The growth in popularity of equestrian sports in the twentieth century has been remarkable. No longer compelled to draw the plough or to carry man into battle, the horse has proved invaluable to man in his leisure hours and has achieved a larger following than ever before.
Whether you ride yourself or prefer to sit on the sidelines as a spectator The Sporting Horse contains something for you. Each individual sport – from the most popular such as racing and show jumping to the more minority pastimes such as dressage and polo – is given a chapter of its own and its development is traced from the origins of the modern sport through to the present day.
All the great personalities are included – equine as well as human. From St Simon to Arkle, Exlipse to Nijinsky, Nizefela to Idle Dice – the list is endless. The outstanding jockeys, riders and trainers are included and names such as Lester Piggott, Yves St Martin, Fred Winter, Harvey Smith and Rodney Jenkins are scattered throughout the book.
The Sporting Horse also explains the basic ideas and rules behind the sports, how the courses (some of the most famous and difficulty in the world) are designed and how the experienced rider would see and tackled them.
But predominantly this book is about the horse itself – whether at its most elegant in dressage or at its fastest in racing. Lavishly illustrated it contains all you would like to know about horses in the world of sport from the earliest times to the twentieth century.
Hardback.