You wouldn't think that an Act of Parliament would create a new horse sport but it did. In England in the 1700s the first of the Enclosure Acts was brought in.

Today most large horse shows will have a ‘jumping' event and of course, the Olympic Games has continued to showcase and raise interest in this sport. At the beginnings of the sport it was taught at cavalry schools in Italy, Spain, France and Austria.

Cross-country jumping is not only part of Eventing competitions but it is also a sport in its own right and has its roots in the pastime of fox hunting and the training of cavalry horses by the major military schools.