Dragon Riders

The dragon riders are people who ride and train dragons. They have their own dragons which they use for riding. The idea of Dragon Riding was a new concept to the Vikings of Berk, but it soon caught on with the locals, and thereafter, the rest of the Viking archipelago

History
Prior to the events of How to Train Your Dragon, there was a man named Drago Bludvist that was the first person to have trained dragons, albiet forcibly against their will. When dragons became a major threat to the Viking Archipelago, the chiefs of the tribe held a meeting to find a solution to this. Drago siezed this opportunity to gain power and authority. In exchange for his services, the chiefs of the tribes must swear allegiance to him. They refused and mocked him, and for that, he had his dragons kill them all, except for Stoick.

Later on, the Isle of Berk became active on killing and finding the dragons' nest, to kill them forever. However, Hiccup tried to convince the people of Berk that dragons were not what people believed they were. While his attempts to prove this failed, and his own dragon, Toothless, was captured by Hiccup's father, Stoick the Vast, to lead the Vikings to the dragon nest. However, it soon became apparent that the Vikings could not defeat the monstrous Red Death on their own. Hiccup, along with his Dragon Training classmates, acted under initiative, and decided to ride the dragons like Hiccup had with Toothless. Very soon after, the battle was won, and Dragon Training was widely accepted by the Vikings.

Very soon after, the Berk Dragon Training Academy was set up to increase knowledge about dragons, as well as a medium for their riding. As well as this, three Berkians who were not officially part of the Training Academy, Stoick the Vast, Gobber the Belch and Gustav Larson also began to ride dragons. During a ban on flying, Hiccup put a group of teenage Dragon riders together to form a secret Dragon Flight Club, with its first rule being, 'there is no dragon flight club,' to the confusion of some of its members. This was intended to be behind Stoick's back. But very soon, after he found out about it, he joined it also.

There are also numerous other people outside of Berk who also ride dragons. Though she was originally from Berk, Valka, Hiccup's mother, also rides dragons, and has become very successful in her dragon riding. Also, though arguably the riding was one-sided, Drago Bludvist has ridden dragons before, including Toothless and his Bewilderbeast, which he used to attempt to control all of the other dragons with. His plan failed, and he presumably died on the back of his Bewilderbeast. Heather has also had the experience of riding dragons, sometimes with Hiccup on the back of Toothless, but once solo on the back of Stormfly in Heather Report Part II. Eret, Son of Eret has also ridden Stormfly, and he later inherits Skullcrusher after Stoick passed away.

List of Dragon Riders and their Dragons
This list contains the name of the riders and all dragons they've bonded with, and their dragon's species.