Steeplechase (horse racing) Steeplechase (horse racing) A steeplechase is a distance horse race in which competitors are required to jump diverse fence and ditch obstacles. Steeplechasing is primarily conducted in Ireland (where it originated), the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia and France. The name is derived from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside. Modern usage of the term "steeplechase" differs between countries. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, it refers only to races run over large, fixed obstacles, in
Horse racing in Ireland a tradition of racing on the beach in Kerry, a tradition which continues today. There are later mentions of "horse matches" in Galway in the 13th century under the "Kings Plate Articles". The earliest datable evidence, however, is a 1603 royal warrant entitling the governor of Derry to hold fairs and markets at which horse races could be staged. Horse racing was evidently popular in the 17th century: a 1622 poem tells of a jockey killed participating in a horse race in Carrickfergus, while other accounts mention a 1634 race between Lord Digby and the Earl of Ormond, and the