44 fun Olympic equestrian facts from youngest to oldest and so much more…

With the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics just around the corner, we take a look at some fun facts about the equestrian element of the games with these key Olympics facts.

History

1. Britain is the only nation to have won at least one gold medal at every summer games.
2. Former Olympic equestrian events that are no longer held include the horse high jump, horse long jump, vaulting and polo.
3. Equestrianism at the Olympics can be traced back to 682 BC, when a four-horse chariot race was run at theHippodrome at Greece’s 25th Olympiad.
4. More athletes than spectators attended the 1900 Paris Olympics.
5. The 1908 Olympics had just two polo teams, England and Ireland, with the English winning gold.
6. The sport of eventing made its Olympic debut in 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden.
7. From 1912 the equestrian disciplines were those we know today, but there was no dressage team medal until 1928.
8. In 1912 the dressage competition included a jumping test of four obstacles up to 1.10m in height.
9. Modern pentathlon first appeared at the 1912 games.
10. The 1924 Olympics were the first at which equestrian competitions were held under the authority of the FEI.
11. Germany won all six equestrian medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
12. In 1936 Austria’s Arthur von Pongracz competed in the dressage at the age 72, becoming one of the oldest ever competitors at the Olympics.
13. The 1936 games were the first to be televised.
14. The first Paralympic Games were held in London in 1948.
15. Until the 1952 Olympics, only commissioned military officers were allowed to compete in the equestrian disciplines.
16. Women first participated in Olympic eventing at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
17. Danish rider Lisa Hartel won a silver medal in the dressage at the 1952 games, despite having to be lifted on and off her horse because she’d been paralysed from the waist down by polio.
18. The 1956 Olympic equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden rather than Melbourne, Australia, due to strict Australian quarantine requirements.
19. At Rome in 1960, Australia’s Bill Roycroft broke his neck in the cross-country phase of the team eventing. But he discharged himself from hospital the next day to complete his showjumping round and help Australia claim the gold medal.
20. Drug rules for horses were bought in at the 1972 Munich Olympics, but there were no doping tests undertaken at that games.
21. The oldest woman to compete in the Olympics to date was British dressage rider Lorna Johnstone, who participated in the 1972 games aged 70.
22. Princess Anne was part of the British eventing team at the 1976 games in Montreal.
23. The best all-time performing Olympic equestrian athlete is Germany’s Reiner Klimke, who competed between 1964-1988 winning six dressage gold medals.
24. Women competed in modern pentathlon at the Olympics for the first time at Sydney in 2000, where Britain’s Stephanie Cook and Kate Allenby won gold and bronze.
25. The 2004 Athens Paralympic Games was the first time that all riders competed on their own horses. Before that they rode borrowed horses that they “chose” via a draw.
26. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics the equestrian events were held in Hong Kong.
27. Canada’s Ian Millar – who won silver in the team showjumping – was the oldest medalist at the 2008 games at the age of 61.
28. In 2008 Lee Pearson won his ninth Paralympic medal in Hong Kong.
29. The 2008 games began at exactly 8:08:08 pm on 08/08/08 because the number eight is supposedly lucky in China.
30. Alex Hua Tian became China’s first Olympic rider when he competed at the Beijing games in 2008.
31. Sixty-seven-year-old Japanese dressage rider Hiroshi Hoketsu competed in his second Olympics in 2008 – 44 years after his first, as a show jumper, in Tokyo, 1964.
32. The first South American city to host the Olympic Games was Rio in 2016.
33. The youngest person to compete at the Olympics Games in the equestrian sports was 16-year-old Luiza Almeida of Brazil in the dressage at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
34. 2,067 riders have competed approximately 4,000 times in Olympic competitions since 1912.
35. 43 riders have competed in five or more Olympics; Ian Miller (Canada) has participated nine times, and Andrew Hoy has attended eight Games so far – he is currently on track make his ninth Olympic appearance in Paris this year.
36. Isabell Werth currently holds the record for winning the most Olympic equestrian medals, with seven gold and five silver to her name.
37. Charlotte Dujardin currently holds the record for winning the most medals for the British equestrian team with three gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals.
38. Sam, the event horse ridden by Germany’s Michael Jung, held Olympic, European and world titles all at the same time.
39. Valegro, the ride of dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin, won Olympic, European and world championships.
40. Equestrian events are the only Olympic events to include animals in competition.
41. Anky van Grunsven is the only individual equestrian competitor to win gold medals at three consecutive Olympic Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
42. The minimum age for riders to compete in eventing or showjumping is 18-years-old. For dressage and para dressage it is 16-years-old.
43. Horses competing in dressage or eventing must be a minimum of eight-years-old, six-years-old for para dressage and nine-years-old for showjumping.
44. All competing horses must be owned by someone of the same nationality as the competitor before the end of the year prior to the games.

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Gemma Redrup

H&H features, racing and point-to-point editor

Gemma is an experienced journalist, having been part of the H&H team since 2014, who is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at in August 2018. Gemma’s reporting talents have taken her to numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.