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Olympic Equestrian Dressage competitions are already well underway and, by tomorrow morning, all equine athletes will have settled into their temporary home at the historic Equestrian Park venue in Baji Koen, with the arrival of the final batch of Show Jumping horses. To allow our equine and human athletes to optimise their performance in the Tokyo climate, comprehensive heat and humidity protocols have been put in place by the FEI and the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic & Paralympic Games (TOCOG).
The FEI has been working on minimising the impact of heat and humidity on performance since before the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, and the work on Tokyo 2020 is a continuation of that.
Heat countermeasures in place onsite at both Equestrian venues for equine athletes:
Stable Manager Patrick Borg is proud of the onsite accommodation provided for the horses by the Baji Koen venue owners, the Japan Racing Association: "We can compare the stables in Tokyo with the Ritz in Paris. It’s five-star stabling for the horses. We try to do the very best for them.”
Baji Koen stables:
Heat countermeasures in place onsite at both Equestrian venues for humans:
“We have ongoing and direct contact with the Weather Information Centre, which is constantly monitoring the weather specifically for the two Equestrian venues, providing us with detailed information that allows the onsite team to make informed decisions on whether there may be a need to delay or interrupt a competition”, FEI Veterinary Director Göran Akerström said. “If there is bad weather forecast then we receive hourly updates, and this can be more frequent if necessary.”
Official weather data and forecasts (primarily WBGT readings) from the official Tokyo 2020 weather provider, Japan Meteorological Agency, form the basis of decision-making, combined with in-situ readings. In addition, onsite conditions are monitored multiple times a day by the FEI Climate Advisor David Marlin, in liaison with the FEI Veterinary Director, FEI Veterinary Commission, FEI Chief Steward and Tokyo 2020 Sport team.
To assist National Federations with optimal preparation for the Games, the FEI produced a series of educational Beat the Heat videos, aimed at optimising both human and equine performance in hot and humid conditions. Practical advice has been made available through the FEI Athlete hub, as well as on the dedicated Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic hub.
Alongside its own research, the FEI has made available to its community a number of important documents, including the IOC advice – Beat the Heat – for human athletes preparing for the Games. These are available on the Olympic Hub here and Paralympic Hub here (scroll down to the Medical, Veterinary & Climate Information sections).
Team Germany continued to build up a head of steam when moving to the top of the Dressage Grand Prix leaderboard at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games today. Two great rides, from Dorothee Schneider with Showtime and the living legend that is Isabell Werth with Bella Rose, secured pole position at the end of the competition which decided the eight best nations that will go through to Tuesday’s medal-decider, the Grand Prix Special in which all teams start from scratch.
Joining the defending champions will be Great Britain, who finished second today followed by Denmark, USA, Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal and Spain.
Meanwhile the 18 individuals that have made the cut to Wednesday’s Individual medal decider are also confirmed. The two best from each of the six qualifying groups - Charlotte Fry and Charlotte Dujardin (GBR), Therese Nilshagen and Juliette Ramel (SWE), Cathrine Dufour and Carina Cassoe Kruth (DEN), Edward Gal (NED), Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, Dorothee Schneider and Isabell Werth (GER), Sabine Schut-Kery and Adrienne Lyle (USA) are through. Also qualified are the six next-best individuals, Nanna Skodborg Merrald (DEN), Beatriz Ferrer-Salat (ESP), Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED), Carl Hester (GBR), Rodrigo Torees (POR) and Steffen Peters (USA).
Top two spots
Denmark’s Cassoe Kruth and America’s Lyle claimed the top two spots in Group D when the action resumed this evening, and then Germany’s Schneider headed up Group E after a lovely test. Schneider said her horse was “a little bit tense but it’s normal for him on first day”. She’s had a late return to top competition for a range of reasons.
“Showtime competed at the European Championships in 2019 and then he was at home because I wanted to keep him safe for the Olympic Games in 2020 and then there were no Games! I wanted to start early in 2021 but then I had an accident in April. But he’s an experienced horse and once he gets out to compete three or four times he’s fine”, she said of the gelding who carried her to team gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and who she has ridden since he was a three-year-old.
A fall when a horse she was competing dropped dead during a prizegiving ceremony left her with a broken collarbone, “but it’s all good now!”, she said. “It took a little time to come back and it wasn’t so easy mentally, but we are back now and I’m happy again”, she explained.
Solidity
Compatriot Werth headed up the final group of 10 horse-and-athlete combinations and, last to go tonight, underpinned the solidity of the German challenge. With her beloved Bella Rose who scored 82.500 she pinned Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and the charming little chestnut gelding Gio into second place in that group. However both of these ladies look to have a lot more in store for the coming days. And Dujardin, whose reign of supremacy with the great Valegro changed a lot about the sport of Dressage in recent years, is clearly super-excited about her latest rising star. You could feel that rivalry between herself and the evergreen queen, Werth, filling the air once again tonight.
Talking about Gio, Dujardin said, “I was so happy, he’s a very green inexperienced horse, so it was a bit of the unknown what to expect. Hagen (Germany in April this year) is the biggest show he’s done and he delivered there. I couldn’t ask for any more today, he went in there and he tried his heart out. He’s just unbelievable, he keeps giving. I felt emotional on the last centreline because when you have a ride like that, win or lose that’s what it’s all about for me.
“He’s like a little powerhouse, he’s small but definitely mighty, for where he is at his training I know he can give even more and I’m so happy with him”, she said.
Rivalry
Werth clearly enjoys the renewed rivalry with her British counterpart because it feeds her competitive edge. “It’s always very important that you have strong field of competitors because then you push each other to top performances and that’s the spirit of competition”, she pointed out.
She described the 17-year-old Bella Rose as “my dream horse and when she’s in top shape she is the best - her way of moving, her character, her charisma, her piaffe/passage down the centreline - of course Weihe (her other mare Weihegold) is super and the younger ones too, but with Bella you have the feeling there is always something more possible!”
Talking about these “Games like no other” in Tokyo, the multiple Olympic champion said the lack of an audience could be influential. “Mostly you will see it in the medal decisions, especially in the Freestyle. There will be music but no crowd to carry the horses and riders - it makes a big difference - but on the other hand we are so happy that we can be here, can compete that we have an Olympic Games. We are in a discipline that is really depending on Games, because then we are more in the focus of the media and the world and it gives the younger riders at home the motivation and support so it’s a big package we have, and we are very thankful to be here”.
Facts and Figures:
If Isabell Werth wins double-gold she will become the most decorated female German Olympic athlete of all times.
The IOC and FEI have given special permission to Irish athletes across all equestrian disciplines at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to wear a yellow ribbon in memory of young rising star, Tiggy Hancock, who tragically suffered a fatal fall last month. Dressage rider Heike Holstein was the first to compete with hers today. She said, “We are very proud to wear it, and grateful to the IOC and FEI for allowing us to do it.”
The judges awarded the maximum score of 10 on 14 occasions during tonight’s second half of the Grand Prix which is the Team and Individual qualifying competition and 13 of them were earned by Isabelle Werth’s Bella Rose (GER) - 7 for piaffe, 5 for passage/piaffe transitions and one for halt. A single 10 was awarded to Charlotte Dujardin’s Gio (GBR) for two-tempi changes.
Quotes:
Christian Schumach (AUT) who scored 70.900 with Te Quiero SF: “I’m super happy with my horse and super happy with my riding. Overall there was one mistake in the twos and that was clearly my mistake, I was enjoying the surroundings and the Olympic experience too much so it wasn’t his fault, he did a super job! he’s really young (10 years old) and this was only his seventh Grand Prix.”
Heike Holstein (IRL): “It’s special when you breed a foal that you know from when it is running around in your fields as a baby, breaking it, competing it and taking it all the way to the Olympic Games!”
Steffen Peters (USA), talking about his ride on Suppenkasper: “He’s a hot horse so to do a relaxed clean test was a very good start. This was not the test to go crazy in, we’ll do that in the Special! It’s been four years of a complete love affair with him, he’s such a big, kind teddy bear. He’s 18.2 hands tall but there’s not a mean bone in his body, he always tries and I’m one of the fortunate riders who gets to ride him!”
He complimented the judges on the scores they gave his team-mate Sabine Schut-Kery yesterday whose pathfinding ride got the US off to a great start.
“Sabine is a cool, calm competitor with a helluva horse. Not too many people know her that well but I appreciate that some of the judges who had never seen her before gave her a very good score”.
Results here https://tokyo2020.live.fei.org/
Sensational start to race for Olympic Dressage titles
by Louise Parkes
It may have been a long time coming, but the opening day of Equestrian Dressage at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games more than lived up to expectations. Emotions ran high and so did the scores as superb individual performances saw The Netherlands take the early lead in the battle for the Team title, while Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl set a personal-best when posting the biggest mark of the evening with TSF Dalera.
The Grand Prix continues tomorrow when another 30 horse-and-rider combinations take their turn. And if Dorothee Schneider (Showtime) and Isabell Werth (Bella Rose) can come anyway close to the score achieved by compatriot von Bredow-Werndl then Germany looks well on the way to securing the Olympic Dressage Team title for a fabulous 14th time.
Groups
With the competition divided into six groups in total, and three of those groups taking their turn today, it was Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and Everdale who set the early target score when posting 77.096 to top Group A. But only two athletes earned marks over 80%, and Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour was the first of these when putting 81.056 on the board with Bohemian to take complete command of Group B.
“It was important for me to give him a really great feeling in the ring today”, Dufour said. “I didn’t want to push too much because I wanted him to be comfortable in there. And even though there’s no audience there’s a vibe in the arena and they can feel it!”
Much of her previous success has been achieved with the diminutive Cassidy who carried her through Junior and Young Rider level to triple-bronze at the Senior European Championships in Gothenburg (SWE) in 2017 and bronze again in the Grand Prix Special at the Europeans in Rotterdam (NED) in 2019. Tonight she admitted she felt a bit guilty about leaving the 18-year-old gelding at home and bringing the 11-year-old Bohemian to Tokyo instead.
