Equestrian Events at the 2008 Olympic Games
June 25, 2008
Dressage, eventing, and show jumping were first incorporated into the Olympic games in 1900 and have been going strong ever since. For the first few decades, only military officers were allowed to compete in eventing, while civilians could saddle up for dressage and show jumping. Today, the top rider and horse pairs in the country are sent to compete for individual and team gold.
Equestrian events at the Olympics are the only sports that involve animals, and one of the few where men and women compete as equals.
While the 2008 Olympics are being held in Beijing, China, all equestrian events will be in Hong Kong due to quarantine issues and the availability of appropriate facilities.
Dressage at the Olympics
Four days of the Olympic games are devoted to dressage. The word dressage comes from the French language and translates as “training.” With roots in the European battleground, dressage is often explained as “ballet for horses.” Horses must perform a series of set moves with subtle cues from their riders. Each pair completes three rounds. The first two are set routines that all riders must follow and the third is a freestyle that is individually choreographed and set to music. Judges score the horse and rider pairs on each move as well as a few general characteristics such as the horse’s movement and the rider’s form and ability. Each country may send four horse and rider pairs to the Olympics.
US Olympic dressage teams have captured six medals: five bronze and one silver. Four of those have been at the most recent Olympic games. Hiram Tuttle, who took bronze in 1932, is the only American rider to win an individual medal in dressage.
Anky van Grunsven & Keltec Salinero, 2004 Individual Gold Medalists, Freestyle Dressage
(Anky also won gold in 2000 and silver is 1996 in this event)
Show Jumping at the Olympics
Show jumping requires horse and rider to navigate a course of approximately 15 jumps within a certain time limit and without any faults. Horses gain faults by knocking down rails on fences, refusing to jump a fence, or by going over the time limit. They are disqualified for taking jumps in the wrong order or refusing to jump three times. The fences vary in height and width.
Typically in show jumping there is one round followed by a jump-off if needed. If more than one horse and rider pair who jumps “clean” (or doesn’t incur any faults), all of them then compete in a jump-off round. There are fewer jumps and more difficult paths. All Olympic riders compete in the first round on the first show jumping day; the second day features two rounds of team competition. The total of these three rounds act as qualifiers for the individual event, which is made up of two more rounds. Riders start from scratch in these two individual rounds; if any of them are tied following the second round, a jump-off is held.
Seven US riders have medaled in the individual show jumping event and the US also has seven team medals; including four gold between the two.
Roderigo Pessoa and Loro Piana Tomboy clinche team bronze in 1996 Olympic Games
(Pessoa also won individual gold in 2004)
Eventing at the Olympics
Eventing consists of three rounds: dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. Riders compete in one round each of dressage and show jumping, similar to the main events described above. The cross-country phase consists of a timed course over a series of natural obstacles such as ditches, hedges, logs, coops, and hills.
The top 25 riders progress to a second round of all three events to determine the individual medal winners.
US riders have won 11 medals in individual eventing and 12 medals in team eventing.
2008 Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be held in Beijing on August 8-24. the US Equestrian Team for the Olympics will be chosen July 15. I’ll continue to post news and information about the equestrian events including info about the riders and horses, television schedule, and overview of the events during the actual Games.
More Olympic Coverage:
- 2008 Olympic equestrian competition facilities at Sha Tin and Beas River in Hong Kong
- Top dressage riders earn spots on US Olympic equestrian team
- USEF selects 2008 Olympic equestrian show jumping team
Posted in 2008 Olympics, Horse Events, Olympic Dressage, Olympic Eventing, Olympic Show Jumping
June 25th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
My husband said he saw HD footage (on Good Morning America) yesterday of Big Brown in Belmont, where his shoe was coming off or the horse next to him coming out of the gate, stepped on it and pulled it off. I have seen nothing to corroborate this in the paper–have you heard or seen this? I figure if the shoe was coming off, a whole lot of foot was leaving with it…just wondered what you knew…
June 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I just checked out Fran Jurga’s hoof blog, an authoritative source for this kind of thing. It appears that one of Big Brown’s hind shoes was pulled loose, not off. One side of it is bent away from the heel. It’s possible that he was stepped on by another horse early in the race, or caught it himself when he was pulled up. The Big Brown camp firmly states that the loose shoe is not the reason he lost the race. All four shoes were pulled the day after the Belmont and he is currently going barefoot. You can see pictures and read more about it here: http://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2008/06/beating-dead-horseshoe-big-browns-loose.html
June 26th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I’ll be watching the Olympics (horse events) when they come on, they are so hard to find and it seems the media, may not think it is as important as all the other sports they give way too much air time to. Like volleyball and water polo and synchronized swimming etc…, still trying to figure out how these got to be Olympic sports? I’m hoping that since they will be separated in Hong Kong, they might televise more of the horse events this time around.
