The European Eventing Championships, like most other European Championships, is held every two years. Today it is a four star eventing competition. A four star event is one step down from the grand slam which consists of three five star events.
The first Championships were held at Badminton in 1953, where six teams (Britain, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland) were sent, although only Britain and Switzerland were able to get their horses fit in time to actually compete. However, 10 teams were able to compete at the 1959 competition.
The 1995 and 1997 European Championships were held as part of events open to non-European riders (in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy in 1995 and Burghley, England in 1997) with the top three European individuals and teams receiving medals. The first woman to win the competition was Shelia Wilcox in 1957, although women were not allowed to compete in the Olympics in eventing until 1964.
There is also a Championship held for young riders, juniors and ponies.
The Championships offers both team and individual gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Each nation may bring a team of four riders and two individuals. The team riders also compete for the individual gold, silver, and bronze medals. The host nation may bring up to eight individual riders, with a total squad of 12.
The best three scores among the teams—the team with the lowest number of penalty points—receive the gold, silver, and bronze medals. However, a team must have at least three riders completing the competition, or else they will be eliminated. If a team has four riders complete, there is a drop-score in their results. If three riders complete, all three scores are added into the final total for the team.
Beginning in 2005, the European Eventing Championships was held in the short-format, without the phases A, B, and C (roads and tracks, and steeplechase) on speed and endurance day. It included just the dressage, cross-country, and show jumping phases.
The competition begins with a horse inspection to make sure all competing horses are sound before beginning the dressage. Then the nations nominate their four team riders and the order they wish them to compete, before the order of nations is determined. The order of go is especially important on cross country day, when the first competitors have the best footing, but do not know how the course will ride, while the later competitors will know the tricky obstacles on course, but may have to run their horses on torn up or sloppy footing.
Britain's Ginny Elliot and Germany's Michael Jung are currently the only riders to have won the individual European Champion title three times in succession: Elliot became European Champion in 1985, 1987, and 1989; Jung became European Champion in 2011, 2013 and 2015. [1]
On eight occasions, riders of a single nation have swept the podium, winning all three medals; Great Britain on 7 occasions, most recently in 2021 [2] and Germany once in 2011.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Great Britain | 42 | 26 | 19 | 87 |
| 2 |  Germany | 12 | 16 | 14 | 42 |
| 3 |  Soviet Union | 4 | 5 | 1 | 10 |
| 4 |  France | 3 | 9 | 10 | 22 |
| 5 |  Ireland | 3 | 4 | 7 | 14 |
| 6 |  Sweden | 2 | 5 | 6 | 13 |
| 7 |  Switzerland | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 8 |  Poland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 |  Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 |  Italy | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 11 |  Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 |  Belgium | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 13 |  Spain | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (13 entries) | 70 | 69 | 67 | 206 | |
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.
Theodora Elisabeth Gerarda "Anky" van Grunsven is a Dutch dressage champion who is the only rider to record three successive Olympic wins in the same event. Along with her Olympic successes, she has won numerous medals at the World Equestrian Games (WEG), and is the only rider to have competed at every WEG since they began in 1990. Between 1990 and 2006, she competed at the Games in dressage, but in 2010 she was named as part of the Dutch reining team, marking a major change in discipline.
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 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.
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, German Democratic Republic (GDR), France, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA. 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.
The Equestrian events included three disciplines: dressage, eventing, and show jumping, and were held at the Deodoro Military Club.
The European Dressage Championships are the European championships for the equestrian discipline of dressage. They are held every two years in odd-numbered years. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded in both individual and team competitions. There are also championships held for juniors, young riders, and ponies. Since 2015, the competition has shared a site and branding with vaulting, reining, jumping, and driving events. For sponsorship reasons, eventing is not included, as it is part of the FEI European Championships, echoing the combined World Equestrian Games concept. The first official combined event took place in Aachen in 2015.
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.
Adelinde Cornelissen is a Dutch dressage rider.
The European Track Cycling Championships are a set of elite level competition events held annually for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling, exclusively for European cyclists, and regulated by the European Cycling Union (UEC). They were first held in their current format in 2010, when elite level cyclists competed for the first time following an overhaul of European track cycling.
Germany competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics after its reunification in 1990. The German Olympic Sports Confederation sent the nation's smallest delegation to the Games since its reunification. A total of 392 athletes, 218 men and 174 women, competed in 23 sports, and were nominated by DOSB on four occasions.
Laura Tomlinson MBE is a German-British dressage rider competing at Olympic level. As of 30 June 2012 the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) ranked her 3rd in the world riding Mistral Højris and 36th on Andretti H. In that year, Tomlinson, riding Mistral Højris under her maiden name of Laura Bechtolsheimer, won two medals in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; gold for Great Britain in the team dressage with Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, the first ever Olympic team gold in the discipline for her country, and bronze in the individual dressage behind gold medalist and compatriot Dujardin.
The 2011 European Dressage Championship was held between August 17 and August 21, 2011 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The 2011 European Eventing Championship was held from August 25 to August 28, 2011 in Luhmühlen, borough of the Samtgemeinde Salzhausen in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Michael Jung is a German equestrian who competes in eventing and show jumping. A three-time Olympic gold medallist, he won individual and team gold at the 2012 London Olympics, followed by individual gold and team silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He was inducted into the Eventing Rider Association Hall of Fame in 2013, and in 2016 he became only the second rider in history to win the Grand Slam of Eventing.
The equestrian events at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were held between 6 and 19 August at National Equestrian Center in Deodoro. Medals were awarded in three disciplines for both individual and team competitions.
The 2013 European Dressage Championship, known for sponsorship reasons as the Blue Hors European Dressage Championship was held between August 21 and August 25, 2013 in Herning, Denmark. It formed part of the 2013 FEI ECCO European Championships; other disciplines included were Showjumping and Para-Dressage.
Great Britain, or in full Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which represents the United Kingdom, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The individual eventing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place from 30 July to 2 August 2021 at the Baji Koen and Sea Forest Cross-Country Course. Like all other equestrian events, the eventing competition is open-gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division. 65 riders from 29 nations are expected to compete.
The team dressage event at the 2020 Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place from 24 to 27 July 2021 at the Baji Koen. Like all other equestrian events, the dressage competition is open-gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division. 45 riders from 15 nations are expected to compete.
The team eventing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place from 30 July to 2 August 2021 at the Baji Koen and Sea Forest Cross-Country Course. Like all other equestrian events, the eventing competition is open-gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division. 45 riders from 15 nations are expected to compete.