“Cassidy has been my partner in crime for 11 years so I felt a little bit like I was cheating on him!” But she feels Bohemian is “one of the best horses in the world! He doesn’t have any weaknesses.”
Firm basis
Meanwhile Edward Gal’s score of 78.649 left him second in Group B and gave The Netherlands a firm basis on which to build their team challenge. His black stallion, Total US is only nine years old, and a son of the great Totilas who, with Gal onboard, set the world of Dressage on fire a decade ago.
“You feel so much comparison, the same feeling when you give your leg, the same reaction. Totilas was more confident at his age - he (Total US) is a bit shy but I’ve done some more competitions with him now and I feel him getting more confident”, said the Dutchman who was sporting an eye-catching new tailcoat.
Previously Dressage riders were only permitted to dress in modest colours, but following a change to those rules the Dutch Dressage team have joined their Jumping counterparts in wearing the brightest of bright orange jackets so they stand out in every sense.
Show-stopper
A show-stopper in the final group of riders was America’s Sabine Schut-Kery who steered the 15-year-old stallion Sanceo to a superb mark of 78.416. The German-born rider who lives in California’s Napa Valley produced a test filled with lightness and energy. This is a lady with a fascinating background, as she began her equestrian career performing in exhibitions across Europe with Friesian and Andalusian horses.
She’s had Sanceo since he was three years old, “and it’s so special to have him now at the pinnacle of the Olympics representing my country!”, she said. “In my past I’ve done a lot of entertainment with horses. The passion for Dressage was always there so we taught them to lie down, bow or sit or rear on command. But with that we were always very passionate about correct Dressage and training the horse correctly and making it look beautiful”, said the lady who has performed with her exhibition horses at top venues including Aachen and Stuttgart in Germany.
Second-last into the arena tonight, Hans-Peter Minderhoud bolstered the Dutch position with a score of 76.817 with Dream Boy, giving his country the lead going into tomorrow’s second half of the Grand Prix ahead of Denmark in second and Great Britain in third. But some shuffling of positions can well be expected by the end of the second day.
Thrilling test
And that was made clear by the thrilling test produced by von Bredow-Werndl for the biggest score of the evening, despite a big spook from Dalera before entering the ring following a rainshower.
“She wasn’t scared, she was just excited by the atmosphere. She didn’t expect it because it was so silent every day here!”, said the German star after posting a massive 84.379.
Talking about how testing it was for the riders as well as the horses in the conditions at Baji Koen Equestrian Park tonight she added, “to be honest I’m very fit, but at the centreline where I started the pirouettes I thought ‘gosh, it’s so exhausting!’ It was so hot in there and the humidity is extreme after the rain. It was tough”, she said.
Facts and Figures:
Two athletes, both Olympic first-timers, produced personal-best Grand Prix scores tonight. Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl exceeded her previous best score by 2.727% and America’s Sabine Schut-Kery exceeded hers by a massive 3.394%.
The best two combinations from each group, along with the six next best athletes, will qualify for Wednesday’s Freestyle which will decide the Individual Olympic title. Tonight the best two combinations in each group were as follows:
Best two combinations from Group A - Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and Everdale with 77.096 and Sweden’s Therese Nilshagen with Dante Weltino OLD 75.140.
Best two combinations from Group B - Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour and Bohemian with 81.056 and The Netherlands Edward Gal with Total US scoring 78.649.
Best two combinations from Group C - Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with TSF Dalera and USA’s Sabine Schut-Kery with Sancero.
The number of countries now left in the medal race for the Team title has been reduced from 15 to 14. The withdrawal of Victoria Max-Theurer and Abbegelen NRW leaves Austria without a team. The 11-year-old Abbegelen didn’t start today because he had a toothache.
Three equestrian athletes were flag-bearers at Friday night’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony - Sweden’s Sara Algotsson Astholt, Estonia’s Dina Ellermann and Syria’s Ahmad Saber Hamcho.
The judges awarded the maximum score of 10 on 10 occasions during tonight’s first half of the Grand Prix which is the Team and Individual qualifying competition. Edward Gal’s Total US (NED) was awarded a single 10 for Passage, Cathrine Dufour’s Bohemian (DEN) was awarded a single 10 for Piaffe and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s TSF Dalera (GER) was awarded three scores of 10 for Passage/Piaffe Transitions and five scores of 10 for Piaffe.
Quotes:
Brazil’s Joao Victor Marcari Oliva who is based in Portugal, first rider into the arena with Escorial: “I knew this horse for a long time because he is a famous Lusitano breeding stallion but I never thought I would be riding him. It’s a pleasure to open the Olympics. How do I cope with the heat here? Portugal is warm, I am Brazilian so it’s fine, it’s like home!”
Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry: “At the end he got a shock that there were people watching, he was so concentrating on my ride! He knew it was a big occasion, he was so concentrated all day, he knew it was coming, he is so intelligent. I’ve been riding him since he was 7 and he’s now 12. I’ve done Young Riders with him and U25 Grand Prix and he’s moved up to Senior Grand Prix in 2019 so we’ve really grown up together and built a really good partnership. He’s fun to ride and I love every day riding him.”
Results here
Tokyo 2020 is one of the most talked-about Olympic Games of all time, and as it arrives on our doorsteps a year late and filled with challenges, for the stars of international Jumping the questions are clear.
How will the three-rider no-drop-score format play out in the battle for the Team medals? And is there anyone to get in the way of the pair who claimed individual silver at the World Equestrian Games in 2018 and the individual European title a year later - Martin Fuchs and his super-horse Clooney - when it comes to glorious individual gold?
With so few team competition opportunities in the lead-up to these Games it’s difficult to make any predictions. However if the Division 1 Nations Cups that took place last month are anything to go by, then the on-form countries are Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and The Netherlands.
A total of 75 athletes will be chasing down their individual dreams when the action begins at Baji Koen on 3 August, and athletes from 19 countries will be giving it everything they’ve got when the team contest gets underway on 6 August. It will be a fascinating four days of Olympic equestrian sport.
Defending champions
Team France are the defending champions having clinched gold for only the second time in Olympic history at the Rio 2016 Games, and Penelope Leprevost is the only member of that victorious team to line out again at Tokyo 2020 where she will be joined by Mathieu Billot and Nicolas Delmotte. Silver went to the USA five years ago, while Germany won out in a thrilling jump-off against Canada for the bronze.
Comeback king Nick Skelton won Britain’s first Olympic Individual title in Rio with Big Star, a phenomenal and emotional achievement for the 58-year-old athlete who had broken his neck in a fall 16 years earlier. Silver went to Sweden’s Peder Fredricson and the brilliant All In, and this pair – who won the individual European title in 2017 – will be joined by Malin Baryard-Johnson and her feisty mare Indiana and Henrik von Eckermann with King Edward in Tokyo.
The British have two of the team that secured Olympic gold for their country for the first time in 60 years in London in 2012, and both Scott Brash (Hello Jefferson) and Ben Maher (Explosion W) also look well set to challenge strongly for the individual medals.
But the Team and Individual line-ups are crammed full of winners, the Americans buoyed up by their victory at the FEI World Equestrian Games™, Belgium bolstered by their success at the 2019 European Championships and the Irish full of determination after clinching both Olympic qualification and the series title at the FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Final later that year.
Record
Germany however holds the record for the greatest number of Olympic gold medals, with five Individual and eight team titles since Jumping joined the Olympic programme in 1900. And with world number one Daniel Deusser (Killer Queen), Christian Kukuk (Mumbai) and Andre Thieme (DSP Chakaria) showing fantastic form they are going to be mighty competitive once again.
Meanwhile with world number two Fuchs, world number three Steve Guerdat, who claimed the individual title in London nine years ago, and FEI World Cup Final 2007 winner Beat Mandli in their mix, the Swiss also look fairly unstoppable.
But the hosts from Japan can’t be overlooked. They finished sixth in Olympic-level company at the last of the four legs of the FEI Nations Cup series in Rotterdam just two weeks ago and under the stewardship of German legend Paul Schockemohle, and mounted on some fabulous horses, Daisuke Fukushima (Chanyon), Koki Saito (Chilensky) and Eiken Sato (Saphyr des Lacs) will be giving it more than their all on home soil when the Games begin.
They’ve only ever taken one Olympic medal, when Takeichi Nishi came out on top with Uranus in Los Angeles in 1932. That was an interesting Games because, staged in the throes of a world-wide depression, only three teams showed up - Mexico, the USA who were considered big favourites, and a Swedish side made up of their Eventing squad. And not one of them finished.
There were three riders on each team and American chances were dashed when Lt John Wofford was eliminated. So when Sweden’s Lt Arne Francke suffered the same fate along with all of the Mexicans no team medals were awarded. But Japanese Baron, Takeichi Nishi, produced a brilliant ride with his French-bred horse to take the Individual honours.
There will be three riders per team this time around as well, so just like back in 1932 when mistakes proved more than costly, there will be no room for error in the team competition, and Individual glory will go to only the best of the best.
What is Jumping?
Jumping is an equestrian sport in which horse-and-athlete combinations jump knockable fences inside an arena, with penalties for knock-downs, refusals, horse or athlete falls and for going over the time limit. There are a variety of competitions including speed events, and some will conclude with a jump-off which can be compared to a penalty shoot-out in soccer, and the result is just as unpredictable.
How it will play out….
There will be two Individual Competitions and two Team Competitions, taking place on different days.
The first Individual competition takes place on Tuesday 3 August and is a qualifier for the Individual Final the following day. It will be Table A not against the clock and without a jump-off. Athletes will place according to their penalties and in case of a tie they will be separated by the time of their round. If still tied, they will be placed equal.
The Individual Final is open to the 30 best-placed athletes from the first Individual competition and will be Table A, one round against the clock, with a jump-off for the medal placings if there is a tie on penalties. All athletes start on a zero score in the Individual Final and starting order will be in reverse order of merit following the first Individual competition.
The first Team competition is open to 19 teams of three athletes and all teams will start on a zero score. It will take place on 6 August and is a qualifier for the Team Final on 7 August. It will be Table A not against the clock and without a jump-off in the event of equality of penalties for first place. Disqualification of one athlete will result in the disqualification of their entire team.
