What Is a Pommel Horse?

The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles.

Why is it called a pommel horse?

The history of the pommel horse goes as far back as Alexander The Great and his Macedonian soldiers who used an early pommel horse to practice mounting the beasts they would ride into battle somewhere around 315 BC. The early pommel horse did not have the handles or pommels we see today in men's gymnastics competition.

What's the point of the pommel horse?

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.