US Olympic Team and alternates named

[Equibrit]

[QUOTE=NeverTime;8715500]
While I certainly don’t disagree about the risks of doing too much long-distance shipping with these horses, Virginia is somewhat en route between the UK and Argentina and would break up the trip into a 6- and 10-hour (ish) flights instead of one 14-hour-ish one. I’ve no idea whether one long flight is easier on a horse than two not-quite-as-long flights, but it’s a bit different than shipping a horse back and forth across the country.
Regardless, agree the combination of long flights and competitions is less than ideal. The horse JUST competed and proved he’s on form, and against arguably tougher competition than he’ll see at the mandatory outing. I’d like it better if Glen could rest up in Virginia or just do the dressage there.[/QUOTE]

You have to take quarantines in to account.

[vineyridge]

I want to know what the current rules are about piroplasmosis. There was a huge amount of discussion before the Pan Ams in Rio about this disease because, IIRC, if a horse contracted it the horse would not be allowed back in the US. I’m sure other countries would have equally strict quarantine rules if they came from countries without that disease or countries like the US that were trying to keep it under control.

Has the world just decided to ignore that as a problem?

[Winding_Down]

@vineyridge;8714602

It’s probably only correlation, but the United States hasn’t done anything well as a Team since 2007 when PD started being the mainstay. Our last gleam of a medal was in 2008. That’s two WEGs and one Olympics.

it’s not even a correlation, LOL.

[OverandOnward]

[QUOTE=vineyridge;8717347]
This is how bad things are: H & H has a beginner’s guide to eventing on its website that lists the countries expected to vie for medals, along with some others that could be in contention. The US is never mentioned, not even among the possibles.

I wrote this exact same post before WEG 2014.[/QUOTE]

WHAT ???

Alright that’s it. Into the harbor goes the tea. :mad:

:winkgrin:

[vineyridge]

From the H&H Beginner’s Guide to Eventing, which can be found here:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/rio-2016-olympics-eventing/beginners-guide-to-olympic-eventing-313505

Who are the main contenders? Does Britain have a chance?

The Germans are the out and out favourites for the team gold after taking this honour at the past five consecutive championships. They also have several riders who are likely to challenge for individual medals, including Michael Jung, Sandra Auffarth and Ingrid Klimke.

Britain and New Zealand are likely to be their main contenders, so Britain has a strong chance of collecting a team medal. Team GBR will also field several athletes who will be in the running for an individual gong.

France, Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands are among the other nations who could be in contention.

[skydy]

An informative article regarding travel to areas with Zika; http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/06/10/480969498/so-youre-going-to-a-place-with-zika-heres-what-you-need-to-know

[goodmorning]

My Drs added to that 6mo timeline in a Zika area…

[JER]

Now it’s looking like I’ll be in Brazil in August.

An acquaintance recently caught zika in Cartagena, said it wasn’t much fun.

[skydy]

[QUOTE=JER;8718324]
Now it’s looking like I’ll be in Brazil in August.

An acquaintance recently caught zika in Cartagena, said it wasn’t much fun.[/QUOTE]

Let us know how it goes!

I was interested to learn that most people who are infected are asymptomatic.

That fact, coupled with the length of time the virus remains sexually transmittable by the asymptomatic person, as well as the danger of the person introducing the virus to a previously uninfected mosquito population, gives me more cause for concern.

Having the Olympics in Rio at this time seems to me like a bad idea.

Of course with great numbers of people traveling around the globe by air at any time, the virus is likely to be spread.
Having the Olympics in an infected area will (I think) only accelerate the spread of the virus. Not wise IMHO.