Team scores will be decided by adding the penalties incurred by all three team members. Athletes who withdraw, are eliminated or retire from the competition will not be given a score and their team will be placed according to the combined scores of the remaining two team-members. Three-member teams will be placed ahead of teams of two.
The best 10 teams, including those tied for 10th place, will qualify for the Team Final which will be Table A not against the clock over one round with a jump-off in the event of equality of penalties for the medal placings. Starting order will be in reverse order of merit from the first Team competition.
After the first two athletes from each team have competed there will be a compulsory 20-minute break. An intermediate classification of the teams will decide the starting order of each team’s third athlete.
One substitution of an athlete/horse combination is permitted per team. Substitutes are not permitted to compete in a jump-off.
Facts and Figures
35 countries
19 teams
75 horse/athlete combinations
16 countries represented by individuals
Jumping Course Designer is Spain’s Santiago Varela.
Teams will consist of three athlete/horse combinations with all three scores counting for the result.
Two former Olympic Individual gold medallists will line out in Jumping at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat who reigned supreme in London in 2012 and Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa who took gold in Athens in 2004.
Former team gold medallists who will compete again in Tokyo are Penelope Leprevost (Rio 2016), Great Britain’s Ben Maher and Scott Brash (London 2012) and USA’s Laura Kraut with compatriat McLain Ward as reserve (Beijing 2008).
No female athlete has ever won Olympic individual gold in Jumping, but Great Britain’s Marion Coakes and the amazing pony, Stroller, claimed Individual silver in Mexico in 1968 while in Munich in 1982 her compatriot, Ann Moore, took silver with Psalm.
Holly Smith is the first female athlete to compete for Great Britain in 45 years. The last British female was Debbie Johnsey who partnered Moxy in the side that finished seventh at the Montreal Games in 1976.
Three female athletes have won Individual Jumping bronze - Heidi Robbiani (SUI) at Los Angeles in 1984 riding Jessica V, Alexandra Ledermann (FRA) in Atlanta in 1996 riding Rochet M and Beezie Madden (USA) in Beijing in 2008 riding Authentic.
Mario Deslauriers will compete as an individual for Canada, 37 years after he won the FEI World Cup Final™ in Gothenburg (SWE) in 1984 at the age of 19.
At the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964 Germany won team gold by a considerable margin and Pierre Jonqueres d’Oriola from France, also Individual champion in Helsinki in 1952, became the first Olympic Individual Jumping double-gold medallist - a record that still stands today.
The Teams:
Argentina: Matias Albarracin (Cannavaro 9), Jose Maria Larocca (Finn Lente), Fabian Sejanes (Emir). Alternate: Martin Dooazo (Quintino 9).
Belgium: Niels Bruynseels (Delux van T&L), Jerome Guery (Quel Homme de Hus), Gregory Wathelet (Nevados). Alternate: Yves Vanderhasselt (Jeunesse).
Brazil: Yuri Mansur (QH Alfons), Marlon Zanotelli (Edgar M), Rodrigo Pessoa (Carlito’s Way). Alternate: Pedro Veniss (Quabri de l’Isle).
China: Yaofena Li (Jericho Dwerse Hagen); Zhenglang Li (Uncas S), You Zhana (Caesar). Alternate: Zinqjia Zhang (For Passion d’Ive Z).
Czech Republic: Anna Kelinerova (Catch Me if You Can OLD); Ales Opatrny (Forewer), Kamil Papousek (Warness). Alternate: Ondrej Zvara (Cento Lano).
Egypt: Nayel Nassar (Igor van de Wittemoere), Abdel Said (Bandit Savoie), Mouda Zeyada (Galanthos SHK). Alternate: Mohamed Talaat (Darshan).
France: Mathieu Billot (Quel Filou 13), Nicolas Delmotte (Urvoso de Roch), Penelope Leprevost (Vancouver de Lanlore). Alternate: Simon Delestre (Berlux Z).
Germany: Daniel Deusser (Killer Queen VDM), Christian Kukuk (Mumbai), Andre Thieme (DSP Chakaria). Alternate: Maurice Tebbel (Don Diarado).
Great Britain: Scott Brash (Hello Jefferson), Ben Maher (Explosion W), Holly Smith (Denver). Alternate: Harry Charles (Romeo).
Ireland: Bertram Allen (Pacino Amiro), Darragh Kenny (VDL Cartello), Cian O’Connor (Kilkenny). Alternate: Shane Sweetnam (Karlin van’t Vennehof).
Israel: Ashlee Bond (Donatello 141), Alberto Michan (Cosa Nostra), Teddy Vlock (Amsterdam 27). Alternate: Dani Waldman (Queensland E).
Japan: Daisuke Fukushim (Chanyon), Koki Sato (Chilensky), Eiken Sato (Saphyr des Lacs). Mike Kawai (As de Mai).
Mexico: Eugenio Garza Perez (Armani SLZ), Enrique Gonzalez (Chacna), Manuel Gonzalez Dufrane (Hortensia van de Leeuwerk). Alternate: Patricio Pasquel (Babel).
Morocco: Ali Al Ahrach (USA de Riverland), Samy Colman (Davino Q), Abdelkebir Quaddar (Istanbul vh Oplevaarshof).
Netherlands: Marc Houtzager (Sterrehof’s Dante NOP), Maikel van der Vleuten (Beauville Z), Willem Greve (Zypris S). Alternate: Harrie Smolders (Bingo du Parc).
New Zealand: Bruce Goodin (Danny V), Daniel Meech (Circa 3), Uma O’Neill (Clockwise of Greenhill Z). Alternate: Tom Tarver-Priebe (Popeye).
Sweden: Malin Baryard-Johnsson (Indiana), Peder Fredricson (All In), Henrik von Eckermann (King Edward). Alternate: Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Ermindo W).
Switzerland: Martin Fuchs (Clooney), Steve Guerdat (Venard de Cerisy), Beat Mandli (Dsarie). Alternate: Bryan Balsiger (Twentytwo des Biches).
USA: Kent Farrington (Gazelle), Laura Kraut (Baloutinue), Jessica Springsteen (Don Juan van de Donkhoeve). Alternate: McLain Ward (Contagious).
The Individuals:
Australia: Katie Laurie (Casebrooke Lomond), Edwina Tops-Alexander (Identity Vitseroel)
Canada: Mario Deslauriers (Bardolina 2).
Chile: Samuel Parot (Dubai).
Colombia: Roberto Teran Tafur (Dez Ooktoff).
Denmark: Andreas Schou (Darc de Lux).
Dominican Republic: Hector Florentina Roca (Carnaval).
Italy: Emanuele Gaudiano (Chalou).
Jordan: Ibrahim Hani Bisharat (Blushing).
Latvia: Kristaps Neretneks (Valour).
Norway: Geir Gulliksen (Quatro).
Portugal: Luciana Diniz (Vertigo du Desert).
Spain: Eduardo Alvarez Aznar (Legend).
Sri Lanka: Mathilda Karlsson (Chopin VA).
Syria: Ahmad Saber Hamcho (Deville).
Taipei: Jasmine Shao-Man Chen (Benitus di Vallerano).
Ukraine: Oleksndr Prodan (Casanova FZ).
The Officials
Technical Delegate: Louis Konickx NED
Ground Jury President: Carsten Soerlie NOR
Ground Jury Members: Kazuya Hirayama JPN Kim Morrison CAN and Joachim Geilfus GER.
Course designer: Santiago Varela ESP
Chief Steward: Monica Gomez MEX
The Nations:
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taipei, Ukraine, USA.
THE FULL LIST here
FEI Olympic Hub here
Brazil’s Joao Victor Marcari Oliva and his 12-year-old stallion Escorial will be first into the arena tomorrow morning when the Dressage Grand Prix gets equestrian action underway at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The Dressage horse inspection took place this morning at Baji Koen Equestrian Park, and from the 72 listed, a total of 70 horses were presented to the Ground Jury with two held over for further reinspection tomorrow morning at 09.30 - the 14-year-old Hot Chocolat vd Kwaplas ridden by Isabelle Pinto for France and the 15-year-old grey gelding Sultao Menezes ridden by Portugal’s Carlos Pinto.
The Grand Prix is the Team and Individual qualifier and will take place over two days, tomorrow 24 July and Sunday 25 July. A draw took place after today’s horse inspection, and the 15 teams will go in the following order: Denmark, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Canada, ROC, Austria, Belgium, France, USA and Germany. Team Germany are defending champions and are chasing down their 14th Olympic team title.
Groups
Athletes are drawn in six groups, with three groups per evening. A total of nine athlete/horse combinations will go in the first group that includes Australia’s Mary Hanna with Calanta and Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry with Everdale, with competition starting at 17:00.
The Netherlands’ Edward Gal will be first to go when the second 10-strong group take their turn at 18:36, and Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour and Bohemian will conclude this session.
Rounding up the day will be another group of 10, with Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera last into the arena at 21.42.
Another three groups of 10 will compete on Sunday to identify the top eight teams that will go through to Tuesday’s team medals decider, with world number one Isabell Werth last to go on the mare Bella Rose. And, for the individuals, the top 18 will going through to next Wednesday’s Freestyle for the individual medals.
Great praise
The top-class facilities at the Japan Racing Association owned Baji Koen, which include air-conditioned stabling, a stunning competition arena and beautiful training areas for the horses, have drawn great praise from the athletes who are now looking forward to superb sport over the coming days.
There’s a mix of excitement and relief that these Games, which have been doubly-challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) outbreak in mainland Europe, are at last about to begin.
“We are so grateful to be here in Tokyo and owe a big debt of thanks to our hosts, the people of Japan, and of course to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and the IOC for maintaining their belief in the Olympic Games and finding the route to deliver them in a safe and secure way”, FEI President Ingmar De Vos said. “Our athletes and our horses are ready, our venues are superb, we have amazing volunteers and we’re ready for top Olympic equestrian sport, starting with the Dressage Grand Prix tomorrow!”
Don’t miss a hoofbeat!
