SPORTS

Dressage

Equestrian It is the pinnacle of the horse's preparation and elegance. Horses and their riders arrive to a 60 x 20 m arena where a panel of judges ranks the work of the pair. This happens while they perform mandatory movements such as: walking, trotting and galloping in a pattern, and also a freestyle routine, specifically chroeographed by each competitor and interpreted with music.

In Dressage the horse's physique and skills are developed, directly related to the skill of the rider. This harmony is expressed in the freedom, fluency and ease of movement that both show. The equine give the impression of making the movements on its own, because the orders are almost imperceptible. In #Santiago2023 Dressage will offer a quota place for the next Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In the second picture, there is a frontal shot of a female jockey riding a horse. The pose is of a competition. The jockey has a skull cap, a red jacket and a white equestrian pair of pants.

History of this sport

Equestrian sports made their debut at the first Pan American Games in 1951 in Buenos Aires. The equestrian sport has three disciplines, where men and women compete directly against each other. In addition, this is the only Olympic and Pan American sport where humans and animals compete together. Its beginnings date back more than two thousand years, when the Greeks started to train their horses for war.

Dressage dates back to Ancient Greece. For its beauty and for being the highest expression of horse training, it is considered the art of equestrian sports and serves as the basis for all other disciplines.

Recently, the freestyle test to music was introduced, which has since become an essential part of training and made its Olympic debut at Atlanta 1996.

In the second picture, there is a frontal shot of a female jockey riding a horse. The pose is of a competition. The jockey has a skull cap, a red jacket and a white equestrian pair of pants.

How do you compete?

Dressage aims to test the horse's flexibility, firmness and accuracy in all skills: changes of walk and direction, changes of hand and foot, and obedience in performing the exercises. The preparation of a horse for this discipline takes an average of five years and takes even longer to perfect. A dressage horse must be calm, supple, confident, attentive and lively, so that it can get along harmoniously with the rider.

The first phase of the competition is by teams and all athletes perform different exercises in a pre-established routine, such as pirouettes, steps or half trot, among others.

Around the piste there are five judges who score from one to 10 the skills of the rider and the horse, taking into account the aesthetics of the different movements, the impulsion, the submission and the position of the rider, who must always stay upright. At the end, the judges announce their scores, and an average is drawn to reveal the winning riders.

Only the 25 riders with the highest scores in the first round will advance to the next round.

This round is also a pre-established routine and is mandatory for all athletes.

Quiz

How is the first phase of the training competition conducted?

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Information for the community

The Chilean Equestrian Federation has existed in Chile since 1923 and is the governing body of the activity in the country. It groups eight disciplines, including training, and also brings together six associations and forty clubs in the country. It currently offers courses, organizes events and plays a very active role in the dissemination and organization of equestrian sports.

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