The second set of equestrian medals of the Pan-American Games were handed out today with the United States again sweeping the golds. After Steffen Peters and the American dressage team placed first earlier in the week, Marilyn Little and her US team also had the pleasure of hearing The Star-Spangled Banner play in Toronto.

Team USA led in team eventing for the entire competition, finishing with a team score of 133.00 penalties. Dual Olympic gold medalist Phillip Dutton was the drop score for the team, finishing in tenth individually. The team accomplished its  goal for the tournament, not only winning gold, but also securing its berth for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The team needed to do well in Toronto after finishing a disappointing eleventh at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Normandy and thus failing to qualify at the time. 

The medal-winning teams have now all booked their tickets to Rio. Brazil won the silver medal with a team score of 140.70. Being the hosts, they received automatic qualification. The Canadian team finished in third place for bronze with a score of 163.00 penalties, but had qualified at the WEGs last year after the French team was disqualified following a positive test for a controlled medical substance. The rest of the countries participating in the team competition will only be able to send teams to Rio if they had enough qualified individuals.

The final order of teams was the USA, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador (186.10), Mexico (233.30), Chile (245.50), Uruguay (307.00), Colombia (329.40), Argentina (1191.40), Venezuela (2065.20) and Guatemala (2141.70). 

In the individual competition, all three medalists came from the top three teams. Little and her mount RF Scandalous finished on their dressage score of 40.30, succeeding in not occurring any penalties over the next two phases. They were followed by Canada's Jessica Phoenix and her horse Pavarotti, with whom she won the gold medal in individual eventing at the 2011 Pan Am Games. Phoenix was injured in a fall in May and was questionable for the Games, after suffering three broken ribs, a broken clavicle, a broken sacrum and requiring surgery to repair her liver. She finished with a score of 42.10, moving up one place when the leader going into show jumping knocked down a rail, incurring four penalties. Ruy Fonesca, who had been sitting in first place, finished in third with a final score of 42.90 on his ride Tom Bombadill Too.

Boyd Martin of the United States, Carlos Lobos of Chile, Carlos Perro of Brazil, Lauren Kieffer of United States, Colleen Loach of Canada, Marcio Carvalho Jorge of Brazil and Phillip Dutton of the United States round out the top ten, in that order.