Why should Equestrian be kept in the Olympic program? With journalists begging the question, a little history lesson might help answer the question. The sport of Equestrian dates back not only to 1912 and the first modern Games; it was actually one of the sports within the Ancient Olympics in Greece over 2000 years ago in the time of Socrates.
At that time, Zenophon, a student of Socrates and a soldier in the cavalry, created the first school of Dressage in order to train the horses for warfare. One can imagine how effective horses trained to move both forward and sideways at the same time, to rear and kick back or to strike out with a forefoot at the opposing ground soldiers, could change the game. And so it was that Equestrian became one of the great sports throughout history.
There was no doubt that the three Olympic sports of Dressage, 3-Day Eventing, and Show Jumping, would be in the Olympic family from 1912 in Paris. America was always successful and I had the privilege of representing our country in 6 Games from 1984 through 2004, where our Teams continued to produce medals again and again.
We are the one sport where women and men compete together and where another living being, the amazing horse, adds to the complexity and the beauty of our sports. Making one's own body go faster, drive harder, and reach further for the Gold is one thing; having the trust of over 1000 pounds of power in an animal famous for both its strength and speed as well as being an "animal of flight", is quite another. Riders spend years forming incredible bonds with our horses just as most of you reading this have made with your dogs or cats.
Running, jumping, and truly every movement performed in Dressage, can be seen being performed by horses free and playing in their pasture. Training them to do these same things on command and in total harmony with their human counterpart is the foundation of our art and sport. This is why 65,000 people come daily to Aachen, one of our biggest European, multi-discipline competitions, to watch and be fascinated as our horses jump higher, run faster, and dance majestically to music.
To ever take this historic sport out of the Games would be to lose not only one of the first, but one of the most noble and thrilling sports in the Olympic Family.
-- by Robert Dover, U.S. team trainer and six-time Olympian