The Final Horse Inspection for the 35 horses confirmed to compete in the Olympic Individual Final proceeded smoothly on Thursday, August 18th at Deodoro’s National Equestrian Center in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
All horses passed the jog, with only one horse–Harrie Smolder’s Emerald—sent to the holding box. Upon re-presentation, Emerald was accepted. A handful of horses were asked to jog twice but the ground jury found that all horses were fit to compete.
The deciding rounds for the Individual Olympic Final will get underway at 10:00am local time on Friday, August 19th. The entire start list will jump Round A.
At 1:30pm local time, the top 20 combinations will return to jump Round B, and contest a possible jumpoff if scores for Gold, Silver, or Bronze medals are tied. All combinations start the Individual Final on zero faults.
Over the three previous days of Olympic competition, Individuals were ranked according to their performance, with the top 35 moving on to the Final. Due to Olympic rules that allow just three riders from each nation to progress, Switzerland’s Janika Sprunger is forced to sit out the Final. All four members of Team Switzerland qualified in the top group, and chef d’equipe Andy Kistler had to make the tough choice to leave one of his riders off the start list.
Official Startlist, Rio 2016 Individual Olympic Final: