How it all began
Higher, faster ahead: Horseback riding has a tradition. For around 150 years, horse and rider have been „flying“ over oxers, steep jumps, walls, and water ditches. The first competition comparable to today’s show jumping took place in 1864 in Dublin. The earliest show jumping competitions date back to the horse races that were very popular at the time. However, because the spectators only saw the riders galloping past briefly and quickly lost sight of them, the competitions were increasingly held on smaller, more manageable, and artificially created courses.
Horseback riding and the Olympics
At the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, however, no equestrian athletes took to the starting line. Only four years later, at the Olympic Games 1900 in Paris, the first equestrian competition was also held. 24 riders from four nations competed for the medals. The course then had a length of 850 meters with 21 obstacles that were between 1.00 meters and 1.20 meters high. In addition, there was a moat 4.00 meters wide. Gold and silver went to the Belgians Aimé Haegeman on Benton II and Georges van de Poele on Windsor Squire ahead of the French bronze medalist Louis de Champsavin on Terpsichore. However, in addition to the equestrian events, there was also a competition in the long jump over a 4.50-meter wide moat. Here too, a Belgian, Constant van Langhendonck, won with Extra Dry. This rider’s horse jumped a staggering 6.10 meters.
Caprilli Rittmeister replaced the light seat
The modern and still practiced spring seat was introduced by Federico Caprilli (born 1868 in Livorno, died 1907 in Pinerolo). He was a cavalry officer in the Italian army and a trainer at Italian cavalry schools. Until the end of the 19th century, a spring seat was still common, in which the rider sat back far in the saddle and extended their feet forward to better support themselves during landing. To prove the benefits of the lightweight seat, Caprilli set a high jump record in Turin in 1902 with 2.08 m. The cavalry officer died in 1907 from a seemingly harmless fall.
Ban on foreign riders starting in Germany!
The first major military equestrian tournament in 1902 in Turin was not very successful for 15 German officers. After ten days of competition, they returned home with only one place. Emperor Wilhelm II, disappointed by the humiliating defeat, immediately imposed a ban on international competition for a year. It was not until the end of 1910 that the German officers were allowed to compete again internationally.
German riders successful at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm
The German show jumping riders fared better at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. The course featured a predetermined pace of 400 meters per minute over 19 obstacles, which had to be jumped twice and three times at heights of up to 1.40 meters, resulting in a total of 29 jumps. The German team, led by Sigismund Freyer on Ultimus, Willi von Hohenau on Pretty Girl, Ernst Deloch on Hubertus and Friedrich Karl von Preußen on Gibson Boy, won the team bronze medal. In the individual competition, the silver medal went to Rabot W. von Kröcher on Dohna.
For uniform rules: The FEI World Federation comes in 1921
At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm and the 1920 Games in Antwerp, the equestrian competitions were still held according to the host country’s national rules. This naturally caused confusion among the foreign competitors. The educator, historian, and sports official Pierre de Coubertin (born 1863 in Paris, died 1937 in Geneva) remedied the situation. Coubertin, who campaigned for the revival of the Olympic Games and founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, formed the FEI in 1921 with the leading eight equestrian nations (Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Japan, and the USA). Germany was admitted to the FEI only in 1927 as a result of the First World War.
First World Championship 1953
In 1953, the first World Championships in show jumping were held in Paris. The four best riders determined their champion in the final with exciting horse exchanges. A mode that has not changed to this day. The first world champion was the Spaniard Francisco Goyoaga, while the German show jumper Fritz Thiedemann became the runner-up on the then seven-year-old „Diamond“.