Live results and start lists are available here: https://tokyo2020.live.fei.org/
After Germany’s Michael Jung won the second of his two consecutive Individual Olympic Equestrian Eventing titles at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games he was asked what he had next in his sights. “Tokyo 2020 of course, and the Europeans and maybe the world title along the way!”, he replied.
He wasn’t joking of course, because the 38-year-old who made Eventing history by becoming the first to hold the European, Olympic, and World Championship titles at the same time is one of the most formidable athletes in all of equestrian sport.
He didn’t make it to the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in 2018 when his horse had an injury, but at the FEI European Championships the following year he took team gold and was just pipped at the post for the individual title by team-mate Ingrid Klimke.
This is a man who sets the bar really high for everyone else, and if he can do the individual hat-trick in Tokyo then he will set a new Olympic record. Charles Pahud de Mortanges from The Netherlands came out on top in Amsterdam in 1928 and again at the following Olympics in Los Angeles in 1932, and New Zealand’s Mark Todd won in Los Angeles in 1984 and again in Seoul in 1988. Both riders partnered the same horse on each occasion, the Dutchman riding Marcroix and the Kiwi riding the legendary Charisma.
Jung was also riding the same horse, the mighty Sam, when coming out on top at London 2012 and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. This time around he will partner his 2019 European Championship horse Chipmunk, and the world waits to see what more magic he can bring.
Team silver
He’ll be joined on the German team by two of the three athletes who helped clinch team silver in Rio, Sandra Auffarth (Viamant du Matz) and Julia Krajewski (Armande de B’Neville). However it is the French who line out as defending team champions, with Thomas Carlile (Birmane), Nicolas Touzaint (Absolut Gold HDC) and Christopher Six (Totem de Brecey) flying the flag for Les Bleus.
The British arrive as reigning world champions with the world number one, Oliver Townend (Ballaghmore Class), number five Tom McEwen (Toledo de Kerser) and number 22, Laura Collet (London 52) in their side, backed up last-minute replacement reserve Ros Canter with Allstar B, the horse she rode to individual gold at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2018. . There’s great strength in depth in this selection, while the Irish world silver medallists, and the Kiwi side that includes husband-and-wife Tim and Jonelle Price, also look highly competitive.
But there are further Olympic records hanging in the balance. Australia’s Andrew Hoy, Shane Rose and Stuart Tinney have 166 years of life-experience and eight Olympic medals between them. And 62-year-old Hoy could make Olympic history by becoming the first athlete to win gold medals an incredible 29 years apart. He won his first team gold in Barcelona in 1992 and if he could do it again he’d break the all-time record set by Hungarian fencer Aladár Gerevich, who triumphed in 1932 and 1960.
Hoy went on to win two more team golds, at Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000, and just by turning up in Tokyo he will set an Australian record with his eighth Olympic appearance since his debut in Los Angeles in 1984 at the age of 25.
Changes
The sport of Eventing has been subject to many changes down the years and at the Tokyo 2020 Games there will be a new and shorter Dressage test, which will take just under four minutes to complete. The Dressage and Jumping phases will be staged at Baji Koen Equestrian Centre in the city, while the Cross Country action will be held at Sea Forest Park in Tokyo Bay.
Following the Ready Steady Tokyo Equestrian Test event staged at Sea Forest in August 2019, during which an FEI official climate impact study and horse monitoring project took place, the Cross Country course was shortened to approximately eight minutes.
It’s all a long way from the first time Eventing was included in the Olympic programme back in 1912 in Stockholm when the competition began with Phase A, “an Endurance ride over 55km in four hours” and Phase B, “Cross-country over 5km in 15 minutes with 12 obstacles”.
After a rest day the all-military competitors then set out to tackle “Steeplechase over 3,500m in 5 minutes and 50 seconds with 10 obstacles”, while on day four there was “Jumping over 15 obstacles up to 1.30m high and 3.00m wide” before finally finishing up on day five with “Dressage”. From seven starting teams, four completed and Sweden took both Team and Individual gold.
Times have indeed moved on, but the partnership between horse and athlete remains at the heart of equestrian sport, and in Olympic Eventing that partnership is at its zenith.
What is Eventing?
Once known as “The Military” because it was a test for cavalrymen and their horses, Eventing is the most comprehensive test of horse and rider, combining the separate disciplines of Dressage, Cross Country and Jumping, with results from each phase totalled for a final score. It is the lowest score that wins, both for the team and individual medals.
It has been an Olympic sport since 1912.
How it will play out…..
The Team and Individual competitions will run concurrently on consecutive days as follows: Dressage test (over two days, 30/31 July), Cross Country test (1 August) and First Jumping Competition (2 August) to determine the Team classification.
The Individual Final Jumping test will take place after the Team Jumping Final on the same day (2 August), with the top 25 battling it out for the medals.
Eventing Dressage and Jumping will both be staged at Baji Koen Equestrian Centre, with horses travelling to Sea Forest Park for Cross Country day.
To enable a finish by just after 11.00, the start time on Cross Country day will be 07.45 JST.
Horses can be substituted for the team competition, and a horse/athlete combination may be substituted by a reserve combination for medical/veterinarian reasons in any of the three tests after the start of the competition.
The top-25 horse/athlete combinations go through to the Individual Final.
The athlete rides the same horse throughout for the Individual classification.
There will be two horse inspections - on 29 July, the day before the Dressage phase begins, and on 2 August before the final Jumping phase takes place.
A drawn starting order will be used for the Dressage and Cross-Country tests but in the final Jumping test horse/athlete combinations will go in reverse order of merit.
Facts and Figures:
29 countries
15 teams
65 horse/athlete combinations
14 countries represented by individuals
Australia, Germany and USA share the biggest number of team victories in Olympic Eventing history with four each.
Australia, victors in Rome in 1960, has the unique record of winning three team titles in a row - at Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996 and on home ground in Sydney in 2000.
Team France are the defending Olympic champions.
The French have twice claimed the team title - in Athens in 2004 and at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Germany’s Michael Jung is the defending double-champion having won the Individual title at London 2012 and again at the Rio 2016 Games.
Germany has won the Olympic Eventing Individual title on three occasions but Sweden holds the record for most wins with a total of four, the last recorded on home soil in Stockholm in 1956 by Petrus Kastenman riding Illuster.
When the Olympic Games were last staged in Tokyo in 1964, the Eventing it was held in Karuizawa, 150km north-west of Tokyo.
History was made when a woman competed in an Olympic three-day event for the very first time that year. The USA’s Lana du Pont, who 27 years later as Mrs Wright won team gold at the World Driving Championships in Paris (FRA), finished 33rd of the 34 horse-and-rider combinations that completed. A total of 48 riders from 12 nations participated, and 14 were eliminated in the Cross Country phase.
At Tokyo in 1964, Italy claimed Team gold and the Individual title went to team member Mauro Checcoli riding Surbean.
The Teams
Australia: Andrew Hoy (Vasilly de Lassos), Shane Rose (Virgil), Stuart Tinney (Leporis). Alternate: Kevin McNab (Don Quidam).
Brazil: Carlos Parro (Goliath), Marcelo Tosi (Glenfly), Rafael Mamprin Losano (Fuiloda G). Alternate: Marcio Appel Cheuiche (Iberon Jemen).
China: Alex Hua Tian (Don Geniro), Huadong Sun (Lady Chin V’T Moerven Z), Yingfeng Bao (Flandia 2). Alternate: Ruiji Liang (Agora de Bordenave).
France: Thomas Carlile (Birmane), Nicolas Touzaint (Absolut Gold), Christopher Six (Totem de Brecey). Alternate: Karim Laghouag (Triton Fontaine).
Germany: Sandra Auffarth (Viamant du Matz), Michael Jung (Chipmunk FRH), Julia Krajewski (Amande de B’Neville). Alternate: Andreas Dibowski (FRH Corrida).
Great Britain: Laura Collett (London 52), Tom McEwen (Toledo de Kerser), Oliver Townend (Ballaghmor Class). Alternate:Ros Canter (Allstar B).
Ireland: Cathal Daniels (Rioghan Rua), Sarah Ennis (Woodcourt Garrison), Sam Watson (Flamenco). Alternate: Austin O’Connor (Colorado Blue).
Italy: Susanna Bordone (Imperial van de Holtakkers), Victoria Panizzon (Super Cillious), Arianna Schivo (Quefire de l’Ormeau). Alternate: Stefano Brecciaroli (Bolivar Gio Granno).
Japan: Yoshiaki Oiwa (Tullyoran Cruise), Toshiyuki Tanaka (Taima d’Allou), Kazuma Tooto (Vinci de la Vigne).
New Zealand: Tim Price (Vitali), Jonelle Price (Grovine de Reve), Jesse Campbell (Diachello). Alternate: Bundy Philpott (Tresca).
Poland: Pawel Spisak (Banderas), Malgorzata Cybulska (Chenaro 2), Joanna Pawlak (Fantastic Frieda). Alternate: Mateusz Kiempa (Libertina).
Sweden: Ludwig Svennerstal (Balham Mist), Theese Viklund (Viscera), Louise Romeike (Cato S). Alternate: Sara Algotsson Ostholt (Chicuelo).
Switzerland: Robin Godel (Jet Set), Melody Johner (Toubleu dd Rueire), Felix Vogg (Cartania). Alternate: Eveline Bodenmuller (Bioline de la Brasserie).
Thailand: Arinadtha Chavatanont (Boleybawn Prince), Weerapat Pitakanonda (Carnival March), Korntawat Samran (Bonero K).
USA: Philip Dutton (Z), Boyd Martin (Tsetserleg TSF), Doug Payne (Vandiver). Alternate: Tamra Smith (Mai Baum).
The Individuals
Austria: Lea Siegl (DSP Fighting Line), Katrin Khoddam-Hazrati (DSP Comsa).
Belgium: Lara De Liederke-Meier (Alpaga d’Arville).
Belarus: Alexandre Zeleno (Carolo Grande JR), Aliaksandr Faminou (Martinie).
Canada: Colleen Loach (Qorry Blue d’Argouges), Jessica Phoenix (Pavarotti).
