RIDING DISCIPLINES

Riding Disciplines

Welcome to Riding Disciplines which covers every English and Western riding style! The English riding covers Dressage, a ballet on horseback, Driving which features both the beautiful horses and the carriages they pull, Foxhunting, Eventing, Jumping, Saddle Seat, and even the sport of Polo.

The Western riding category includes Pleasure, Reining and all Rodeo events involving a horse, so look for Barrel Racing, Bronc Riding, Chuck Wagon Racing, Cutting, Pole Bending and Roping.

Want to know the date of your favorite horse show or rodeo? Don’t miss it! Dates and locations are included in the in both the Calendar of Events for English Riding and the Calendar of Events for Western Riding. Are we missing a category or event? Please use the useful feedback link and let us know!

With a history dating back more than 200 years, it is fair to say that horse racing has established itself as one of the most popular sports in Australia.

The country stages some of the most famous events in the world including the Melbourne Cup – widely known as ‘the race that stops the nation’.

Given Australia’s passion for horse racing, it naturally follows that it is home to some of the finest jockeys on the planet. Read on as we look at four of the best.

James McDonald

Horse racing and betting are intrinsically linked – a factor which makes it imperative for every punter to understand which jockeys are worth following.

For anyone just learning how to bet on horses in Australian racing, a good start point is to wager on any fancied runners ridden by James McDonald.

The New Zealand born jockey is rated by many respected pundits as the best rider in the world and it is difficult to argue with that viewpoint.

McDonald has had Group 1 successes in several major racing jurisdictions including Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

The Kiwi star famously won the Melbourne Cup aboard Verry Elleegant in 2021 and has become closely associated with winning machine Romantic Warrior in recent times.

Mark Zahra

Mark Zahra has developed into one of the most sought-after jockeys in Australia over the past few years, particularly whenever Group 1 races are staged.

He went under the radar a little during the early part of his career, but sprang to prominence when winning the Turnbull Stakes and Caulfield Cup aboard Verry Elleegant in 2020.

However, the Aussie jockey took things up a notch a couple of years later when steering Gold Trip to victory in the 2022 Melbourne Cup.

Zahra demonstrated his ability to make big calls when he rejected the ride on Gold Trip in favour of piloting Without A Fight in the 2023 edition of the race.

That decision was vindicated when Zahra guide Without A Fight to an easy victory. Gold Trip was unable to repeat his heroics from the previous year as he finished 17th.

Damian Lane

With numerous Group 1 successes on his CV, Damian Lane is undoubtedly one of the best jockeys produced by Australia in recent years.

The 29-year-old has won numerous top-class races in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong to highlight why many respected judges rate him as the man for the big occasion.

Lane famously won the Japanese Derby aboard Tastiera in 2023, making him the first jockey from the southern hemisphere to win one of the classics in Japan.

There have been rumours that he will eventually join the ranks in Japan permanently, although Australian racing will be eager to retain his services.

Although Lane is yet to win the Melbourne Cup, it would be a major surprise if he failed to achieve the feat at least once in his career.

Craig Williams

Having ridden more than 2,000 winners during his illustrious career, Craig Williams can rightly lay claim to being one of the finest jockeys Australia has ever produced.

Williams notably had a stint with trainer Mick Channon in the United Kingdom earlier in his career – a spell that including winning the 2000 Dewhurst Stakes aboard Tobougg.

He came close to recording an historic treble in 2011. After winning the Caufield Cup and Cox Plate, Williams was scheduled to ride Dunaden in the Melbourne Cup.

However, he picked up a suspension in the run-up to the race and had to watch from the sidelines as replacement Christophe Lemaire steered the horse to a memorable victory.

The Australian jockey rode 18 Group race winners last season to demonstrate why he is ranked so highly by his peers.

Roxanne Trunnell of Richland, Washington

By: Sophia Wilbourn

Don’t go anywhere! The Tokyo Olympics might be over, but the Paralympics are just getting started, and Team USA is shining brightly.

After the first day of Para Dressage competition, the world’s number one ranked Para Dressage athlete, Roxanne Trunnell of Richland, Washington, won the grade I dressage individual test event at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. She is the first American rider to win a Paralympic medal in Para Dressage since 2004 and also the first to win gold since Vicki Sweigart did so in 1996. Trunnell is the third woman to ever win a dressage gold medal for Team USA at either the Olympic or Paralympic Games.

