With less than three years to go to until the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28), the Organising Committee has unveiled the official competition schedule. Equestrian events will kick off with Eventing, followed by Dressage and wrap up with Jumping.
The timetable
The timetable of the equestrian competitions for the LA28 Olympic Games can be accessed here. It has been carefully designed with the climatic conditions in mind, ensuring an optimal set-up, particularly for the horses and athletes as well as for all the other participants and spectators.
As with previous Olympic Games, the timetable is provisional and will remain subject to change through to Games-time in 2028. The equestrian schedule at the Paralympic Games will be announced at a later date.
“Following an in-depth presentation of LA28 at the FEI General Assembly 2025 on 7 November in Hong Kong, China, the announcement of the competition schedule for the Olympic Games is great news,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos commented. “The equestrian events will take place over 16 days starting on 14 July, the day of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, and ending on 29 July, the day before the closing ceremony. It is well balanced and mindful of horse and athlete welfare. It includes three days without competition, which will allow for the horses and athletes to ease into the event, prepare and rest comfortably. It also permits for adjustments in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
“We are very pleased with the progress in preparations for the LA28 Olympic equestrian events accomplished over the past few months and look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the organising committee over the next three years.
“The IOC’s confirmation that equestrian would retain the same medal events and quota places as for Paris 2024 is a very positive development as is the approval of Santa Anita Park in Arcadia as the venue for all the equestrian competitions. A solid basis has been set and we anticipate truly outstanding LA28 Olympic equestrian events in a wonderful setting.”
Some details
Eventing will be the first equestrian discipline in competition with the horse inspection taking place on July 14, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Competition proper will begin on July 15 at 09:00 local time with Eventing Dressage, which will continue on the following day. The cross-country will be held on July 17 and the first equestrian medals of LA28 will be won on July 18 with the Team and Individual Eventing Finals.
The horse inspection for Dressage will be conducted in the morning of July 18 prior to the Eventing Finals. The Dressage Grand Prix will take place over two days, on July 20 and 21, followed by the Grand Prix Special on July 22, which is the Dressage Team Final. There will be no competition scheduled the following day the with the Jumping and Dressage second horse inspections taking place. The sport will resume on July 24 with the Dressage Individual Final – the Grand Prix Freestyle – with the Jumping re-inspection taking place in the early morning.
The Team Qualifier in Jumping – the last Olympic equestrian discipline at competition in LA28 – is scheduled for July 25 with the Team Final planned for July 26. The second Jumping horse inspection and re-inspection will take place on July 27 and will be followed by the Jumping Individual Qualifier on July 28. The Jumping Individual Final will conclude the LA28 Olympic equestrian calendar on July 29.
No competitions are planned for July 19, 23, and 27.
Key facts and figures
- With three disciplines and 200 quota places, equestrian will be one of the 31 sports on the programme of the LA28 Olympic Games. The six medal equestrian events will be part of the 25 mixed events across all sports and the 351 events overall in LA28.
- The LA28 programme maintains the core athlete quota of 10,500 with an extra 698 allocated for the five sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee (Baseball/Softball, Cricket, Flag Football, Lacrosse and Squash).
- A record breaking 50 nations participated in equestrian at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The number of nations in Paris 2024 was 49. The number of nations competing in equestrian in Los Angeles in 1984 had been 30.
- Santa Anita Park in Arcadia has been confirmed as the venue of the equestrian events of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28).
- The FEI Board appointed unanimously Alec Lochore (GBR) as the Eventing course designer and Alan Wade (IRL) as the Jumping course designer for the LA28 Olympic Games.
- Equestrian sport is the only Olympic sport in which men and women compete as equals from grass roots all the way up to Olympic level.
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