Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a maximum of 1 athlete.

Athletes qualified into one of six zones (Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australasia and Africa) containing five athletes.

As hosts, Argentina was automatically given a rider and up to 6 spots were available to the Tripartite Commission, though not all were used; this caused a reduction from the zone quota depending which zone the chosen athlete is from.

The remaining places were decided from qualification events or the 2017 FEI World Jumping Challenge (Category A) rankings.

[1][2] To be eligible to participate at the Youth Olympics athletes must have been born between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2003.