Equestrian (Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for Nintendo 3DS)

Equestrian is an Event that appears in the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The objective of the event is to complete the course in the fastest time possible while trying not to knock down any fences. The playable characters in this event are Mario, Bowser Jr., Larry, Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Blaze and Mii, with Larry being unlocked by beating him in Equestrian Plus on the fourth day of Sonic's story in the Road to Rio mode. A Toad appears as referee in this event.

In the Road to Rio mode, Equestrian appears as the event on day 4 of Sonic's story.

Gameplay
To start this event, the player must move the Circle Pad upwards to start, and must continue to hold it up to cause the horse to accelerate. The player must continue to do this throughout the event as the horse slowly starts to decelerate over time. The player can also manually decelerate by moving the Circle Pad downwards. The player must also use the Circle Pad to steer their horse and remain on the ideal path shown on screen. Remaining on this path will allow their horse to run faster and make the jumps easier to perform. When the player reaches a jump, they must press the B Button to jump over it, the timing of which is indicated by the red section of the jump area on the floor in front of the jump. Successfully jumping over the fence will give the player a speed boost, however failing to do so will cause the horse to knock over the jump, lose speed and gain a 2 second penalty. After completing each jump, the player is given either a "Perfect", "Great", "Good" or "Miss" rating for each jump, as well as being told whether they jumped the fence either too early or too late. The player also can charge up their Super Dash Gauge throughout the event by picking up the Charge Balls on the track or by performing "Great" and "Perfect" jumps. Once the gauge is filled, the player can press the X Button to perform a Super Dash, which increase the horse's speed for a short period of time. The gauge can fill to allow the player to perform three different levels of Super Dash, with each requiring the gauge to be filled to a different level but giving the player a faster speed and longer dash for the higher-level Super Dashes.

Advice

 * You can use the Super Dash as many times as you have Charge Balls. Pick up and use as many as you can.
 * Using several Super Dash charges a once gives a longer effect and faster speed boost than using one charge at a time.
 * The Super Dash Gauge fills rapidly when you jump close to obstacles.