The dressage and most of the 3-day-event were carried out on the grounds of the [Riviera Country Club]. One of the best known golf courses in the world, it has hosted three major championships – the US Open in 1948 and the PGA Championship in 1983 and 1995, and has been the traditional home of the Los Angeles Open since the 1940s. The cross-country portion of the 3-day event took place near Inglewood, California. The show jumping competition was held in the Olympic Stadium, the [Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum]. The riding courses were laid out by [Snowy Baker], Australian boxing and swimming Olympian from 1908, who now lived in Los Angeles, managed a polo club, and taught horse skills.

The German riders did not attend for financial reasons, despite having several favored riders. The competitions had very small fields because of the travel distance to the American West Coast and the world-wide depression. Although there were few athletes present, public interest was very strong. Show jumping, the final event of the Olympics, was already sold out only a few days after tickets went on sale. Of interest, all three individual gold medal horses were French-bred\: [Taine] (dressage), [Marcroix] (Eventing), and [Uranus] (Jumping).

The equestrian events at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Games included dressage (team and individual medals), eventing (team and individual medals), and show jumping (individual medals while team medals were not awarded). The competitions were held from August 10 to 14, 1932. Due to the Great Depression, and the fact that the Games were held in Los Angeles (which was considerably difficult for the European nations to travel to), only 35 entries from 6 nations competed—which was to be the lowest participation of any Olympic Games.

There were only 10 entrants from four nations (France, Mexico, Sweden, United States). Piaffe and passage were required for the first time. France was led by [Charles Marion] on Linon, silver medalist from 1928, and [Xavier Lesage] on Taine, bronze medalist from 1924. In the end Lesage would win the gold medal, with Marion taking silver. Originally the second-place finisher was Swedish rider [Bertil Sandström], but he was disqualified after protests from the French and Americans, who accused him of making clicking noises with his tongue to give instructions to his horse. Sandström claimed that he made no such noises, but that what was heard was a creaking saddle. The protest was upheld, however, and he was dropped to 10th and last place, although his score was allowed to stand for the team dressage event.

Scoring was by ordinals from among the three judges, with total points used as the tiebreaker. Marion and American [Hiram Tuttle] tied for second with 7 ordinals, but Marion won the silver medal with a higher point score. Tuttle’s bronze remains, through 2012, the only individual Olympic dressage medal won by a United States’ rider. His horse was aptly named Olympic, which he had purchased for the total sum of $1.

The individual dressage in equestrian at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades on August 10.

France's Xavier Lesage won the gold medal and his countrymen Charles Marion the silver. The bronze was won by Hiram Tuttle of the United States.

Competition format

The team and individual dressage competitions used the same results. Competition consisted of a single phase, with the final standings decided by ordinals. Ties were broken using total points.

The team dressage competition consisted of “passive scoring,” in which each team’s score was obtained simply by adding together the scores of their riders from the individual event. There were only three teams entered in the dressage competition – France, Sweden, and the United States – so they were all guaranteed medals. As French riders – [Xavier Lesage] and [Charles Marion] – had finished 1-2 in the individual event, France easily won the gold medal. Sweden won silver, led by Bertil Sandström, who originally placed second in the individual event. But Sandström was disqualified after protests from the French and Americans, who claimed he had made clicking noises to give instructions to his horse. Sandström claimed the noises were from a creaking saddle, but the protests was upheld and he was placed last individually. However, in what can charitably be called an unusual ruling, his score was allowed to count with no deduction for the team event, allowing Sweden to receive the silver medal.

The team dressage in equestrian at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades on August 10.

Competition format

The team and individual dressage competitions used the same results. Final standings were determined by adding the total points from each rider in the individual competition.

The jumping event was held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the course was noted to be brutally difficult. It was designed by [John Barry], who rode for the USA at the 1920 and 1924 Olympics, and [Sloan Doak], an Olympian in 1920-28, and had 18 obstacles and 20 jumping efforts over a length of 1,060 metres. Only 11 riders from four nations started the competition, but the course was so hard that only five riders finished. The rules stated that three refusals by a horse eliminated horse and rider, which led to the small finishing field.

[Clarence von Rosen, Jr.] had already won a bronze medal in Los Angeles in the 3-day event, and was the early leader in the competition. But American Harry Chamberlin on [Show Girl](/horses/2281) finished with only 12 faults to move into the lead. The last rider was the Japanese [Takeichi, Baron Nishi] on [Uranus](/horses/2564) who came through with only 8 faults to win the gold medal, with Chamberlin taking silver and von Rosen bronze.

