Find part 1 here: 1936 Olympic Cross Country
The 1936 Olympic equestrian cross country course was notorious with dastardly goings on suspected.
There were 28 fallers at Fence 4, The Pond, 3 of whom had to be destroyed as a result of injuries sustained at the fence.
The Pond actually appeared to be a straightforward 3 foot post and rail fence into water, cross the pond, and jump out again. But as the horses started going round the course taking the quickest, straightest route through the water they found that it was suddenly deeper than it had appeared on the course inspection, and the surface underneath was soft and boggy.
Of the 48 starters only 15 successfully negoitated The Pond these included the whole German team who all took a wider, longer route to the left of the fence!
The Germans won Gold.
If you liked this you might be interested in some Olympic videos posted here on Horse Sense :
Show Jumping at the 1976 Olympic's Montreal
Olympic Show Jumping Munich 1972
Mexico 1968 and Pointer to Olympics : Tokyo 1964
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