U.S.VAULTS for the Gold By Erica Larson S
EVEN SMILING FACES STOOD ATOP THE GOLD MEDAL PODIUM on the final day of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The United States’ vaulting team had just secured the second team gold
medal for the home team. Standing just behind the talented vaulters was their horse—a flashy Westphalian gelding called Palatine—who cantered into history for being the first U.S. team horse to win a World Equestrian Games gold medal in vaulting.
WHAT IS VAULTING? For many Warmblood enthusiasts in the United States, their
knowledge about the sport of vaulting is limited. They see the horse cantering a smooth circle, a longeur in the center of the circle guiding the horse around, and an athlete effortlessly performing gymnastic exercises on the back of the cantering horse.
But there is more to the sport than meets the eye. Vaulting has
a rich European history that was first documented around B.C. 1500 in cave paintings that showed Scandinavian equestrians standing on moving horses. Vaulting was practiced throughout the Renaissance and the Middle Ages and was later used by the military to develop equestrian skills for the troops. The vaulting known around the world today was developed after World War II. “Today, vaulting is widely practiced in Europe, though primarily
in Germany, as an introduction for children into equestrian sports,” says Carolyn Bland, the longeur for the gold medal winning team at the World Equestrian Games. “Most riding schools in Germany have a program where the kids are encouraged to vault first before they take riding instruction. It teaches independent balance and develops the rider’s feel of movement.” Carolyn, a lifelong horsewoman and experienced dressage
rider and trainer, says that Warmbloods are generally used for vaulting of all levels in Europe thanks to their athleticism and their prevalence in the region. Here in the U.S., Warmbloods are primarily used at the higher levels of the sport, yet you will see them now at all levels. The sport of competition vaulting is based upon a few basic
movements which are performed in the compulsory test. After the vaulters perform the compulsory test, the freestyle is performed. Freestyles, which are performed to music like dressage freestyles, allow the vaulters to create an entertaining and artistic routine to best display their skills to the judges. The “horse score”—the portion of the score that is judged solely on the horse—make up 20% of the total score that the judges will award each vaulter or team. In international competitions, horse owners often volunteer
well-trained horses for visiting foreign vaulters to use. As it is with any other trans-ocean flight, the cost of transporting a horse to a competition is quite high, and many vaulters and teams cannot afford the expense of transporting their own horse. Before the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, the U.S. vaulting team had never been able to vault on their own horse.
TEAM MEMBERS In addition to the vaulter, there are two paramount members to
each vaulting team: the horse and the longeur. Without either one 24 January/February 2011
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