Eventing

For sheer thrill and excitement, there is no equestrian sport that can equal the blood-and-guts aura of Eventing -- or, as is often identified by its proper name: Combined Training. The awesome power of a horse and rider team displaying a brilliant and fluid partnership in an elegant dressage test, and then a short time later flying at galloping speed over huge man-made and nature-enhanced obstacles in a run cross county run for miles, and then topping off their achievement in a test of skill, ability, and agility on a timed course of difficult show jumps is indeed an equestrian sport that demands the highest level of both horse and rider.

The sport saw its beginnings during the early 20th century when warfare still incorporated the use of the cavalry horse, and the rigorous training for battle demanded absolute obedience on both the parade ground and in the field under fire. The advanced military machinery of World War I, however, quickly (and utterly) destroyed forever the use of the horse in modern warfare. Nonetheless, the cavalry training methods refused to die. Still sponsored by the Olympic committee, they gradually migrated their way out of the military agenda, to be warmly received by the civilian equestrian community.

The sport continues to be enjoyed on an international level, and is practiced by all levels - from novice to advanced, pony clubber to Olympian, from simple day events to the all-encompassing three-day. Some of the greatest and best known American (three day) Combined Training events are Radnor Hunt and Chesterland in Pennsylvania, Fair Hills in Maryland, Lexington in Kentucky, and Morven Park in Virginia.

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