Steeplechase

a cross country race for horses and riders. The name is thought to have originated from the custom of racing to a distant church steeple, regardless of intervening ditches, dikes, fields, and streams. The first to touch the church with his riding whip is the winner. It is an exciting, dangerous sort of race, said to be popular in England, especially at fairs or on market day. Each rider is at liberty to take a roundabout way at the risk of losing the race to a more reckless horseman. Variations have been introduced, such as racing to a distant object and back again, setting up flags at certain points between which the riders must pass, etc. See Horseracing