Vaulting

Warning: This post is in no way related to hockey. But it does have cool pictures, so I think you might still like it.

Dear god did I just get side-tracked. I meant to put up this post, but I ended up messing with the settings of the blog, then I was twittering some, then of course facebook jumped in the way. I finally remembered what I was going to do when I minimized some windows and saw iPhoto still open- oh, right! I was going to put up some photos of vaulting (equestrian vaulting, not pole vaulting), because quite frankly no one actually knows what vaulting is.

"Equestrian vaulting is kind of like dance and gymnastics on a cantering horse..."


I don't know how many times I've used that line to try to explain vaulting. Too many times. Often I find the best way to explain vaulting is with pictures. This post is in no way a comprehensive lesson on vaulting, but rather a compilation of cool pictures. Most were taken at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, which means those teams are really, really, really good.

When you vault, you don't use a saddle, and the horse is on a longe line.

Team Germany. They've been doing this crazy dismount for a while now,

 

you rarely see other teams try it.

Team Switzerland. This picture is a bit blurry, but it gives you a good idea of team vaulting.

Team USA! FACE vaulting club, vaulting to Romeo & Juliet. The US actually won the team competition at WEG this year (1st ever gold medal finish for US team vaulting!)