This is not Trunnell’s first Paralympic Games. She first competed in 2016, and has only become more skilled since then. This time around, she and her 9-year-old partner Dolton scored an 81.464 percent at Tokyo’s Equestrian Park, dashing the dreams of number two in the world, Latvia’s Rihards Snikus, who scored an 80.179 percent.

To keep her head in the game, Trunnell said she didn't look at the other scores before riding so that she could just go out and do her best.

Team USA takes Show Jumping silver (Credit-FEI-KAI-FORSTERLING)

USA Show Jumping Switcheroo, Medals Decided In Thriller, Equestrians Etch History, Greatest Memories Of Tokyo

By: Natalie Mayrath

Welcome to Tokyo Takeaways on StreamHorseTV! In this series StreamHorseTV will be talking Tokyo Equestrian with the lovely and knowledgeable Catie Staszak, international Show Jumping commentator, multimedia sports journalist, and CEO of Catie Staszak Media. We will provide discussion, insight and commentary around all the action happening on the ground during the Tokyo Olympic Equestrian Competitions.

We’ve concluded equestrian competition at the Tokyo Olympics, and medals were awarded in the final element -- Team Show-Jumping. Staszak weighs in on the last-minute strategic switch by Team USA, the country who dazzled, format changes impacting the standings, and our favorite Tokyo Takeaway memories of these games.

Last-Minute Switcheroo for USA … Switcheroos Galore

Show Jumping saw a dizzying scramble of substitutions before the team competition began, notably McLain Ward going back in for the USA, after the five-time Olympian had been shockingly named as alternate during the first horse inspection. He and Contagious swapped in for Kent Farrington on Gazelle. U.S. Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland claimed “that has always been the plan,” citing tremendous internal team spirit along the way.

Tokyo Olympic Equestrian Competition (CREDIT--FEI-CHRISTOPHE-TANIERE)

By: Sophia Wilbourn

I began my dancing career at the age of five with music by great composers like Tchaikovsky and Claude Debussy. As the years flew by, I changed, but the music did not. In the same way that ballet music hasn’t changed, dressage music has remained stagnant for years, recycling the same dozen classical composers’ works. It’s no surprise that dressage attracts so little viewership considering humans lose interest in any piece of media regardless of the content if the sound is not good within eight seconds.

But all of that is changing. New music is reviving dressage in the public eye. Much like what happened to figure skating after the Olympic Committee began allowing music with words, dressage is experiencing extra attention.

While not nearly as viral or “pop music like” as the following two performances, Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro’s World Record Breaking Freestyle Test at London Olympics has my heart. The pair performed to a Tom Hunt’s remix of “This Is Berk”, an original score by John Powell for the 2010 Dreamworks film, How to Train Your Dragon. Not only will this performance go down in history for the stunning art and skill executed, but it also serves as one of the first popular routines to a relatively famous score taken from an extremely successful movie, setting the stage for using new music.

Critiquing Team USA’s performance, A “Popular” Gold Medalist, A Silent Arena, Putting The Horses First

Welcome to Dutton’s Diaries on StreamHorseTV! Dutton’s Diaries is a series of updates coming straight out of Tokyo, via none other than Team USA’s eldest member. Competing in his 7th Olympics, veteran eventer and multiple Olympic medalist Phillip Dutton takes us behind the scenes of the equestrian happenings on the ground, sharing stories of his experience at these games.

Meeting Expectations for Team USA

Dutton checks in after the conclusion of eventing at the Tokyo Games…

Being the consummate sportsman, Dutton expresses his disappointment that he and his team didn’t jump according to best laid plans, but he gives credit to the winners.

Dutton, Boyd Martin, and Doug Payne put in respectable jumping rounds for the team competition, although they incurred jumping penalties they certainly didn’t intend on. Team USA ended up 6th overall. “We’ve just concluded our final day here in Tokyo, and obviously it didn’t go quite to plan and as I would have liked. Z tried really hard, and we did our best. Unfortunately, he really was feeling the effects of yesterday, I think. He didn’t jump quite as well as I would have liked to have done, but anyway, we got through it and finished as a team obviously – not quite where we wanted to be, but nevertheless, that’s sport as we know.”