on their own personal tablet. This avoided touch points and allowed the scoring to be immediate.
It was the first time in North America that the Compete Easy app was being used and the first event in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to use the live scoring Dressage app where immediate scores could be seen. As a rider trotted the centre line and made the turn at “C”, the score would be posted for grooms and parents to see. As one competitor put it, “One click and I can see my dressage scores before I’ve even gotten back to the barn!”
by Lincoln Rogers
Leave it to the National Western Stock Show to attract a Grand Prix rider from Texas who also loves riding ranch broncs.
Twenty-three-year-old Carly Ramsey lived most of her life in southern California, but now runs Ramsey Performance Horses in Honey Grove, Texas. “The sweetest town in Texas, that is what they say,” quipped Ramsey with a laugh. Growing up going to horse shows with her mom, getting her first horse when she was 4 and then showing on the quarter horse circuit since she was 5, Ramsey was steeped in the world of performance horses, including starting to ride hunter jumpers when she was in her mid-teens. You would think training and showing quarter horses, starting colts, and riding in competitive showjumping events might be a full plate for a talented horse woman.
You would be wrong.
While Ramsey described how different training performance horses and starting colts was from ranch bronc riding, she also believes those things helped her be successful on the broncs right from the get-go.
Read more: Horse Trainer Carly Ramsey Finds Success in Wildly Different Equestrian Disciplines
by Pam Kragen
There’s an old saying that the best thing to do if you fall off a horse is to get back on again. Twelve-year-old Escondido equestrian Lindsay Heliker took that advice and rode it all the way to a world championship this fall.
Last year, Lindsay was bucked off of her high-spirited Morgan horse, Odyssey, during a competition and disqualified from moving forward. Nervous but undaunted, Lindsay did get back on Odyssey that very same weekend and over the next several months they forged a tight and trusting bond.
This year, the Rincon Middle School seventh-grader has ridden Odyssey to multiple first-place wins for her age group at horse shows throughout the Southwest. And in October, they cinched a unanimous world championship in classic equitation at the Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Lindsay said she loves riding and competing and she especially loves her horse, a 13-year-old gelding who her parents, Rachael and Arick Heliker, purchased for her last year.
“We connect a lot better now,” Lindsay said, during an early morning visit to Odyssey’s barn earlier this month. “I love it when he and I communicate. I can tell he loves me because he likes to do special things for me.”
by Guy Chapman
At first glance, 11-year-old Aden Bernhagen seems like a regular kid. However, as of Dec. 5, he's also become the world title holder of the National Cutting Horse Association World Finals.
The NCHA World Finals Awards, which took place in Fort Worth's Watt Arena, honored winners during three ceremonies over the weekend. Contestants hailed from the United States and Canada, going up against the top 15 other competitors in each class.
For December's world finals, there were three checks to be had, including two goes and an average check. Bernhagen placed fifth place the first go, and second place the second go, and won the average putting him enough ahead to become the the World Finals Champion, and becoming the youngest winner in the world, outside of the Youth class. The World Champion of a NCHA class is determined by the most money won at the end of the year.
Bernhagen has only been horse cutting for a little over a year.
Read more: "You just keep going" 11-Year-Old Becomes Cutting Horse World Title Holder
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