All Horses Accepted at Rio Olympics First Horse Inspection

Team USA's game faces are ON! Photo by Jenni Autry. Team USA's game faces are ON! Photo by Jenni Autry.

It’s another sunny, stunning day here in Rio de Janeiro, and the eventing horses and riders took to the jog strip early this morning for the first horse inspection at the 2016 Olympic Games. All horses that presented to the ground jury of Andrew Bennie, Sandy Phillips and the USA’s own Marilyn Payne were accepted.

Just one horse was sent to the holding box: Albert Hermoso Farrar’s mount Hito CP, the sole combination representing Spain in the competition; the stallion was accepted upon re-presentation.

Two horses were asked to jog twice: Nicolas Wettstein’s mount Nadeville Merze, who is competing as an individual for Ecuador, and Jock Paget’s mount Clifton Lush for the New Zealand team. Both were accepted after their second pass down the jog strip.

Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master. Photo by Jenni Autry.

One horse was withdrawn prior to presenting: Anna Nilsson’s mount Luron for the Swedish team. Unfortunately, the horse has developed a throat infection and could not be presented as a result. Sweden’s traveling reserve Linda Algotsson and Fairnet will now step up to take their place on the Swedish team.

We saw a wide variety of fashion statements at the first horse inspection, with riders wearing everything from track suits and shorts to full suits and dresses. The fabulous ladies of the Canadian team looked very classy in their red polo shirts and white jeans, with Team USA keeping the yacht club look alive in coordinating navy blazers.

Germany and Ireland both jogged in track suits, and Great Britain bravely bared their legs to the masses in seasonably appropriate shorts and sneakers. The Australian and Russian teams definitely stole the show in pinstripe blazers, and the New Zealand team looked very dapper in suits. Scroll down to see a photo gallery, and keep refreshing this post as I add more.

Life goals: Be like Ingrid. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Life goals: Be like Ingrid. Photo by Jenni Autry.

We’re expecting dressage ride times at about 11 a.m. local time/10 a.m. EST, so stay tuned for those as well. We have a ton of amazing content to bring you from #Rio2016. We’re teaming up with Shannon Brinkman to bring you an amazing cross country course preview that captures the energy and vibrance of Rio.

Now that all the teams have been finalized, we’re also rolling out our giant Olympic preview guide later today, plus the first of Maggie Deatrick’s predictions on what we can expect to see in each phase and, ultimately, who might be standing on the podium come Tuesday.

If you missed EN’s exclusive interviews with Team USA yesterday, click here, then click here to catch up on all our coverage from Rio so far. As always, you can follow along with even more photos and behind the scenes moments on EN’s Instagram. Go Eventing.

#Rio2016: WebsiteSchedule & ResultsEN’s CoverageTwitterInstagram