Takeichi, the 2nd Baron Nishi, was well-known in America, and very popular among the Hollywood crowd, but paradoxically would also be a top Japanese Imperial Army officer during World War II. In 1944, Baron Nishi was named regimental commander of the 26th Tank Regiment, Mudanjiang, which was assigned to defend Iwo Jima. He died during the defense of Iwo Jima, but circumstances of his death are not precisely known and many stories have circulated as to the cause. Some stories say he committed suicide, some say he was killed by machine-gun fire, and some say he was killed by American flamethrowers. His horse, Uranus, died one week later.

The individual jumping in equestrian at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was held on 14 August. The event was called the "Prix des Nations" at the time.

The same scores were used for both the individual and team competitions. While individual medals were awarded, none of the teams managed to have three riders finish the course so team medals were not awarded. The 18-obstacle, 20-effort course was 1,060 meters in length, and included two fences at 1.60 meters, a very difficult wall, and a water that was 5 meters in width. 100,000 spectators were present at the show jumping competition.

There were only four nations entered in the jumping event, with only Mexico, Sweden, and the United States having three riders and thus able to enter a full team in the team competition. The course was set out in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and was noted to be very difficult. It was designed by [John Barry], who rode for the USA at the 1920 and 1924 Olympics, and [Sloan Doak], an Olympian in 1920-28, and had 18 obstacles and 20 jumping efforts over a length of 1,060 metres. Further, three refusals by a horse disqualified horse and rider and this rule, and the course difficulty, meant that only five riders finished the event. No team had three riders finish the course, so all the teams were disqualified and no medals were awarded.

The team jumping in equestrian at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was held on 14 August. The event was called the "Prix des Nations" at the time

There were 14 entrants led by the defending gold medalist, [Charles Pahud de Mortanges] of the Netherlands. The competition started on the polo field and golf course at the Riviera Country Club, with the cross-country ride being held near Inglewood, California, and the jumping held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The scoring was heavily weighted towards the endurance phase, with 400 points possible in the dressage, 1,300 in the steeplechase and cross-country, and 300 in the jumping, for a possible total of 2,000 points.

American [Harry Chamberlin] took the lead in the dressage followed by his teammate [Eddie Argo], with Pahud de Mortanges placed third. The cross-country and steeplechase phase was won by American [Earl Thomson], and moved into the overall lead, with Pahud de Mortanges second in jumping and also overall. Chamberlin was far back in this phase, and Argo even further behind. Argo came back to win the jumping phase quite comfortably, with only a minor time penalty, but Pahud de Mortanges placed second in jumping to defend his gold medal. Thomson struggled in the jumping but held on for the silver medal, with the bronze going to Pahud de Mortanges' teammate [Clarence von Rosen, Jr.]. Thomson would return in 1936 and again win the silver medal in the individual 3-day event.

Pahud de Mortanges had an interesting life. In 1938 he sustained a serious wrist injury, almost causing his hand to be amputated, which ended his riding career. In 1942 he was taken as a prisoner-of-war but escaped in 1943 by jumping out of a train and travelling to Gibraltar. He took part in the Normandy landings as a major, and was later made Chief of H. M. Military House from 1954-62. He was also President of the Dutch NOC in 1946-51 and 1959-64.

The individual eventing in equestrian at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was held at the Riviera Country Club (dressage), a specially built course in Westchester (cross-country), and the Olympic Stadium (jumping) from 10 to 13 August. NOCs were limited to three horse and rider pairs.

Charles Pahud de Mortanges and Marcroix, the defending gold medalists, became the first equestrian pair to repeat as champions. They did so despite not winning any of the three stages.

Five nations had entered the 3-day event, with Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States having the full complement of three riders, while Mexico had two entrants. The competition was held by “passive scoring,” with the team scores made up of the scores of the riders in the individual 3-day event. Only the Netherlands and the United States had three riders finish the individual event, with the United States comfortably winning the gold medal over the Netherlands. The US team won all three phases of the competition, with Japan and Sweden eliminated in the steeplechase and cross-country phase on the second day.

The team eventing in equestrian at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was held at the Riviera Country Club (dressage), a specially built course in Westchester (cross-country), and the Olympic Stadium (jumping) from 10 to 13 August. NOCs were limited to three horse and rider pairs.

Of the four teams that entered the competition, two had all three members finish. No bronze medal was awarded.