Czech Republic: Miloslav Prihoda Jr (Ferreolus Lat), Miroslav Trunda (Shutterflyke).
Denmark: Peter Flarup (Fascination).
Ecuador: Nicolas Wettstein (Altier d’Aurois).
Hong Kong: Thomas Heffernan Ho (Tayberry).
India: Fouaad Mirza (Seigneur).
Netherlands: Merel Blom (The Quizmaster), Janneke Boonzaaijer (Champ de Tailleur).
Puerto Rico: Lauren Billys (Castle Larchfield Purdy).
ROC: Andrey Mitin (Gurza), Mikhail Natstenko (MP Imaging If).
Republic of South Africa: Victoria Scott-Legendre (Valtho Des Peupliers).
Spain: Francisco Gavino Bonzalez (Source de la Faye).
The Officials
Ground Jury President: Nick Burton GBR
Ground Jury Members: Christina Klingspor SWE and Jane Hamlin USA.
Technical Delegate: Philip Surl (GBR)
Course Designer: Derek Di Grazia USA
Chief Steward: Helen Christie NZL
The Nations:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Puerto Rico, Republic of South Africa, ROC, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA.
The full list HERE
FEI Olympic Hub HERE
Germany has a long and formidable record in Olympic Equestrian Dressage. Since the team competition was first introduced in Amsterdam (NED) in 1928, when the German side pinned Sweden into silver and The Netherlands into bronze, they have won 13 of the 20 Olympic team contests. And it’s looking very much like gold number 14 is just around the corner.
The loss to Great Britain at London in 2012 was the only blip in an otherwise seamless run that began in Los Angeles in 1984 when the great Reiner Klimke and Ahlerich led the victory gallop. Despite all the disruption of the last 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) outbreak in mainland Europe, Team Germany arrive at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as defending champions and strong favourites to do it all over again.
Isabell Werth heads the line-up with the mare Bella Rose and holding the World number one slot. And, underpinning the sheer strength of the German challenge, she will be joined by World numbers two and four, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with TSF Dalera BB and Dorothee Schneider with Showtime FRH. With Helen Langehanenberg and her mare Annabelle in reserve, they seem like an unstoppable force.
However, the three-per team format introduced for this year’s Games could prove highly influential. One off day for just one team member and the story could be very different indeed, because every ride will be critical.
Dynamic duo
At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Great Britain claimed silver and The Netherlands took team bronze and this time around the British send the dynamic duo of Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester once again, but both on relatively unexposed horses.
Dujardin’s decision to take the 10-year-old Gio instead of her considerably more experienced 12-year-old mare Mount St John Freestyle who was in great form at Hagen (GER) in April and who swept all before her at the home international at Wellington (GBR) in May came as a surprise. But the athlete whose record-breaking partnership with the now-retired Valegro has helped popularise this sport like few before her, is backed up by the evergreen Hester and Charlotte Fry with Everdale, and she’s always going to be highly competitive.
Edward Gal with Total US and Hans Peter Minderhoud with Dream Boy headline the Dutch team, Patrik Kittel (Well Done de la Roche) leads the Swedish contingent and Steffen Peters (Suppenkasper) will be a strong anchor for Team USA. Meanwhile Team Belgium will be making a little bit of Olympic history as they make their first appearance since 1928.
When it comes to the individual honours all eyes will be on Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour and her fabulous horse Bohemian. The pair posted a back-to-back double of wins at the first leg of the FEI Dressage World Cup™ 2020/2021 series on home ground in Aarhus (DEN), pinning Germany’s Werth and von Bredow-Werndl into second and third.
But when the Covid cloud broke long enough for another leg to take place in Salzburg (AUT) in January, von Bredow-Werndl showed a whole new level of performance with her 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games™ gold-medal partner TSF Dalera BB, who has gone from strength to strength ever since. Now this pair look a real threat to all the rest in the battle for individual Olympic glory.
Less obvious
However, at Olympic Games the show-stealers are often the less obvious. Australia’s Mary Hanna, whose horse Calanta was the very first to arrive into the stables at Baji Koen Equestrian Park in Tokyo early last week, is a case in point. Because equestrian fans all around the world are already putting their hearts behind this mother of two and grandmother of four who, at the age of 66, is tackling her sixth Olympics.
Apart from the Beijing Games in 2008, she has been a member of every Australian Olympic Dressage team since 1996, and that’s quite some record. She’s as proud as ever to be flying her country’s flag alongside Kelly Layne riding Samhitas and Simone Pearce with Destano.
The last time Olympic Games were staged in Tokyo in 1964, Baji Koen was the venue for Dressage which was a very different sport back then.
In the Grand Prix the scores were announced after each ride, and after the ride-off - which was filmed and then mulled over by judges Frantisek Jandl, Gustaf Nyblaeus and Georges Margot - the public, the teams and the media had to wait for two hours before the final results were announced. It should be a bit quicker this time around!
Swiss supremo Henri Chammartin with Woerman, was eventually deemed the Individual champion, and the team title went to Germany’s Harry Boldt with Remus, Josef Neckermann with Antoinette and Reiner Klimke with Dux.
What is Dressage?
Dressage is about training the horse to a high level and highlighting its athleticism and the beauty of its movement. At its best, horse and rider are in complete harmony and together they appear to “dance”!
How it will play out…..
The FEI Grand Prix test, in which all athletes must participate, will take place on 24 and 25 July and is a qualifier for both the team and individual competitions. The qualification ranking will be decided by the results of all three team members.
Athletes compete in six groups, with three groups competing on each day. The composition of the groups is based on the FEI World Ranking list position of the athlete/horse combination on the date of definite entries (5 July 2021).
The top eight teams in the Grand Prix (and those tied for eighth place) will qualify for the FEI Grand Prix Special on 27 July.
During the period between the Team Qualifier (Grand Prix) and up to two hours before the start of the Team Final (Grand Prix Special), the Chef d’Equipe may substitute an athlete/horse combination. However, the substitute combination will not be entitled to compete in the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle.
The FEI Grand Prix Freestyle test is the Individual Final Competition which is open to 18 combinations qualified from the FEI Grand Prix. The qualified athletes will be the top two combinations from each of the six groups and the combinations with the six next highest scores.
The Dressage Tests are the FEI Grand Prix, the FEI Grand Prix Special and the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle.
Facts & Figures
30 countries
15 teams
15 countries represented by individual competitors
60 horse/athlete combinations
Germany are defending team champions and are chasing down their 14th Olympic Equestrian Dressage team title
In the history of Olympic Equestrian Dressage, which dates back to 1912, Germany has long been the dominant force, taking 13 team and seven individual titles
Defending individual champion is Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin, who scooped double-gold with the great Valegro at London 2012 and individual gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Dujardin and Valegro consistently set World Records throughout their spectacular career together and continue to hold all three World Records in Dressage (FEI Grand Prix, FEI Grand Prix Special and FEI Grand Prix Freestyle)
At the London International Horse Show in 2014 they set the Grand Prix record at 87.460%, and at the same event posted a new Freestyle World Record when achieving 94.300%
The Grand Prix Special World Record score of 88.022%, which they set at Hagen (GER) in 2012 has never been beaten
Germany’s Isabell Werth (51) will be competing in her sixth Olympic Games. The most medalled athlete in the history of equestrian sport, she has 10 Olympic medals in her trophy cabinet and six of them are gold, the first awarded in Barcelona (ESP) in 1992 and the last at Rio de Janeiro (BRA) in 2016
At Rio, Werth surpassed the record held for many years by The Netherlands’ Anky van Grunsven, who collected nine Olympic medals throughout her spectacular career
Riding Gigolo, Werth claimed individual gold in Atlanta (USA) in 1996 and she is a four-time individual silver medallist
Caroline Chew, 27, is set to become the first Singaporean to compete in equestrian sport at the Olympic Games when she participates in Dressage.
The Officials
Dressage Ground Jury President is Germany’s Katrina Wuest.
Dressage Ground Jury members are: Andrew Gardner (GBR), Francis Verbeek (NED), Hans-Christian Matthiesen (DEN), Janet Foy (USA), Susie Hoevenaars (AUS) and Magnus Ringmark (SWE).
FEI Delegate for Dressage is Australia’s Mary Seefried
The Judges Supervisory Panel (JSP) was introduced by the FEI in 2011 to provide an official back-up system to correct any marking errors at all major events, including Olympic Games.
The members of the JSP at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are: David Hunt (GBR), Liselotte Fore (USA) and Maribel Alonso (MEX).
Overall Chef Steward is Maria Hernek (SWE).
Dressage Chief Steward is Jacques van Daele (BEL)
One of the most identifiable officials on duty throughout the Games will be the colourful Arena Call-up/Steward and Ringmaster, Pedro Cebulka (CAN).
The Teams:
Australia: Mary Hanna (Calanta), Kelly Layne (Samhitas), Simone Pearce (Destano).
Austria: Florian Bacher (Fidertraum), Victoria Max-Theurer (Abegglen NRW), Christian Schumach (Te Quiero SF).
Belgium: Laurence Roos (Fil Rouge), Domien Michiels (Intermezzo van het Meerdaalhof), Larissa Pauluis (Flambeau). Alternate: Alexa Fairchild (Dabanos D’O4).
Canada: Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu (All In), Lindsay Kellock (Sebastien), Chris von Martels (Eclips). Alternate: Naima Moreira Laliberte (Statesman).
Denmark: Cathrine Dufour (Bohemian), Carina Kassae Krüt (Heiline’s Danciera), Nanna Skodborg Merrald (Zack). Alternate: Charlotte Heering (Bufranco).
France: Alexandre Ayache (Zo What), Morgan Barbancon (Sir Donnerhall ll OLD), Maxime Collard (Cupido PB). Alternate: Isabelle Pinto (Hot Chocolat VD Kwaplas).
Germany: Isabell Werth (Bella Rose 2), Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (TSF Dalera BB), Dorothee Schneider (Showtime FRH). Alternate: Helen Langehanenberg (Annabelle 110).
