Q I have seen video clips on social media recently of working equitation during which the riders do a form of obstacle course. What exactly is working equitation?
Emily Bennett, Nottinghamshire
Caroline says: Working equitation, like eventing, is made up of three phases: dressage, ease of handling and a speed test. At international level there is also a fourth phase — cattle penning.
The videos you watched are probably from the ease of handling phase. This is a course made up of up to 16 obstacles, and it was originally designed around displaying the skills required by horses who were used in the countryside for jobs such as working cattle or livestock, plus it is meant to highlight the partnership between horse and rider.
A look at the obstacles
All the obstacles have a link to the skills needed by working horses. These include:
■ Crossing a bridge.
■ Opening and closing a gate.
■ A small jump.
■ Picking up a jug, raising it above the head and putting it down without the horse moving.
■ Picking up a pole (called a vara) from a barrel with one hand, riding along and hooking a ring, and then putting the pole into another barrel.
■ Slalom.
Each obstacle is marked out of 10 for precision and ease of movement. For example, opening and closing a gate sounds simple, but the mark would reflect the rider’s approach, standing parallel to the gate and having a square halt, being close to the gate without touching it, getting the horse to walk through obediently, lining up parallel again, reining back, halting square, closing the gate and then moving on. So while it sounds similar to TREC or mounted games, because of the obstacles, it is more technical than either of these.
