Rustig, maar. It simply means we should bear in mind that this thread could get reined in if we do not choose our words carefully. It’s not right but it is the way things are these days.
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Not sure I understand what you mean of stabling already constructed. All of the stabling and the stadium in Versailles were temporary. I would assume that’s what they would be able to do in LA as well. I agree it’s not easy to find a place to do everything but tbh the horse sports had so much negativity around them this past Olympics, we are lucky they’re continuing to make it. Unfortunately if people don’t like wake up to the horse welfare issues, that is going to be eventually be the end.
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Look at Agenda 2020+5. Paris was the last of purpose specific facilities. The IOC has deemed use of existing facilities is important to sustain the Olympics. Add on the other requirements needed to run FEI upper level competitions, the number of places drops considerably.
Maybe Santa Anita wants LA to build a new vet hospital on site using taxpayer dollars?
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That’s a crazy restriction! Imposed by FEI? Almost no show grounds in the world have that. There are plenty of vets in the area including one literally across the road. 30 min down the road from Galway is San Luis Rey Equine Hospital, a full surgical center that I have (unfortunately) had to use myself for an emergency surgery situation.
Christ even when Barbaro broke his leg in the Preakness all those years ago they vanned him an hour north to New Bolton outside of Philly.
The lunatics are running the asylum here.
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There might be a vet clinic at Santa Anita. They at least used to have nuclear scintigraphy. And they have a PET scanner.
???
I don’t think I said that. I did know that everything at Versailles was temporary.
Source - https://inside.fei.org/system/files/Olympic%20Paralympic_Venue%20Operational%20Requirements_2024.pdf
There is a vet clinic across the street on Ken’s property.
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Does anyone have any information on what “ on site “ means as defined by FEI/IOC? Within a mile? Literally on premises and Owned by the same entity? With everything I’ve learned on this thread it just seems like there’s no facility in the world that will be able to host equestrian Olympics going forward.
I very much appreciate the Olympic committee trying to use existing facilities for all sports and not build infrastructure used for a few weeks and then left to rot for years afterwards. But to accomplish that objective, they have to use some sense and that is what I am seriously seeing a lack of here is common sense. It actually kind of made sense to me that they moved the surfing to Tahiti in Paris because what were they going to do surf on the Seine And float around and look at each other?
In some ways, I think we need to be honest with ourselves here we’re all an echo chamber for the equestrian, but in reality, the majority of the world wants to watch the track and field in the swimming. I do think that surfing in this coming Olympics will have a lot of interest due to the SoCal thing as I mentioned earlier, but it’s just starting to feel unwieldy and not worth it. Just my opinion.
Yes but not a surgical hospital. Although from what Peggy posted perhaps that’s not needed 
Well, is it time to resurrect the “Do the Olympics benefit the horse industry in general enough to justify the costs and hardships” discussion?
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WEC Ocala has a vet clinic on site, although I don’t know if they do surgery.
And at the Kentucky Horse Park, Hagyard is literally right across the street from the front entrance to the park.
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This came to my mind too. But if several events won’t be held in the same state (let alone same area) as the rest what even is the point of the Olympics over individual sport championships such as WEG.
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Also from the document whose link I posted upthread. There is technically a way out of the one venue requirement.
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The document whose link I posted says in the venue, outside of the stable area, and linked to the stable area via a dedicated horse path.
In theory there could be a very long horse path to a distant clinic, but that would not be in the spirit of the rule. I suppose if there was a clinic adjacent to the venue, but not technically part of it, the perimeter could be adjusted. But perhaps that clinic could not be used by outside horses for the duration of the games.
That sounds like kind of a stretch to expect any decent clinic to limit themselves to a maximum of 200 horses for whatever that period of time would be.
And hopefully they would not see anything like 200 horses, since presumably they would not all need to go to the clinic during the Olympics. Fingers crossed.
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So, a couple of points.
Weather: As someone who has lived/ridden horses in both locations (Santa Anita and Galway) they both have the potential to be quite hot in summer, and equally so. If anything, Arcadia is hotter and tends to have worse air quality.
Veterinary Clinic: Yes, Santa Anita has a surgical veterinary clinic on site.
The cross-country portion of equestrian is usually quite highly attended, sometimes among the most attended events at the Games. I can’t find the number for 1984 but it may have been as high as 60,000 if memory serves. Versailles was 40,000.
The transport issue is not unique to this venue and I think those logistics would have been solvable for Galway if they can solve them for the resorts in the Winter Olympics.
Santa Anita was a quite beautiful venue for dressage and show jumping in 1984 and it is as iconic as anything in the LA area. The mountains, if the air is clear, (and it more often is these days) are spectacular, and it is well set up to have lots of people. Plus, lots of neat old history and bronze statues.
That said, I’m sad it won’t be Galway, which I’ve seen grow from a racehorse training center before it even held its first events, to its first events, to its first full three-day-event (including roads and tracks and steeplechase!) to what it can do today. I’ve been a competitor and a volunteer and I really would have loved to see the investment go into a facility that would continue to serve us all.
And I don’t see how you run a real cross-country at Santa Anita. My best guess is a lot of portables and bringing in some temporary footing over some of the parking.
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Oh, boy. That sounds a little scary.
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And that is the question. Do we really need this?
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I will give a most cynical reply. For show jumping at least, it has become a lottery that trainers play to see who can get the most crazed parents to invest millions towards getting their children into the Games. The recent switch to 3-person teams has thrown somewhat of a monkey wrench into that plan, but the cachet of the Olympics can still cause billionaires to become irrational. I’d rather see World Equestrian Games every two years and leave indefensibly expensive horse sports out of the Olympics. Or maybe keep them in the pentathlon, Kent Farrington could still win that.
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