Equestrian at the 1936 Summer Olympics

54 riders from 18 nations competed in the jumping competition, with only 38 riders finishing the first round. Course designer August Andreae built a 1050 meter long course of 13 fences/20 jumping efforts at 1.30–1.60 meters in height. It included one double and three triple combinations and a 5-meter water jump. The jump-off course raised many fences, widened the water to 5.50 meters, and altered some of the distances between fences. Germany won its fifth equestrian gold medal in the Nations Cup. The individual medal placements required two jump-offs: the first to decide gold and silver between 2 riders who had only 1 knockdown up to that point. The second to determine bronze between 3 riders with 2 knock downs each.

The dressage competition had 29 riders from 11 nations, with the youngest rider, Heinz Pollay (age 28) winning individual gold. The 17-minute test had 22 movements, and was fought out between the Germans and the French, each with their own views of correct training. Both the individual gold and individual silver medal horses, Kronos and Absinth respectively, were originally trained by Otto Lörke. The youngest horse was 7-year-old Revue, and 5 of the horses competing, including the gold-medal winner Kronos, were only 8 years of age. There were also older horses competing, including 18-year-old Csintalan.

50 riders from 19 nations contested the eventing competition, but only 4 of the 14 nations fielding a team would finish, most with incredibly high scores. Germany won both individual and team gold medals, and there is some speculation as to whether, as the home nation, they knew some of the pitfalls of the cross-country course that the other teams did not. Three obstacles on the August Andreae-designed course would have been removed under today's standards of competition, especially after the heavy rain that fell the day before Endurance. Germany won with 676 points, Poland finishing second with 991 points. Britain finished third with 9,195 points, after one of their riders fell on cross-country and his horse had to be caught (the penalty clock continued to run, and with no time limit, the team just continued to rack up penalty points). Czechoslovakia finished fourth with 18,952 points, after Capt Kawecki fell (breaking 2 ribs) and loose his horse that had to be caught, while Otomar Bureš took nearly 3 hours to complete the course, resulting in him accruing 18130.70 penalty points.[2]

The dressage test was 13 minutes in length. The 36 km endurance course included a 7 km Roads and Tracks (Phase A) to be completed in 29 min 10 sec, followed by a 12-obstacle, 4 km steeplechase (6 min 40 sec optimum time), then Phase C (15 km Roads and Tracks in 62 min, 30 sec). The cross-country (Phase D) was an 8 km, 35-obstacle course with an optimum time of 17 min and 46 seconds. Phase E was a 2 km gallop in 6 minutes. The jumping phase had obstacles with a maximum height of 1.15 meters, width of 1.50 meters, and a water jump 3.5 meters wide.