July 4th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Our family agrees with GreyHorseMatters, finding the Olympic Equestrian events on the tube can be challenging. During the Athens games, we found the coverage on cable’s BRAVO channel. The events were typically covered in the wee hours of the morning, typically from 1:00 - 4:00 AM. They would list the times on Bravo’s web site but during the time span other events were sometimes covered so you never really knew when the equestrian events would come on. That was a royal pain. Often they followed badminton on something. I did manage to tape most of it and the riders at our local horse barn, mostly 4-H girls really enjoyed circulating the tapes to watch. I see where the Beijing events start on Aug. 9th. We leave for vacation that day so we will have to figure out a way to record the events, probably opt for TIVO or something. Anybody else have any other recommendations? Be great if they would sell a DVD of this year’s event.
July 6th, 2008 at 1:28 am
It should be noted that my video of RODRIGO Pessoa, featured above, is:
1) from 1996 in Atlanta, not 2004 in Athens
2) of the team competition, not the individual
3) clinching a nation’s first equestrian BRONZE medal, not individual gold
July 7th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Immortal Synn - thanks for clarifying. I’ll get that corrected.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I am really interested in finding complete coverage of the Eventing competition. The networks suck when it comes to their broadcasts. I will probably have to pay for the coverage on line, like Rolex. Does anyone have any suggestions? GO USA!! KIck some butt during THE ULTIMATE SPORT!!! Oh Yea, And keep it straight and forward Kyle Carter riding for Canada. You can’t forget about little young Alex riding for China..Good Luck!!Should be thrilling!!!!Can”t wait!
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 am
Go to google and do a webserch…
Provided free through AOL.
Beyond that I dont know.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 am
China.
Watch for Heidi White riding Northern Spy (also called Farley). She is from Aiken, SC and the daughter of our friends, Bob and Gretchen White.
Date: Program–Time (EST) on Channel
Aug. 9: 3-Day: Dressage–2:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. on USA
Aug. 11: 3-Day: Cross- Country–6:00pm-8:00pm OXYGEN
Aug. 12: 3-Day: Stadium Team Gold Medal Final–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 13: Dressage–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 14: Dressage Team Gold Medal Final–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 15: Show Jumping–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 16: Dressage Individual–5:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. MSNBC
Aug. 17: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final 1st Round–10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m on NBC
Aug. 18: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final Round–6:00pm-8:00 p.m. OXYGEN
Aug. 19: Dressage Individual Gold Medal Final–6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 21: Show Jumping Individual Gold Medal Final–10:00am-1:00 pm
I hope this is helpful.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Thanks for the television updates!!!
Also, very interesting to see the O2 network taking such an interest in Equestrian disciplines. Kudos to them.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Yea!! Thanks Dave!!! That was so sweet that you listed all the equine events!Sorry about your girl Heidi White, wonder why she pulled out? Now we can watch for Karen Oconnor, this is sooooo exciting!!! I’m going to write to Oxygen and tell them how great they are!!!!
August 11th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Does anyone know what time the SJ starts in beijing? Not the televised time thanks. Here in west Oz we are on the same time as the equestrian events which is FANTASTIC (no more wee hours of the night).
Go Sonya and Megan and beautiful beautiful Irish Jester
August 13th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Does anybody know what the height was of the showing jumping for the eventing?
August 13th, 2008 at 2:35 am
When is the horse riding events showing? If you know please e-mail me at cleokie@hotmail.com thankyou!
August 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Renee - maximum height for the jumps on the team round is 1.25 meters. Max height on the individual jumping round is 1.3 meters. I’ve got all the specs outlined here: http://www.regardinghorses.com/2008/08/08/how-olympic-eventing-competition-works/
August 14th, 2008 at 3:20 am
“Does anyone know what time the SJ starts in beijing?”
….keep in mind that the showjumping isn’t going to be held in Beijing.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Immortal Synn - here’s a schedule for show jumping. It’s the order of go for the first round, but times haven’t been posted yet. http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/EQ/C51SB/EQX002901.shtml#EQX002901. It’s for Friday, August 15 at 19:15 Hong Kong time.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
‘Preciate it.
Though, y’know what REALLY sux? The OXYGEN station was just recently moved from basic cable to premium-subscription in my location!
OMG does that bite! :’(
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
USA wins team showjumping gold… whoopee!
Beezie Madden gets individual bronze. Eric Lamaze (Canada) wins individual gold.