Individual, Open

Hans-Heinrich Brinckmann designed the courses. The individual competition was held over two rounds, with the courses as follows: round one – 760 metres, 14 obstacles / 17 jumps; round two – 660 metres, 10 obstacles / 13 jumps. In the first round the water jump was 5.00 metres wide. There were five oxers, four 2.00 metres wide and one 2.10 metres wide.

The 1970 World Champion was Britain’s David Broome, who had won bronze at Mexico City in 1968. There was also a women’s World Championship in 1970, won by France’s Janou Lefèbvre, but she would struggle in München and place only 37th. The event consisted of two rounds, with the top 20 riders in round one advancing to the final round. The total score for both rounds determined placements. It took a score of 8.25 faults or better to make the second round, with three riders going clear in round one – Italy’s Graziano Mancinelli, Britain’s Ann Moore, and Canada’s Jim Day. Day would drop back to a tie for fourth, but Mancinelli and Moore tied after the second round with eight faults, and they were matched by American Neal Shapiro, who had four faults in both rounds. The three entered a jump-off, which was won by Mancinelli with another clean round. Moore took the silver medal with three faults in the jump-off, while Shapiro’s eight faults left him with the bronze.