Equestrian Jumping - Debut in Olympics

Equestrian made its Summer Olympics debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. At the 1900 Summer Olympics, five equestrian events were contested. Only three are currently considered Olympic by the International Olympic Committee including "Jumping". In 1900, Show jumping allowed both military and non-military riders (and their mounts) to compete, excluding military school horses. Today, it is open to both sexes on any horse. This is perhaps the most commonly known of the equestrian events. The competitions themselves will vary in style but generally the horse and rider must follow a specified route around the arena and jump specific obstacles in sequence. The rails of the obstacles are not solid and if contact is made by the horse the rails will fall. The objective and judging relate to the horse and rider being able to jump the set course without upsetting any of the obstacles and sometimes also in a specified time frame. The course was 850 meters long with 22 jumps, including a double jump and a triple jump as well as a 4-meter water jump. 45 competitors entered, though only 37 competed. Some information is known on 10 of the competitors, though of the rest all that can be deduced from the nationalities of the entrants is that, of the remaining unknowns that did compete, at most 1 was a Russian, up to 3 were Italian, at least 3 and up to 9 were Belgian, and between 14 and 20 were French.