Equestrian at the 1936 Summer Olympics

The Equestrian Events at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics included Dressage, Eventing, and Show Jumping. All three disciplines had both individual and team competitions. The host country, Germany, had a stellar year, winning both individual and team gold in every equestrian event, as well as individual silver in dressage. The competitions were held from 12 August 1936 to 16 August 1936. Moderately priced tickets meant huge crowds at all equestrian events, with 15,000-20,000 spectators at any time during the dressage competition, 60,000 on the endurance day of eventing, and 120,000 for the Nations Cup in jumping.

There were 127 riders total (133 entries) from 21 nations (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States). Seven countries (Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA) fielded 3-person teams for all three disciplines. Of those 127 riders, only two were civilians: a Dutch eventer and a jumper rider from Norway. The majority of horses were German (24/133) or French-bred (23/133), with 25 coming that were either British or Irish-bred (it is thought 17 from Ireland and 8 Britain), 8/133 US-bred (all on the US team, in addition to one French-bred horse), and the Japanese riders using 2 Japanese, 2 Australian, 1 British and 1 French-bred horse.

54 riders from 18 nations competed in the jumping competition, with only 38 riders finishing the first round. Course designer August Andreae built a 1050 meter long course of 13 fences/20 jumping efforts at 1.30-1.60 meters in height. It included one double and three triple combinations and a 5 meter water jump. The jump-off course raised many fences, widened the water to 5.50 meters, and altered some of the distances between fences. Germany won its fifth equestrian gold medal in the Nations Cup. The individual medal placements required two jump-offs: the first to decide gold and silver between 2 riders who had only 1 knockdown up to that point. The second to determine bronze between 3 riders with 2 knock downs each.

The dressage competition had 29 riders from 11 nations, with the youngest rider, Heinz Pollay (age 28) winning individual gold. The 17-minute test had 22 movements, and was fought out between the Germans and the French, each with their own views of correct training. Both the individual gold and individual silver medal horses, Kronos and Absinth respectively, were originally trained by Otto Lörke. The youngest horse was 7-year-old Revue, and 5 of the horses competing, including the gold-medal winner Kronos, were only 8 years of age. There were also older horses competing, including 18-year-old Csintalan.

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