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# The shortest word denoting “a horse” is “ Uk ” - in the language of Mongolian nomads. The longest one – “Okvilauparaklamarukoallunaklanata” was used by Indians of Peruvian tribe Micran. It approximately denotes the following – “Bold guanaco of a white human who came from the sea”.

Riding develops a good feeling of balance and perfects coordination of movements. There are attempts to prove the fact that riders don't suffer from pulmonary tuberculosis because a microclimate of a stable, mobile work with horses and riding conduce to natural ventilation of lungs. Besides a favorable impact of riding on locomotor and vestibular apparatus it conduces to strengthening of a neuropsychic state, reduce risk of getting hypertension and myocardial infarction.

From time immemorial people devoted songs, legends and fairy-tales to horses. Ancient Greeks and Romans did even more – they built the mausoleums to prominent ones, raised marble columns in their honor, minted coins with their depictions and carved them out of stone. And in our turn we decided to give them their due and tell about the most prominent their representatives at that both mythological and real ones.

• Eventing World Championship
• Show Jumping World Championships
• DressageWorld Championship

The World Equestrian Games (WEG) are comprised of the world championships for seven equestrian sports – show jumping, dressage, eventing, driving, endurance, vaulting and reining. The games started in 1990 and they are held every four years, two years prior to the Summer Olympic Games, and are governed by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) based in Lausanne , Switzerland . The FEI is the international governing body of equestrian sport recognized by the International Olympic Committee. It is the organization which establishes rules and regulations for the conduct of international equestrian events. Today, the FEI has some 130 member-countries.

Equestrian events were included in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1900 and then in 1912, in a format very similar to that which will be used at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

In the past, the three-day event ( Eventing ) was restricted to military officers, while the jumping and dressage competitions were open to civilians, but only a handful of civilian riders competed up to 1948. Up to that time, the growth of modern sport had been rapid, but relatively few competitors were involved in international competitions.