Horse riding was included in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 and in Stockholm in 1912

In Italy, equestrian sport in the most modern sense of the term developed with the establishment in 1891 of the Roman School of Tor di Quinto. Turin, another ancient equestrian center with the Venaria Reale Riding School founded in 1823, hosted both the first national equestrian competition, in 1884, and the first international one in 1902, in which mainly career soldiers participated. In fact, by definition, it is an exclusive discipline, historically the heritage of two elites (the military and the aristocratic), which for this reason struggled to conquer the general public at least until the Seventies. The Italian school boasts a great tradition in show jumping and some of the greatest riders of the twentieth century.

But perhaps we should speak of three different histories for the three Olympic specialties. The Italian tradition in show jumping is great, starting with Federico Caprilli who codified a method based on gentleness towards the horse and perfect understanding between rider and animal. Starting with Giorgio Trissino and Tommaso Lequio (Olympians in 1900 and '20), the Italians boast some of the greatest riders of the 20th century: the D'Inzeo brothers, who in eight Olympics won 6 medals each (Raimondo, 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze, plus 2 consecutive world titles; Piero, 2 silver and 4 bronze), and Graziano Mancinelli, who won gold in Monaco in '72.

Currently the best schools are the German, Dutch and American for dressage, the Swiss and German for jumping and the French for endurance.