It looks chilly in Aachen today, and tonnes of rain in the forecast.
OMG no…no Burto???
Originally selected as traveling reserve for the Australian Olympic eventing team, Stuart Tinney and Leporis will now step up to fill Chris Burton’s shoes after Chris, a two-time Olympian, withdrew Quality Purdey. Chris Burton finished fifth individually for Australia in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 aboard Santano II.
Stuart Tinney will pilot the 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding Leporis (Lasino – Miss Danny, by Heraldik), who is owned by Stuart and Karen Tinney. This pair took second in Leporis’ first five-star at the 2019 Australian International and has finished outside of the top 10 at the four-star level just once in eight starts. Stuart had originally pinned his Tokyo hopes on Elisabeth Brinton’s Celebration, but the 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding sustained “an unforeseen paddock injury” removing himself from contention for selection.
Very dumb question-why is the US team doing quarantine in Germany? Is it because of Covid or the length of the trip for the horses?
I think both, and Brexit comes into play too.
I can’t believe Chris Burton doesn’t have a back up horse! He has a string of them in Europe.
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I believe aachen was already setup to be the jumping off point for all of Europe in terms of quarantine so rather than reinvent the wheel and repeat all the qualifying steps to get a quarantine station in California setup they just glommed onto the already setup one. And the us showjumping team were already planning on being in Europe anyway.
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I don’t think this is the case. Old people die in these heatwaves because their body temperature goes up and never gets back down. If they have a place to cool down at least part of the day then they are better off. I am sure horses are the same. I endure this weather all summer in Central Alabama and have problems with heat. I can do a lot more outside if I can come inside to cool down some during the day. It is a lot harder on me if I have to be out in the heat all day long. I just can’t acclimate.
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“Old people” arent extremely fit horses who have hopefully been training for this. And I don’t mean stand outside in direct sun all day with no relief. Being under fans and misters and shade is one thing but going from 95 degrees and humidity to 70 and back out into 95 is really hard. I find it easier to be out in 95, cool off in the shade with fans, cool towel, etc rather than creating a huge temperature shock either direction. I dont know to what degree the barns are cooled. It could be just enough it’s not sweltering inside or it could be enough you have to wear a jacket. But going from extremes can be hard.
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The Japanese government required additional preexport quarantine because of covid, etc, and the FEI and a logistics company set one up in Aachen with all the approvals taken care of, so you didn’t have to arrange your own. Most of the National federations signed up for that one.
The protocol is described in some detail here: https://inside.fei.org/system/files/Peden%20Bloodstock%20Updated%20Shipping%20Memo%20Tokyo%202020_02.04.2021_0.pdf
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To this point, in very hot weather elite distance runners will wear ice vests until the start of their races to stay cooled
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The more I read about this, the less I like this for the horses. Sure, we as humans can choose to compete wherever we want in whatever conditions; but it really sounds like this is going to be stressful on the horses. I also wonder more about the horse choices - I would think there would be a lean towards younger, hotter-blooded/lighter horses to handle the conditions better.
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sounds like they should have decided to hold them in October again.
I believe quarantine in Aachen is 10 days.
I think April would be the best choice, actually. Once it gets hot it can really stay hot. I say run them before it gets hot.
Thinking of a particular 19 year old horse that I have a soft spot for and hoping he will be ok!
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I believe he did but there were other stronger combinations. Stuart Tinney was also originally selected on a different horse but had to go reserve as that’s as good as his second horse was. Now he’s made it!
Worth a listen…Sam Watson talking about life in quarantine in Aachen. Doesn’t sound all that great lol. Also talks about Maui Baum turning heads and being the talk of the town.
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Sigh…only the US team would have the head-turning horse be the alternate.
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