We're back with one of our favorite topics: obscure Olympic events. And what better time and place than 1900 and Paris, which gave us a whole five equestrian competitions!

There was jumping, natch. Well, not exactly natch. There was jumping as we still know it today, over barriers and such, but there was also the high jump and the long jump. Let's repeat that:

In the 1900 Olympics, horses competed in the high and long jumps. Moving on. We're not done yet.

There was something called a "chevaux de selle", or "hacks and hunter", which was a precursor to dressage, and... the stagecoach race. Winners were determined by a jury. And you think figure skating judging makes no sense!

Well, at least the long and high jumps make sense... if you want to put it that way. A Belgian horse jumped 6 meters 10 (which, ahem, was a whole meter less than the human long jump in the same Olympics). Two horses shared gold by jumping 1 meter 85 high... once again, losing out to a human, who got 1.90.

Elie de Poliakoff, AKA Ilya Polyakov, a Russian Jew, considered at the time "among the best sportsmen in Paris", competed in three of the events. His horse did not medal.