Pommel horse | Olympics, Gymnastics, History, Apparatus, & Facts | Britannica (original) (raw)

pommel horse, gymnastics apparatus, a leather-covered form 1.6 meters (63 inches) long, 34 to 36 cm (13.4 to 14.2 inches) wide, and (measured to its top) about 115 cm (45.3 inches) from the floor with a support in its center. Curved wooden pommels (handholds) 12 cm (4.7 inches) high are inserted 40 to 45 cm (15.75 to 17.72 inches) apart in the top of the horse.

The pommel horse event is part of the men’s artistic gymnastics competition in the modern Olympic Games. The gymnast supports himself with his hands by holding the pommels over the horse and performs movements with his trunk and legs, such as single or double leg circles and crosses of the legs (scissors), without stops. These are combined with turns and changes of the hands’ grasp to the forward part of the horse (neck), the center (saddle), and the rear (croup). It is necessary to vary the movements and also to perform them both to the left (clockwise) and to the right.

The apparatus stems from a wooden horse introduced by the Romans and used to teach mounting and dismounting. They added it to the ancient Olympic Games. The basic modern exercises were developed in the early 19th century by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, founder of the German turnverein (gymnastics club).

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Will Gosner.