Canadian Equestrian Team

An officer of the Queen's Light Dragoons, during the period of Capt Walter Jones

The earliest recorded Canadian Equestrian Team competed at the 1840 Montreal Steeplechase, the first international steeplechase competition in North America. Capt Walter Jones of the Queen's Light Dragoons was the sole CET rider, and represented The Canadas against riders from British regiments.[3] The event was won by Colonel Whyte of Britain's 7th Hussars.[4]

Canada's first national equestrian championship, the "Dominion Equestrian Championship", was held in 1895 in Toronto, in the disciplines of steeplechase, hunt seat equitation, and jumping, with entries from both men and women.[5] Although the victors were the first group of athletes to be described as the Canadian Equestrian Team, they did not go on to compete together internationally.

In the first half of the twentieth century, international equestrian sport was dominated by military riders. In Canada, the Canadian Militia (later renamed as the Canadian Army) was recognized by the federal government as the country's first national equestrian federation, and began the process of building the first institutional CET.

The first CET that was organized as a formal multi-athlete team to compete together at an international event, was a group of jumpers, selected by the Canadian Militia for the 1909 Military Tournament at the Olympia London International Horse Show. The riders were: Lt Wood Leonard (London Field Battery); Lt Frank Proctor (Governor General's Bodyguard); and Capt Douglas Young (Royal Canadian Dragoons). They finished in fourth place. This team was, however, considered a representative of the Canadian military and not of Canada itself, because it competed only against other military teams.[6]

The first group of athletes who were regarded as representatives of all Canadian equestrians (both civilian and military) and who competed together against other national equestrian teams, was selected by the Canadian Militia to compete in Prix des Nations jumping at the 1926 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. The team was composed of Maj R S Timmis, Lt Elliott, and Capt Stuart Bate. All three riders were from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the only Canadian cavalry regiment to retain horses after the First World War. The team won first place, defeating national teams from Belgium, Britain, France, and the United States.[7]

The team went on to compete successfully against other international opponents in New York, Boston, and London.[6]

After the end of the Second World War, the Canadian Army began phasing out its financial support for equestrian sport. Today, the Canadian Armed Forces exercises responsibility for the CET only at the CISM Military World Games.[8]

Pete Knight, the CET's first World Champion

The shrinking role of the eastern-Canada based military coincided with a burst of CET activity in western-Canada. Pete Knight became the CET's first World Champion in 1932, as the RAA World Champion Bronc Rider. He would repeat the feat in 1933, 1935, and 1936, and was popularly known as the CET's "King of the Cowboys".[9]

The end of centralized control of the CET also caused a series of inter-related civilian groups to come in and out of being, as equestrian sport began a period of significant but disorganized growth across Canada.

In 1948, Major General CC Mann founded the Canadian Equestrian Society (CES), in an effort to create a single organizing focus for Canada's eventing and jumping teams. Although the CES lasted only two years, it put in place many of the factors that would continue to define the CET to the present.

The CES initiated planning for Canada's Olympic equestrian debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games, it created the maple leaf and horseshoe team emblem, and it popularized the term "Canadian Equestrian Team". Critically, when Major General Mann dissolved the CES in 1950, he placed its material and intellectual assets in the public domain. This enabled others to complete the process of building Canada's first Olympic equestrian team, made the Mann logo the most widely used emblem for Canada's international equestrians across all disciplines and all organizations, and made "Canadian Equestrian Team" a unifying term over a fragmented and constantly changing horse sport system.[7]

After the end of the CES, the Canadian Horse Shows Association (CHSA) provided bridging funding to CET athletes, until Major LJ McGuinness founded the Canadian Olympic Equestrian Team (COET) in 1951, to manage Canada's first participation in the Olympic equestrian events. The COET was largely run by the athletes themselves and their immediate supporters: Major McGuinness also captained and rode for the Canadian eventing team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.[10]

It was not until 1959 that a formal Canadian Olympic Equestrian Committee (COEC) corporation was created, with RH Rough serving as its first Executive Director. Since then, there has been a steady expansion in the number and the scale of professional organizations responsible for different CET disciplines.

The CET won its first Olympic medal in 1956, a team bronze in eventing. It won its first Olympic gold medal in 1968, a team gold in jumping.[10] It won its first team World Championship in 1970, by its team at the FEI Jumping World Championship.