Equestrian Olympic London 2012

he Olympic Opening Ceremony takes place on 27 July and will be followed by 12 days of equestrian competition, with the world’s best athletes competing for six gold medals in the Olympic disciplines of eventing, dressage and show jumping. The equestrian events all take place at the Greenwich Park venue. Eventing opens the Olympic equestrian events on 28 July with two days of dressage, followed by cross-country on 30 July and two rounds of show jumping on 31 July to decide the team and individual medals. Dressage as an individual sport starts on 2 August with two days of Grand Prix competition, which forms the first qualifier for both the team and individual. The top seven teams and 11 best-placed individuals go forward to the Grand Prix special on 7 August, which will decide the team medals. The freestyle to music to decide the individual medals takes place on 9 August. The first qualifier show jumping as an individual sport will be on 4 August. The two-round team decider is on 5 and 6 August. Team medals will be presented on 6 August. The two rounds of show jumping to decide the

LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES EQUESTRIAN EVENTS TIMETABLE

27 Jul Opening Ceremony 

28 Jul Eventing – Individual and team Dressage 

29 Jul Eventing – Individual and team Dressage 

30 Jul Eventing – Individual and team Cross Country

31 Jul Eventing – Jumping 1st round individual qualifier and team final 2nd round individual final

02 Aug Dressage – Individual and team Grand Prix 1st qualifier 

03 Aug Dressage – Individual and team Grand Prix 1st qualifier

04 Aug Jumping – 1st qualifier 

05 Aug Jumping – individual 2nd qualifier and team 1st round

06 Aug Jumping – individual 3rd qualifier and 2nd round team final

07 Aug Dressage – Grand Prix special 2nd individual qualifier and team final

08 Aug Jumping - individual round A and individual round B final

09 Aug Dressage - freestyle individual final

12 Aug closing ceremony

Jumping

Jumping (known as ‘Show Jumping’ in the United Kingdom) takes place in an arena, around a course of approximately 15 fences. Jumping courses are now highly technical, requiring boldness, scope, power, accuracy and control from both horse and rider. The fences are designed so that if the horse hits them as they jump them, part or all of the fence will knock down and the rider will be penalised with ‘faults’. Faults are also awarded if the rider does not complete the course within a set time. The winner is the rider with the fewest faults; if there is a tie, the result is decided by jumping a shortened course as fast as possible without knocking fences down (“against the clock”). The Team medal is decided over three rounds by four riders and the Individual medals over five rounds.EventingThe Eventing competition (formerly called the Three Day Event) takes place over four days. Days One and Two are Dressage, Day Three is Cross Country and Day four is Jumping.The Dressage and Jumping phases are similar to the pure Dressage and Jumping competitions. In the Cross Country event, riders have to complete a course over natural terrain of between 6270m and 7410m. The course contains solid obstacles that test the nerve, boldness, scope and partnership of horse and rider; faults are awarded for run-outs, exceeding the specified time limit and falls of either horse or rider. The rider with the fewest penalties at the end of the competition is the winner, with the Team Medals decided by the best three scores from each nation.