A couple of blog posts ago, I began introducing the eight equestrian disciplines that will be featured at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. I started with eventing, which in many ways is the bedrock of modern English equestrian sport. This week, let’s take a look at eventing’s close relative: jumping.

Jumping (aka show jumping or stadium jumping) is one of eventing’s three phases: in an arena, over a course of “frankly fake” obstacles. No pretenses of navigating hill and dale, logs and split-rail fences, here: The obstacles are brightly colored, often extremely fanciful in nature (a car! a row of beer bottles! a lady’s fan!), and topple at little more than the touch of a hoof. And in jumping competition, it’s all about going fast and “clean” — without time penalties or “faults” incurred by knocking down a rail, putting a foot in the water jump, or a horse’s refusing an obstacle.

Because jumping is easy to follow and colorful and exciting to watch, it’s the most popular English-riding sport, and the one that gets the most sponsorship, the biggest audiences, and the best TV coverage. Of the WEG disciplines, it commands the highest ticket prices and will undoubtedly sell out