A three-day event, also known as the "complete test," is made up of a cross-country leg, show jumping and dressage. There are team and individual medals given for jumping and dressage as well.

The idea in show jumping is not to knock down any of the barriers, and penalty points are assessed if you and your horse disturb the course layout. Each instance results in a four-point bad mark. Disobedience, defined as a horse refusing to leap over an obstacle, is four points off for the first infraction and a disqualification for the second. A fall by either horse or rider is eight penalties, the second is the end.

There's a time limit, too, with per-second faults assessed for clock violations. Here, New Zealander Grant Cashmore and Franklins Flyte show how it's done: a perfect zero.

Dressage is the most delicate, proper and time-consuming horse discipline at the Olympics, and the reason why the three-day event lasts four days. Let's just say that you will never see Extreme Dressage. Actually, scratch that... there are some maneuvers in which horses grab some big air. Most of the time, however, it's all about the fundamentals. In competition, horse and rider are judged on their responsiveness to each other.

Equestrian Fun Facts:

• There are no separate Olympic events for men and women -- that counts male and female horses, too. Equestrian events were boundary breakers in sporting politics as well. After the 1896 Games featured 245 men and no women, the first female to compete in an amateur Olympic event was Elvira Guerra in France four years later. She entered her horse Libertin in the chevaux de selle event at Paris 1900.

• Jumping and obedience aren't the only horse sports, of course. Thoroughbred and harness racing are popular at tracks around the world. Polo was held five times at the Olympics between 1900 and 1936. And the rodeo-style reining, which involves precision spins and circles, may be added for 2012 under the equestrian umbrella.

  One-day endurance riding is a sport overseen by the Federation Equestre International, with four separate distances (classified by stars) that go all the way up to a four-star race of 160km (100 miles).

• Much like in gymnastics, there are minimum ages in Olympic competition: riders must be at least 16 years old, and horses must not be younger than seven. Horses at the Games are often double and triple the age of the racers that compete on tracks.

  There is no maximum age for either horse or human, and some riders in Beijing will be taking every advantage of that. Canadian show jumper Ian Miller is 61, Aussie Laurie Lever is 60, and Hiroshi Hoketsu, who last competed at the Games in 1964, is 67.

• A major scandal erupted after Athens 2004 when it was found that Waterford Crystal, Irish gold medalist Cian O'Connor's horse, had tested positive for banned steroids. What followed was a cloak and dagger battle over the horse's urine sample, featuring package misdirection and office break-ins. O'Connor was eventually stripped of his gold, and the equestrian shenanigans led to enhanced FEI horse drug testing in time for Beijing.

In 2008:

Equestrian events, for the second time in Olympic history, will take place in a separate city. At Melbourne 1956, quarantine restrictions in Australia gave Stockholm, Sweden the chance to host a small part of the Olympics for the first time since 1912, fitting given that it was the birthplace of modern Olympic equestrianism. Partly due to high levels of equine disease in the Beijing area, Hong Kong will host the events in 2008.

Six gold medals will be awarded, with individual and team competitions in eventing, dressage and jumping.

Competition will begin on the Games' first weekend with the three day event. The eventing medals will be given out on August 12 (Day 4), the individual and team dressage will be held over the next three days, and the action will conclude with show jumping from August 15 to August 21 (Days 7-13).

A total of 42 nations will compete, sending 204 horse-rider pairs. Teams have been qualifying for the 2008 Olympics since the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Germany, and three regional championships produced seven entrants. Five more nations were admitted after compiling Olympic rankings points.

Silvia Iklé of Switzerland refused to bring her horse to Hong Kong, citing the blazing heat that bakes the city every August. Her country won't send a team as a result, but organizers have scheduled jumping competitions for after nightfall.

All-Time Medal Standings:

Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Germany	22	15	14	51
Sweden	17	9	14	40
France	12	12	10	34
West Germany	11	5	9	25
United States	10	19	17	46
Netherlands	9	9	2	20
Italy	7	9	7	23
Great Britain	6	9	10	25
Soviet Union	6	5	4	15
Australia	6	2	2	10
Switzerland	4	10	7	21
Belgium	4	2	6	12
New Zealand	3	2	4	9
Mexico	2	1	4	7
Poland	1	3	3	7
Spain	1	2	1	4
Canada	1	1	2	4
Austria	1	1	1	3
Brazil	1	-	2	3
Czechoslovakia	1	-	-	1
Japan	1	-	-	1
Denmark	-	4	1	5
Chile	-	2	-	2
Romania	-	1	1	2
Argentina	-	1	-	1
Bulgaria	-	1	-	1
Norway	-	1	-	1
Portugal	-	-	2	2
Hungary	-	-	1	1
Saudi Arabia	-	-	1	1

(Photo via 1948 Official Report)