Eventing Nation: Working equitation speed test

Here’s a sport that makes Grand Prix dressage seem like a yawn! Presented by Kentucky Performance Products.

From Kate Samuels:

Haven’t heard of the Working Equitation Speed Test? Yeah, me neither until a few days ago. Turns out this is a whole subset of equestrian endeavors that I didn’t even know existed. Apparently, Working Equitation is a discipline intended to preserve and develop equestrian skills related to handling and sorting cattle. The principles of WE have been used in Europe while herding livestock for 100’s of years. WE competitive trials were created in the early 1990’s in the four initial countries – Portugal, Spain, France and Italy –it then rapidly expanded and is practiced in a large number of European countries as well as in Austrailia, Asia, Mexico and South America. There’s even a US Working Equitation Association, where their self-proclaimed goal is “to have fun riding seriously”.

The Speed Test class is pretty neat, and is largely dominated by spanish horses that are obviously totally awesome. If they could lend some tips to my horse on how to nail those changes like a boss, that would be great. It’s somewhere between a combination of dressage, cross country, and dog agility. Please enjoy the amazing Pedro Torres and his horse the fantastic Oxidado.