Great hopes riding on equestrian sports in China

"We hope equestrian will get more attention, and be appreciated by more people," said Wei Jianglei, general manager of Sina Sports and equestrian sport expert, on Wednesday, during the finals of the Future Star equestrian competition held in Beijing.

Wei said that, while equestrian is not very popular in China, the sport has a strong ornamental value, rich cultural connotation and ritual sense.

Statistics show that in 2014 there were around 200 equestrian or riding clubs in China. Now the figure is over 1,500 and rising, with club membership at nearly one million. At the same time, competitions have doubled in the past five years, including events such as Future Star.

"It's the fifth year of this competition and we can see more and more teenagers participating in the sport,” said Yao Ge, the president of Beijing Turf and Equestrian Association.

Sabrina Ibanez, secretary-general of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports, said, "We're seeing that there is now a huge - a big interest in China to promote and to develop the sport.”

The equestrian tradition in China dates back several millennia, when chariot conducting was one of the six arts that young Chinese nobles needed to master under the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BC). The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games allowed the Chinese people rediscover horse riding as a sport, spurred on by the participation of the only Chinese rider Alex Hua Tian. More recently, other Chinese riders have shown well at the Jakarta Asiad.