Great Britain: Charlotte Dujardin (Gio), Charlotte Fry (Everdale), Carl Hester (En Vogue). Alternate: Gareth Hughes (Sintano van Hof Olympia).
Japan: Kazuki Sado (Ludwig Der Sonnenkoenig 2), Shingo Hayashi (Scolari 4), Hiroyuki Kitahara (Huracan 10). Alternate: Masanao Taahashi (Rubicon).
Netherlands: Marlies Van Baalen (Go Legend), Edward Gal (Total US), Hans Peter Minderhoud (Dream Boy). Alternate: Dinja van Liere (Haute Couture).
Portugal: Joao Miguel Torrao (Equador), Maria Caetano (Fenix de Tineo), Rodrigo Torres (Foqoso). Alternate: Carlos Pinro (Sultao Menezes).
ROC: Inessa Merkulova (Mister X), Tatyana Kosterina (Diavolessa VA), Aleksandra Maksakova (Bojengels). Alternate: Maria Shuvalova (Famous Cross).
Spain: Beatriz Ferrer-Salat (Elegance), Severo Jurado Lopez (Fendi T), Jose Antonio Garcia Mena (Sorento 15). Alternate: Jose Antonio Garcia Mena (Divina Royal).
Sweden: Patrik Kittel (Well Done De La Roche CHF), Therese Nilshagen (Dante Weltino OLD), Juliette Ramel (Buriel KH). Alternate: Antonia Ramel (Brother de Jeu).
USA: Adrienne Lyle (Salvino), Steffen Peters (Suppenkasper), Sabine Schut-Kery (Sanceo). Alternate: Nick Wagman (Don John).
The Individuals:
Brazil: Joao Victor Marcari Oliva (Escorial).
Chile: Virginia Yarur (Ronaldo).
Dominican Republic: Yvonne Losos de Muniz (Aquamarijn).
Estonia: Dina Ellermann (Donna Anna).
Finland: Henri Ruoste (Kontestro DB).
Ireland: Heike Holstein (Sambuca).
Italy: Francesco Zaza (Wispering Romance).
Korea: Dong Seon Kim (Belstaff).
Luxembourg: Nicolas Wagner Ehlinger (Quater Back Junior FRH).
Morocco: Yessin Rahmouni (All At Once).
Mexico: Martha Fernanda Del Valle Quirarte (Beduino Lam).
Republic of South Africa: Tanya Seymour (Ramoneur 6).
Singapore: Caroline Chew (Tribiani).
Switzerland: Estelle Wettstein (West Side Story OLD).
Ukraine: Inna Logutenkova (Fleraro).
The Nations:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Morocco, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Republic of South Africa, ROC, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, USA.
The full list HERE
FEI Olympic Hub HERE
As the FEI celebrates its centenary this year, some of the biggest names in modern course design talk about the changes and challenges in the sports of Jumping and Eventing. They may have their very different styles and their own personal opinions, but they are all agreed on one thing. Their job is all about what is best for the horse….
Spain’s Santiago Varela had just returned from the hugely successful CHIO Rotterdam in The Netherlands and was turning his focus to the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. It’s a busy time for the man whose life is divided between his job as CEO of a company involved in the renewable energy sector and building tracks for the best Jumping horses and athletes in the world.
“I will fly to Tokyo on 21 July and arrive on the 22nd and will start work immediately”, he says. “The 1st of August is the Jumping phase of Eventing and the last day I will build will be 7 August. So in one month I’ll be free, and the happiest man in the world because I will have fulfilled a dream!”.
He made his name in the course design business through his connection with Madrid Horse Show where he was Assistant Course Designer until 1998. He should have taken over the Official role that year “but my wife had other ideas! We got married during the show and on the day of the wedding I worked in the arena until 3pm and then rushed home to change and go to the church. So for that year I had to remain as the Assistant!”.
He competed himself during his teenage years, and amongst his heroes was six-time Olympian Luis Alvarez Cervera. “Everyone came to the show in Madrid when I was young, the British team, Eddie Macken from Ireland and I remember Neco (Brazil’s Nelson Pessoa) too. All the horses he rode were the perfect ones because he made them perfect!”.
Philosophy
His philosophy for course design is simple. “The course always needs to be fair for the horses. The modern horse is very clever and they are super athletes, but they need to be protected so we must always build a course that they can jump well.”
He says good design is all about keeping the horse’s canter. “It is fundamental, it’s the only way to play with the balance of the horse. Arno Gego (legendary German course designer) defined it well - ‘you find your line and the horses need to flow’. It’s only when you understand that then you can progress to becoming a top course designer. If you don’t allow horses to keep their canter and rhythm and flow through the course then they cannot jump the big fences”, he explains.
And he reveals one secret. “The fences are only a relative issue, not a definitive issue. Distances are only numbers, and numbers alone don’t mean anything. A distance in a combination looks short or long depending on what happened before you arrived there. The riders need to interpret the course because it is a different test for every horse. They need to adjust their plan for a smaller or slower horse with a shorter or longer stride, but one thing they all have in common is that they need to keep the canter and keep the balance.”
So is it difficult for the course designer to find his own balance when, for instance, setting a track for the Olympic Games where riders with many different levels of experience will compete?
“No, it is exactly the same when you are building for a World Cup Final or European Championship or World Equestrian Games, you present the same course for the rider ranked 1,000 and the rider ranked number one and everyone in between. At the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona we have 19 teams, and not all of them are Germany!”, he quips, referring to the strength in depth of Germany in the sport.
“Everyone who competes has achieved a high enough level to be there and it is in the nature of the sport that the best will come out on top. The course is the same for everyone, from first to last.”
So his expectations for how things will play out in Tokyo? “We know about the heat and humidity and have to take that into account. I built a course for Eventing riders at the Test Event and saw the venue being developed and it is truly unbelievable. I’ve been to Tokyo four times now and Baji Koen is a fantastic venue and the conditions for the horses are excellent”, he says.
Impression
Alan Wade was speaking from Tryon, North Carolina (USA), the venue where he made such a huge impression with his brilliant Jumping courses for the FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2018. The Irishman’s design-style is different to Varela’s, but his principles are much the same.
“Course design has improved immensely, and nowadays everything we do has the safety of the horse at the forefront. I make courses that are fair for the horse and testing for the riders”, he says.
He cut his course design teeth in the green fields of South-East Ireland, in particular at Holycross Show in Tipperary where his legendary father, the late great Tommy Wade, presented some of the most challenging tracks on the Irish circuit. And, like his dad, Alan builds courses that are not for the faint-hearted.
“When I started out there were no safety cups, the poles were heavy and a lot of the fences were filled in. Maybe you needed a braver horse back then, but the sport has moved on. Personally I’m still looking for that boldness, using trees or nice fillers but still looking for carefulness.”
Quality horsemen
He says it was easy for him to learn his trade because he had such quality horsemen competing over his tracks. “Francis Connors and Shane Breen - two of the best riders Ireland has ever produced - they weren’t shy about fillers and they set a standard that raised the bar for everyone else”. Great Britain’s David Broome was one of his childhood heroes. “Everything looked so smooth and if adjustment was needed it was done early. Against the clock he never seemed to be going flat out and he always had the horse balanced. The top riders make it look easy.”
He particularly enjoys building at Dublin Horse Show because he’s free to use fence material of his own choosing. “In some parts of the world you can have 50% sponsor fences and sometimes the same fences are sent from competition to competition and it’s the same visual test for a lot of the horses. I like to mix it up a bit.
“All top courses should have different tests all around the course, parts that might suit a smaller horse or one with a longer stride. The overall test should be a mixture of a whole lot of different tests, so when the rider walks the course he needs to work out what will and won’t suit his particular horse at various points around the track.”
And what about building Championship courses for riders with a range of experience? “It’s nearly easier to build a 5* track because 5* riders know what to expect. But when you’ve got 10 to 15 really good combinations, then a bunch of middling ones and 10 to 15 that are stepping up in the sport then that’s where I feel your judgement has to be just right if you are going to have good sport and a proper winner. That is the real test of the skill-set of a course designer.”.
Both sides
Eventing course designer, America’s Derek di Grazia, was speaking from his home in California, USA. It was 9 July, and he had just returned from his last pre-Games check in Tokyo. This is a man who knows his sport from both sides of fence. “I’ve always been a rider and still am to this day”, he says.
He started out doing design work in the 1980s, built his first track at Essex in New Jersey (USA) in the early 1990s, “and my first big break was at Fairhill (USA) in 1999 where I’ve been involved for 21 years!” Over the years he’s had a long association with many other high-profile events including Bromont in Canada and the Kentucky 5* since 2011.
Tokyo 2020 is his first Olympic contract. “Everyone wants to build at an Olympic Games and it’s probably always going to be a situation where you are presented with a new site and you have to develop it.
“It’s been a big project and we are into our fifth year now. From the beginning I knew it would be a challenge. The site was just a big open piece of ground with a lot of trees on it.”
But it’s not just about plotting a course and placing fences on it. “I don’t think people realise how much planning and thought goes into the infrastructure too. There’s a huge list of things to be put in place - stabling for the horses who will spend one night there, veterinary facilities, cooling areas, broadcast facilities, the list goes on and on.”
He says his biggest task was making the distance fit onto the piece of land he was presented with, and then finding a spot for everything else. “Sea Forest is basically an island with water all around and great views of the city. The transformation from the beginning to now is quite amazing. We are just doing the final preparations at the moment and I’ve been working with fence builder David Evans. This is his third Olympic Games.”
Wiggle room
From the outset, di Grazia left himself some wiggle-room when laying out the Cross Country track. “When I started out I designed it so that we could shorten the course if we needed to. I created loops and ways to connect parts of the track and after the Test Event that’s when we decided to reduce it from a 10-minute course to around eight minutes.”
There was a lot of groundwork involved. “There was a lot of flat ground and some ups and downs and it was a case of balancing them both out. We added mounds and rises to some of the flat areas and graded some of the steeper parts. We were basically dealing with a landfill that was covered up to four feet, and we had to lay in subsoil and top soil with sod on top of that. We finished sodding the whole track back in 2018, 18 months before the Test Event so it had time to grow in.
