HONG KONG -- The Para-Equestrian competition of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games started Sunday morning at Shatin Equestrian arena with the participation of 73 riders from 28 countries and regions.

A record number of riders will be vying for 11 sets of gold, silver and bronze medals during the Equestrian events.

The 73 competitors from 28 National Paralympic Committees (NPC) will be showing their Dressage skills in the different grades, which depend on the degree of their impairment or disability. The competition is classified into Grades Ia and Ib and Grades II, III and IV.

Gold medals are awarded to each grade winner in the Individual Championship Test and to each grade winner in the Individual Freestyle Test. There is also a gold medal for the overall winner in the Team contest.

Thirteen Grade La riders will compete in walk-only tests, while 15 Grade Ib athletes also need to show their abilities in the walk and trot routine. Eighteen Grade II athletes will compete in more difficult walk and trot tests. In the Grade III category, 11 riders need to walk, trot and canter their horses, leaving 16 riders to compete in Grade IV's tests of walk, trot and canter with lateral works.

Defending champion Great Britain, who have won three team gold medals since Dressage became a Paralympic sport at the Atlanta 1996 Games, field the largest contingent of seven riders. Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway and the United States send five competitors each. China and China's Hong Kong are each represented by a single entrant, and another 11 NPCs also have only one rider.

In previous years, Para-Equestrian athletes had to perform with horses provided by the host city, but for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games the entrants bring their own horses. Two of the four riders from Brazil and South Africa will be sharing horses, making a total of 71 horses competing during the five days of events.

All the 71 horses have been passed fit for paralympic Games competition.

Backgrounder: History of Para-Equestrian sport

The Para-Equestrian competition of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games started Sunday morning at the Shatin Equestrian Venue with 73 riders from 28 countries and regions competing in the five-day events. The following is the history of the Para-Equestrian sport.

Para-Equestrian sport has been steadily developing over the past 25 years and is available and practiced by equestrians with a wide variety of disabilities.

Dressage competitions for riders with disabilities began in Scandinavia and in Britain in the 1970s.

In 1987, the first dressage World Championships was held in Sweden. Nine years later a big step forward was made, with the inclusion of dressage on the program at the 1996 Paralympic Games held in Atlanta, the United States.

Para-Equestrian sport was recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 1991 and was governed until 2005 by the International Paralympic Equestrian Committee (IPEC). The IPEC ran competitions and developed equestrian sport for the disabled world-wide.

A significant change came on January 1, 2006, when regulation of the sport moved from the IPC to the Federation Equestre International (FEI), becoming the eighth equestrian discipline governed by the FEI.

This also made the FEI the first International Federation to govern and regulate a sport for both able-bodied and disabled athletes.

All rules and regulations with regards to Para-Equestrian competition venues and organization are governed by the same principles as the other seven disciplines.

As the sport has developed so has the number of countries and regions taking part in international competitions.