2 Historical Development of Equestrian Sports

For many years, horses have had a tremendous impact on human development: without horses, the process of human civilisation will be very different. As early as in prehistoric times, humans turned horses from delicious prey into a means of transportation, tools of labor, and machines of war. In addition, by stimulating human passion and ambition, the horse has contributed to the occurrence of many major events. For example, it encouraged human migration and conquest, and played an essential role in many major events of mankind such as farming and war. Horses also inspired generations of painters and sculptors, poets, and musicians. Their description of the horse's figure, appearance, and nature reflects in every civilization and cultural trend in history.  In real life, this species of horse can adapt to a wide range of weather and environment and has been rooted in the custom and behavior of humans. Horses continue to influence human’s lifestyles, speech, clothing, thinking, and dreams. This has also witnessed an era in which humans and horses rely on each other. Humans cultivate different varieties of his four-legged friends to explore different competences of horses and develop different breeds of horses. Each breed adapts to a specific purpose such as working horses on the farm and racing horses on the racetrack.

2.1 The Origin of Horse Riding as Sport

The details of how humans first established relationships with horses are not known, but at the beginning, horses were hunted as food like other animals. The domestication of horses is much later than dogs and cattle. It is generally believed that horses have been domesticated by the Aryans, who lived near the Black Sea and  the Caspian Sea and gradually evolved into modern horses. Since then, they have gradually been applied to farming, transportation, riding, grazing and other functions, becoming the most important source of power in ancient times. Horse racing is an activity created after mastering the techniques of controlling the horses.