“There are four water-crossings, the main one utilising a catch-pond and when I saw it all last week it was in very good shape. After the Games it’s going to be a public park and I really hope the local people will come out and enjoy it!”
He returns to Tokyo on 23 July, “and when I get there I’ll just be checking everything over again, and then it’s all about decoration and final appearance.”
So is it nerve-wracking waiting for the competition to play itself out? “It’s exciting more than anything else because there will be so many different sets of eyes looking at what you’ve done and lots of different opinions about it. When the riders walk it they’ll be thinking about their own horse and about finding the best path for them. Everyone will see something different but I hope they all appreciate it!”
All-rounders
It seems Eventing course designers are indeed all-rounders. Great Britain’s Mike Etherington-Smith has been a horse producer and competitor, a Technical Delegate, an event organiser, an administrator and one of the most sought-after creators of top Cross Country tracks of the modern era. In recent years he moved into the racing world, taking up the role of Equine Safety Advisor for the Horse Welfare Board, but he is still involved in course design and enjoys every moment of it.
Reflecting on the principles he applies to his design work he says that when he builds a fence he always asks himself if he would be prepared to jump it. “We have to be fair to horses while testing the rider’s ability over different terrain so that they show their skills, competence and ability to prepare and to compete well.
“We don’t have to be smart as course designers, we don’t need to over-complicate things. You put your test out there so that horses learn and grow from the experience of tackling it. No tricks, and no surprises…..fences need definition and contrast so the horse knows exactly what it is being asked to do”.
He says Eventing horses have not changed a lot down the years, but the sport is making different demands on them. “They still have to be athletic and nimble, but today’s courses are more intense and more technical because big, bold fences stopped being good enough to sort them out.”
Put his stamp
From his breakthrough when asked to organise Blenheim Horse Trials back in 1990 to multiple other venues and on to 5* Kentucky where he built the much-lauded track for the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in 2010, Etherington-Smith has put his stamp on many of the world’s greatest events and tracks, and set the bar very high.
A special memory is the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. “I loved that job, literally carving the course out of the bush. There was a massive amount of earthworks involved but I enjoyed every minute of it!” And he has a special affection for Kentucky where he was course designer for 18 fantastic years. “The terrain there is the best, it’s perfect for the sport”.
The only person ever to create two Olympic tracks – both Sydney and Beijing 2008 – he has cut back on his design work now, but Adelaide in Australia and Luhmühlen in Germany are still on his radar.
“Every course has different challenges. Adelaide is right in the middle of a big city so that’s fairly unique, and I’m excited for Luhmühlen because it’s developing a new parcel of land so that will change the style and feel of the course which will be great.”
Like di Grazia, Etherington-Smith has seen plenty of changes in the sport of Eventing over the last 30 years and more, including the transition from the old format to the new format and everything that brings. “Responsibilities have changed, and we can only put in place what we believe is the best system possible for our sport but we have to remain open to further change.”
For him, one simple principle is at the heart of it all.
“I’m 100% on the side of the horse, and their safety and welfare has to be top of the list!”
Can horses fly? Well yes, they can if they’re Olympic athletes!
And in a piece of history-making, 36 of them flew into Japan last night – the first full cargo load of horses ever to land in Haneda, the waterfront airport that serves the greater Tokyo area and which is now welcoming a very different group of Olympic athletes.
“To see these horses arriving at Haneda airport is a truly historic occasion, and what makes it even more special is that these are not simply horses, they are Olympic horses”, Administrator of Tokyo International Airport Takahashi Koji said. “It’s a really big night for the airport, and particularly for the cargo team, and we see it as one of the major milestones of the final countdown to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.”
The four-legged time travellers are all Equestrian Dressage horses and include some Olympic superstars, among them Bella Rose, the mare ridden by Germany’s Isabell Werth, the most decorated Olympic equestrian athlete of all time.
Also landing at Haneda en route to the stunning equestrian venue at Baji Koen, owned by the Japan Racing Association, is Gio, the ride of double Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin (GBR), who will be bidding for a three-in-a-row title in Tokyo.
The 36 equine passengers will be flying the flag for teams from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Portugal and host nation Japan, as well as individuals from Brazil, Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Morocco. And they will be joined by a further group of Equestrian Dressage stars flying into Tokyo tomorrow.
The first Olympic flight out of Europe saw the horses travelling from Liege in Belgium, where there’s even a special airport horse hotel, flying on an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777-F to Dubai, a 90-minute refuel and crew change and then on to Tokyo.
From a sustainability perspective, Emirates has implemented a number of initiatives to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions where operationally feasible, including its long-standing operation of flexible routings in partnership with air navigation service providers to create the most efficient flight plan for each flight. The airline, which operates one of the world’s youngest aircraft fleets, also uses advanced data analytics, machine learning and AI in its fuel monitoring and aircraft weight management programmes.
Like human passengers, all horses travel with a passport. They will already have undergone a 60-day health surveillance period prior to a seven-day pre-export quarantine. They all also have an export health certificate and are thoroughly checked over by veterinarians prior to boarding.
Business class travel
The horses fly two per pallet, or flying stable, which is the equivalent of business class. Their comfort and safety is ensured by flying grooms and an on-board veterinarian. And, unlike two-legged passengers, the horses not only get their in-flight meals (including special meal requests of course), but are able to snack throughout the trip, on hay or haylage, except when they are taking a nap.
So as they are flying business class, does that mean the horses get flat beds to sleep in? Although horses might occasionally indulge in a spot of lying down to snooze in the sun at home, they actually sleep standing up. They have something called the “stay apparatus”, which allows tendons and ligaments to effectively lock the knees and hocks (in the hind legs) so that they don’t fall over while they’re dozing off. So there’s no need for flat beds on the flight.
A total of 325 horses will be flown into Tokyo across the two Games and the complex logistics for this massive airlift have been coordinated by transport agents, Peden Bloodstock, which has been in charge of Olympic and Paralympic horse transport since Rome 1960 and is the Official Equine Logistics Partner of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), global governing body for equestrian sport. Peden Bloodstock became title partner of the FEI Best Athlete Award in 2019.
A convoy of 11 state-of-the-art air-conditioned horse trucks, owned by the Japanese Racing Association, transported today’s precious equine cargo – and 13,500 kilograms of equipment – on the final transfer from Haneda to Baji Koen where the equine superstars had the chance to settle into their Olympic Athlete Village, aka the stables.
“Like all the athletes arriving into Tokyo for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the horses are honed and ready to compete on the sporting world’s biggest stage”, FEI President Ingmar De Vos said. “After all the challenges the world has faced, finally we’re almost there and now it’s only a matter of days before we hear those magical words, let the Games begin!”
Fast flight facts:
Total transport trivia across both Games
Haneda Airport (HND)
Haneda Airport handled over 87 million passengers in 2018, making it the third busiest airport in Asia and the fourth busiest in the world, after Atlanta, Beijing and Dubai. Following expansion in 2018, Haneda is able to handle 90 million passengers per year – not counting horses!
With Haneda and Narita combined, Tokyo has the third-busiest city airport system in the world, after London and New York City.
Equestrian sport in Tokyo 2020
A record number of countries – 50 – will be competing in the equestrian events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games following the introduction of new formats that limit teams to three members, meaning that more countries will have the opportunity to compete on the Olympic stage than ever before.
A total of seven countries will be fielding full teams in all three Olympic disciplines, including the host nation Japan. The others are Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and United States of America.
Unique gender equality
Equestrian is the only sport in the Olympic movement in which men and women compete head to head throughout the Games, making it a totally gender neutral sport. And the FEI doesn’t need a policy regarding transgender athletes as there are no requirements for our athletes to state their gender in order to participate in FEI competitions, or at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Equestrian is not a gender-affected sport that relies on the physical strength, stamina and physique of an athlete as there are no gender based biological advantages. Success in equestrian is largely determined by the unique bond between horse and athlete and refined communication with the horse.
Sustainability:
Sustainability is a key theme across the Games, and equestrian is very much a part of that. In line with Pillar 1 of the IOC Sustainability Strategy: Minimum Environmental Burden, the redevelopment of the Japan Racing Association-owned Baji Koen Park as the equestrian venue for Tokyo 2020 has minimised environmental impact and ensured the legacy of the venue used for the Tokyo Games in 1964.
“The original plan for equestrian put forward by the Tokyo Organising Committee was for a totally temporary venue in the Tokyo Bay area, but when the FEI was consulted on this as an option, we pushed for the alternative which was to re-use the 1964 Olympic equestrian venue at Baji Koen,” FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez says. “This was the optimal choice from a sustainability perspective as it minimises environmental impact, but it also ensures the legacy of this wonderful venue.”
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic & Paralympic Games (TOCOG) has incorporated a further sustainability initiative into the equestrian venue with the incineration of used bedding from the horses’ stables for power generation.
And aligned with Pillar 2 of the IOC Sustainability Strategy: Urban environment plans harmonising with nature, only native species that integrate well with local flora and fauna have been planted at the Sea Forest cross country venue. This includes the use of a native grass species, Zoysia japonica, for the footing on the course itself.
Olympic equestrian involves three disciplines, with a quota of 200 starters in total:
Equestrian Dressage (60 starters)
Equestrian Eventing (65 starters)
Equestrian Show Jumping (75 starters)
Countries per Olympic discipline
Equestrian Dressage – 30 NOCs represented: AUS, AUT, BEL, BRA, CAN, CHI, DEN, DOM, ESP, EST, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, IRL, ITA, JPN, KOR, LUX, MAR, MEX, NED, POR, ROC, RSA, SGP, SUI, SWE, UKR & USA.
Equestrian Eventing – 29 NOCs represented: AUS, AUT, BEL, BLR, BRA, CAN, CHN, CZE, DEN, ECU, ESP, FRA, GBR, GER, HKG, IND, IRL, ITA, JPN, NED, NZL, POL, PUR, ROC, RSA, SUI, SWE, THA & USA.
