I haven’t yet had the pleasure of attending a World Equestrian Games, but I take my equine-media colleagues’ word for it that the spectacle makes Grand Central Station look sleepy.

At the 2010 WEG in Lexington, there will be eight (eight!) horse sports. They won’t all be going on at once, but on any given day there will be multiple events. 

Just what are these “disciplines,” anyway? I’m very conversant in some; others, not so much. So I thought I’d take advantage of the opportunity to use this blog for (self-) educational purposes. In this and future blog entries, I’ll give you a rundown of the sports that you’ll be following next year in Lexington.

I’m going to begin with the sport of eventing, for two reasons. One, it’s one of the three that’s also an Olympic equestrian discipline, so it’s high-profile. Two, it’s the discipline that bridges the gap between horse sports’ practical roots and their evolution to purely athletic and hobby pursuit. (OK, I have a third reason: It’s a really great, fun sport