FOUR riders were disqualified from the Olympic show jumping in Rio de Janeiro under the FEI rule on horse bleeding due to excessive use of spurs or whip.

The Ukraine’s Cassio Rivetti (Fine Fleur du Marais) and Brazil’s home-crowd favourite Stephan De Freitas Barcha (Landpeter Do Feroleto) were disqualified after round two, while Jur Vireling (Zirocco Blue) of the Netherlands and Belgian rider Nicola Philippaerts (Zilverstar T) were also disqualified under the so-called blood rule on Sunday.