Individual, Open

Barbara Kemp became the first woman to design an Olympic cross-country course. The total length of the endurance course was 27,465 metres. Of the 7,695 metres of cross-country, which contained 36 obstacles, 3,200 metres went over a golf course (obstacles 10 to 25), 900 metres were in the forest, 1,300 metres on gravel roads, and 2,300 metres over meadows.

American Bruce Davidson had won the 1974 World Championships at the Burghley Horse Trials. Mark Phillips had won at Burghley in 1973 and at Badminton in 1974 but was not on the British team for Montréal. Britain did have Richard Meade, the defending gold medalist, Lucinda Prior-Palmer, the 1973 Badminton Champion, and of course, HRH Princess Anne. West German Karl Schultz took the lead after the dressage, followed by Davidson. Schultz then finished fifth in the endurance phase and took the lead after the jumping. The endurance contest was led by American J. Michael Plumb followed by his teammate Tad Coffin. Coffin moved into second, followed by Plumb, with Prior-Palmer in fourth, and Meade fifth going into the jumping, as Davidson struggled and dropped back to 11th place.

Schultz made two faults in the jumping, costing him 20 points, and this dropped him off the top step of the podium and down to a bronze medal. Coffin rode cleanly in jumping, as did 11 other riders, which brought him the gold medal. Plumb had one fault in jumping but was able to hold onto second place and the silver medal. Plumb first competed at the Olympics in 1960 and would compete in seven Olympics through 1992, also making the 1980 US Olympic team. He would win six Olympic medals, including two golds, a team gold in Montréal and another at Los Angeles in 1984.