Equestrian Show Jumping – 35 NOCs represented: ARG, AUS, BEL, BRA, CAN, CHI, CHN, COL, CZE, DEN, DOM, EGY, ESP, FRA, GBR, GER, IRL, ISR, ITA, JOR, JPN, LAT, MAR, MEX, NED, NOR, NZL, POR, SRI, SUI, SWE, SYR, TPE, UKR & USA.
Competition dates per discipline
Equestrian Dressage – 24, 25 & 27 July (team final), 28 July (individual final)
Equestrian Eventing – 30 & 31 July (Dressage), 1 August (Cross Country), 2 August (Jumping – team & individual finals)
Equestrian Show Jumping – 3 & 4 August (individual final), 6 & 7 August (team final)
Age requirements
There are minimum age requirements for all three of the Olympic disciplines, for both human and equine athletes, but there is no maximum age.
Olympic Games
Equestrian Dressage: All Athletes must be born on or before 31 December 2005 (16 years of age). All Horses must be born on or before 31 December 2013 (eight years of age).
Equestrian Eventing: All Athletes must be born on or before 31 December 2003 (18 years of age). All Horses must be born on or before 31 December 2013 (eight years of age)
Equestrian Show Jumping: All Athletes must be born on or before 31 December 2003 (18 years of age). All Horses must be born on or before 31 December 2012 (nine years of age).
Paralympic Games
Paralympic Games: there is just one Paralympic discipline, Para Equestrian Dressage, with 78 starters
Para Equestrian Dressage – 27 NPCs represented: AUS, AUT, BEL, BRA, CAN, CZE, DEN, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, HKG, IRL, ITA, JPN, KSA, LAT, MEX, NED, NOR, POR, RPC, RSA, SGP, SUI, SWE & USA.
A total of 16 countries will be fielding full teams.
Competition dates: Para Equestrian Dressage – 26-30 August
Age requirements
There are minimum age requirements for Para Equestrian Dressage at the Paralympic Games, for both human and equine athletes, but there is no maximum age.
Para Equestrian Dressage: From and including the year in which they reach their 16th birthday, Athletes are eligible to take part in the Para Equestrian Dressage Competitions. Horses must be born on or before 31 December 2015 (six years of age - the age being counted from 1 January of the year of birth).
Click here for more information on Equestrian at the Olympic Games.
Video content
Rights-Holding Broadcasters: VNR and b-roll footage of the departure from Liege, the arrival in Tokyo and in the EQP venue are available for download on Content+
Non-RHBs/digital media: VNR and b-roll footage (subject to the IOC’s News Access Rules) will be available for download here (login: media@fei.org password: FEI2018) at 16:00 JST.
Photo caption:
Haneda history-making: the first full cargo load of horses ever to land in Tokyo’s Haneda airport ready for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Equestrian competitions. © FEI/Yusuke Nakanishi.
Images
Images from the departure from Liege, the arrival in Tokyo and in the EQP venue are available now on the FEI Flickr account for editorial use only.
The Netherlands proved unbeatable in the Young Riders category at the FEI Dressage European Championships 2021 for Young Riders, Juniors and Children which came to a close at Oliva Nova in Spain yesterday. However Germany dominated both the Junior and Children’s podiums in a week of great sport.
Young Riders
Marten Luiten led the Dutch domination of the Young Riders category. Riding the 11-year-old mare, Fynona, the 19-year-old athlete produced the top score of 77.677 in the team test in which Dutch pathfinder Quinty Vossers (Hummer) scored 70.441. But when compatriots Milou Dees (Francesco) and Thalia Rockx (Golden Dancer de la Fazenda) posted 74.000 and 73.853 to finish second and third individually, that left the result beyond doubt with the three best scores to count.
The team total of 225.530 gave them a significant nine-point victory over Germany’s silver medallists Helena Schmitz-Morkramer (DSP Lifestyle), Elisabeth Von Wulffen (Giesta Bonita), Anna Middelberg (Blickfang HC) and Luca Sophia Collin (Descolari) who posted a combined score of 216.294. Denmark’s Victoria Cecilie Bonefeld Dahl (Comtesse), Sofie K. Hansen (Dieu D’Amour 3), Laura Jarlkvist Rasmussen (Aatoftens Dornier) and Sara Hyrm (Skovborgs Romadinov) put 211.295 on the board, but they bagged the bronze by only a little over a single percentage point ahead of the strong Spanish side.
Belgium finished fifth and Sweden lined up in sixth, while a total of 14 teams competed.
Luiten proved untouchable again for both the Individual and Freestyle titles. The judging panel of Mariette Sanders-van Gansewinkel (NED), Kurt Christensen (DEN), Maria Colliander (FIN), Francisco Guerra Diaz (ESP) and Thomas Lang (AUT) were in complete agreement when putting him top of the order with a big score of 79.617 in the Individual in which team-mate Rockx took silver (73.765) and Germany’s Collin claimed the bronze (73.740).
And Luiten was once again the across-the-board Freestyle winner, while it was an all-Dutch podium when Rockx again took silver and this time Dees took bronze. In a test that earned multiple 9s and two scores of 10 for their canter half-pirouette, the gold-medal-winning pair who took three-time silver at the Junior European Championships in 2019 and Young Rider double-gold last summer, posted 83.155 for Freestyle victory.
Luiten commented, “during the whole competition season we were already in great shape and we really wanted to show that in Oliva Nova as well. I feel like we had three good tests, I was very happy after each of them. Taking home three gold medals is an amazing feeling and I don't know the words to describe it, it feels awesome! I'm also very proud of my team members, who also took team gold and some individual medals. A Dutch top three in the Freestyle was what we were wishing for, so I am also very proud of them and of course the whole Dutch team who are the best supporters you can wish for!”
Juniors
Great Britain’s Annabella Pidgley sprang a surprise when producing the top score of 75.455 in the Junior Team Championship, but there was nothing unusual about the battle for team gold in which Germany came out on top ahead of The Netherlands in silver and Denmark in bronze medal position.
Pidgley only started riding the 11-year-old Sultan des Paluds in March of this year, but a hat-trick of wins at the CDIJ in Wellington (GBR) two months ago brought the pair to the attention of selectors and the 16-year-old rider, who has three European Pony Championships on her record sheet, produced a sparkling team test for a score of 75.455.
However it was the second-best score of the competition produced by Lucie-Anouk Baumgurtel and Zinq Hugo FH that anchored the German victory. It was a solid performance from Maria Schierholter-Otte’s side with all four team riders scoring well above 70%. Lena Merkt (Sarotti Mocca-Sahne) put 73.212 on the board, then Kenya Schwierking (Cecil) posted 72.606 and this was the discard when Jana Lang (Baron) was awarded 73.000 and Baumgurtel rounded it up with 75.364.
Their combined score of 221.576 left Germany ahead of the chasing Dutch foursome of Pem Verbeek (Fernando Torres), Evi van Rooij (Don Tango B), Robin Heiden (Jivando S) and Sanne van der Pols (Excellentie) who completed with 218.091 for silver. Denmark’s Sophia Ludvigsen (Blue Hors Quintana), Annabelle Rehn (Vestervangs Garson), Frederikke Gram Jacobsen (Ryvangs Zafina) and Alexander Yde Helgstrand (Grevens SA VA) posted 215.485 for bronze. A total of 16 teams competed.
Pidgley produced two more exciting rides to take silver in both the Individual and Freestyle tests. But it was Baumgurtel who claimed the gold each time, while Austria’s Paul Jobstl steered Bodyguard 49 into bronze.
At just 17 years old Baumgurtel is already something of a Championship veteran, collecting multiple gold medals during her very successful pony career. She seems to thrive under pressure, and with 76.529 in the Individual and a handsome 82.045 in the Freestyle, she and her nine-year-old gelding Zinq Hugo FH were completely in command.
Rounding up the truly international podium on each occasion was 18-year-old Jobstl who has established a great partnership this year with his 12-year-old stallion Bodyguard, posting a hat-trick of wins in the lead-up to these Championships at both Sint-Truiden in Belgium and Ornago, Italy.
Children
German team members Lara Lettermann (Soleil de la Coeur H), Lotta Plaas (Balsamico), Clara Paschertz (Danubio OLD) and Martha Raupach (Jack Sparrow) produced the best four rides in the Children’s Team competition to put the result beyond doubt.
Lattermann, age 14, led the way with 85.034 from her nine-year-old Oldenburg mare while Plaas, who will turn 13 next month, scored 82.844. Paschertz, also 14, was the veteran of this side having taken Team gold at the Children’s Championship at San Giovanni di Marignano (ITA) in 2019 and Team gold and Individual silver at last year’s event in Hungary where, together with Danubio, she also topped the Preliminary competition.
Their mark of 82.534 ensured Germany was unbeatable when the best three scores were counted for a final tally of 250.452. And the quality of the German side was underlined by the 79.692 achieved by fourth team member, 13-year-old Raupach and her 7-year-old Dutch gelding.
The Netherlands Flore Woerts (Vlingh), Fleur Kempenaars (Armano), Kyra Jonkers (Eyecatcher) and Lize van den Heuvel (Hilton-S) claimed silver medal spot on a combined score of 228.08 and bronze went to the Russian Federation when Ksenia Silyutina (Simfonia), Sonya Romanova (Skyfall), Polina Trofimova (Jerome vd Anjershof) and Agata Zakhrabekova (Ein Champion ZS) put 221.118 on the board. A total of eight teams competed.
In the Children’s Individual Championship some marks are allocated for the quality of riding, and with a strong 9.5 for both Effectiveness and General Impression, Latttermann had the edge in the battle for the title when scoring 85.548. Team-mate Paschertz was not far behind in silver medal spot on 83.834 and it was Dutch team-member Lize van de Heuvel, silver medallist at this year’s Dutch Dressage Championships, who clinched the bronze when racking up 81.570 with Hilton-S.
Elke Ebert (GER), President of the Ground Jury for the Junior category, was full of praise for the organisation of this year’s Championships. “It was a wonderful event run by friendly, helpful people and the atmosphere was great. The conditions and facilities were fantastic and we got only positive feedback from everyone involved”, she said.
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