Individual, Men

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 finished with only 12 faults to move into the lead. The last rider was the Japanese Takeichi, Baron Nishi on Uranus 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.