The horse inspection sees horses trotted in front of judges while a veterinary adviser checks they are in good health before the competition starts.

Thomas argued that the horse inspection at Greenwich Park on July 27, the day of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, should be ticketed.

But while London 2012 has not ticketed the horse inspection on the day of the Opening Ceremony, they have announced that the horse inspection on July 31 can be viewed by spectators with tickets to the jumping element that day.

Spectator gates at Greenwich Park will now open at 7.45am on July 31 with the horse inspection to begin at 8.15am.

Tickets holders to the final jumping element of the eventing competition will, therefore, be able to see the entire last day process.


The final horse inspection has become a popular public feature at major events, with London 2012 saying that they have worked hard to change the schedule to make this change possible.

Around 20,000 spectators are due to attend the competition on July 31 and Ingmar De Vos, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) secretary general, has welcomed the announcement.

"The FEI is happy that LOCOG has revised the access schedule on July 31 to allow spectators into the venue in plenty of time to watch the final horse inspection for eventing," he said.

"July 31 is a particularly important day for equestrian sport, as it is the day when the first medals will be decided in equestrian sport's centenary year."

The move has not changed Thomas' stance but his goddaughter Phillips (pictured below) will still be competing at London 2012 after the 31-year-old was selected to represent Britain's eventing team at the Olympics earlier this month.




The 2006 world champion, is following in the footsteps of her parents, who both rode in the Olympics for Britain.

Her mother, the Princess Royal, competed at the Montreal 1976 Games, while her father Captain Mark Phillips was a team gold medallist at Munich in 1972 and won silver in Seoul 16 years later.

Phillips is married to Mike Tindall, a member of the England team that won the Rugby World Cup in 2003.

She will ride High Kingdom at Greenwich Park after missing Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 because her world title winning horse Toytown was injured.

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