Equestrian events at the 2004 Summer Olympics featured three equestrian disciplines: dressage, eventing and jumping. All three disciplines are further divided into individual and team contests for a total of six events.
Equestrian at the 1980 Summer Olympics was represented by six events. All of them, with the exception of the Individual Jumping Grand Prix, were held in the Trade Unions' Equestrian Complex, which is situated in the Bitsa Forest Park. Individual Jumping Grand Prix was held in the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium at Luzhniki.
The equestrian events at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Games included dressage, eventing, and show jumping. The competitions were held from 10 to 14 August 1932. Due to the worldwide Great Depression, only 31 entries from 6 nations competed—which was to be the lowest participation of any Olympic Games.
The equestrian events at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich included show jumping, dressage and eventing. All three disciplines had both individual and team competitions. The equestrian competitions were held at 3 sites: an existing equestrian facility at Riem for the individual show jumping and eventing competitions, the Olympic Stadium in Munich for the Nations Cup, and Nymphenburg, a Baroque palace garden, for the sold-out dressage. 179 entries, including 31 women, competed from 27 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), France, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The youngest participant was Kurt Maeder from Switzerland at 19 years old, while the oldest rider was Lorna Johnstone from Great Britain at 70 years old.
Equestrian sports were first included in the Olympic Games in the Summer Olympics of 1900 in Paris. They were again included in 1912, and have been included in every subsequent edition of the Games. Currently, the Olympic equestrian disciplines are dressage, eventing, and show jumping. In each discipline, both individual and team medals are awarded. Since the XV Olympiad in Helsinki in 1952, women and men compete on equal terms.
Equestrian competitions in all three disciplines at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from 9 August to 21 August at the Hong Kong Sports Institute and Sheung Yue River in Hong Kong. It was the second time that the equestrian events were hosted by a member of the IOC other than the member hosting the main games. Unlike 1956, however, the equestrian events were part of the main games, and were held within the same period.
Andreas Helgstrand is a Danish dressage rider. He won four consecutive Danish dressage championships, from 2005 through 2008. Helgstrand is banned from competition until 2025.
Isabell Werth is a German equestrian who has competed in dressage at seven Olympic Games —1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2016, 2020, 2024— winning the gold medal in the team event in all seven, and one gold and six silver medals in the individual event. She stands alone in having medals from seven Olympics, or across a span of 32 years; her 14 medals are the most for any German or equestrian. She also has numerous titles in the World and European Championships and World Cups.
Nicole Uphoff is a German equestrian who competes in the sport of dressage. She won four gold medals in individual and team competition at the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics. Riding her star horse, Rembrandt, Uphoff also won numerous other international competitions, including the World Equestrian Games and the European Dressage Championships.
Ingrid Klimke is a German eventing rider. She appeared at five Olympics from 2000 to 2016. With her horse Abraxxas, she won two gold medals in team eventing at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won a team silver with Hale-Bob.
Charlotte Susan Jane Dujardin is a British dressage rider, equestrian, and writer. A multiple World and Olympic champion, Dujardin has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era. In 2014 she held the complete set of available individual elite dressage titles: the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle, and Grand Prix Special titles. Dujardin was the first rider to hold this complete set of titles at the same time.
Dorothee Schneider is a German dressage rider competing at Olympic level. On 7 August 2012 Schneider was a member of the team which won the silver medal in the team dressage event.
Katarzyna Milczarek-Jasińska is a Polish dressage rider. She represented Poland at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the team and individual dressage.
Patrik Kittel is a Swedish dressage rider. He was born in Stockholm. He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he placed fourth in team dressage. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he competed in the team dressage events and qualified for the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle, finishing 14th.
Tinne Eva Caroline Vilhelmson-Silfvén is a Swedish horse rider. Representing Sweden, she competed at seven Summer Olympics. She placed 4th in team dressage in 1992, and in team dressage in Beijing in 2008. Meanwhile, her current best individual Olympic placement is 8th place from 2016 Olympics.
Zaneta Skowronska is a Polish dressage rider. Representing Poland, she competed at two World Equestrian Games and at four European Dressage Championships.
Adrienne Lyle is an American Olympic dressage rider. Representing the United States, she competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London where she finished 37th in the individual competition, and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo where she was won a silver medal in the team competition. After qualifying for the individual Grand Prix Freestyle at the 2020 Olympics she withdrew from the competition out of concern for her horse, Salvino.
Courtney King-Dye is an American equestrian. She competed in two events at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The 2022 ECCO FEI World Championships were held in Herning, Denmark. It was the ninth edition of the Games, which are held every four years and run by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI). For team events in the dressage and show jumping disciplines, these Games were the first qualifying event for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The equestrian events at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were run from 27 July to 6 August at the Palace of Versailles, featuring 200 riders across three disciplines for both individual and team competitions, namely dressage, eventing, and jumping. Men and women compete together on equal terms.