[Marigold]

[QUOTE=NeverTime;8715500]
Virginia is somewhat en route between the UK and Argentina and would break up the trip into a 6- and 10-hour (ish) flights instead of one 14-hour-ish one.[/QUOTE]

On a recent episode of the Eventing Radio Show, Clark and Paul Tapner (who is long-listed with Prince Mayo for AUS, short list not yet announced) were comparing potential travel plans, as both are currently based in the UK. Going from memory here, but they were approximately as follows:

Clark and Glen: base in England --> ship by road to Belgium --> fly to New York (Google says just under 8 hours) --> quarantine --> ship to Hannah Sue’s in Virginia --> ship to Great Meadows and compete --> ship down to Ocala for training camp --> ship down to Miami (Google says just under 9 hours) --> fly to Rio.

Paul and Prince Mayo: base in England --> fly out of England to Rio (Google says 12 hours).

That is a substantial difference, to say the very least. Clark mentioned that it would be exciting to be home for the fourth of July for the first time in a while, but somehow I think that’s not enough to outweigh that difference.

[FitToBeTied]

That travel schedule seems to be a good method to insure you are not competitive at the games.

[FLeventer]

[QUOTE=FitToBeTied;8724487]
That travel schedule seems to be a good method to insure you are not competitive at the games.[/QUOTE]

I agree. It makes no sense. Why does he need to do Great Meadow? Couldn’t he have done an event in the UK and just shipped to Rio?

[Divine_Comedy]

To be fair, there’s a gap of at least ten days from when Glen gets to the U.S. to GM, then something like two weeks in Ocala before getting on the plane to Miami. It’s not all back to back to back like they made it sound on the radio show.

Clark also said Glen was a good shipper.

Having said that, it’s still a lot of travel, but perhaps they consulted with Clark as to the best plan he thought for his horse to do well and Clark thought it would be fine. Perhaps they didn’t consult him at all, but while we can speculate, there’s no way to know what goes on behind the scenes.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

I also think many of the UK based riders are competing at Barbury (July 7-10) as the last event prior to the Olympics. I tried to look at going…hotels are BOOKED everywhere around there. There will be live coverage that should be fun to watch (if we can get it in the US).

So it is not that everyone is wrapping up their horses…but I agree, that is a lot of traveling. Though I worry more about them missing gallops while they rest him from travel and compete. But they know their horse and how to prep him best.

Everyone…even the Brazilian team…are travelling pretty far to get to the Olympics (Brazilian team are based with Mark Todd in the UK).

[JER]

[QUOTE=Divine Comedy;8724758]
while we can speculate, there’s no way to know what goes on behind the scenes.[/QUOTE]

Oh, that line again.

I’m quite certain you wouldn’t mean it this way, but that line is usually trotted out to the common folk by the elites when they’re trying to make excuses for head-scratching behavior or poor results or both.

Condescension is just a rather ugly, desperate form of spin.

(There is currently a festival of this kind of talk going on in the UK following the Brexit vote and the Euro football humiliation. Both are cases of the elite being really, really, really out of touch.)

And yes, while we-don’t-know-blah-blah-blah, we’ve seen the results of the past decade and we’ve noticed that team medals (or any medals, actually) are lacking. I believe the US eventing team was a few points behind the great eventing nation of Japan at the 2012 games, and at WEG 2014, the US team couldn’t manage to crack the top 10. Oh my. You don’t need to know what goes on behind the scenes to know that those are terrible results.

Skepticism is genuinely earned here. I think the US eventing community would love to be proven wrong, to see that USEF eventing has a healthy program and a bright future, but much of what we do see just doesn’t inspire confidence.

[Divine_Comedy]

@JER;8725044

Oh, that line again.

I’m quite certain you wouldn’t mean it this way, but that line is usually trotted out to the common folk by the elites when they’re trying to make excuses for head-scratching behavior or poor results or both.

I am trotting out that line in this one specific instance of Glen travelling. Not as a blanket excuse for the past decade of results. If anyone thinks I’m an elite ‘making an excuse to the common folk’, then they are very mistaken.

[Winding_Down]

what’s the point in repeatedly trashing the US Team, over and over and over and over and over and over… again and again and again…

whatevah!!

[FitToBeTied]

[QUOTE=Winding Down;8726920]
what’s the point in repeatedly trashing the US Team, over and over and over and over and over and over… again and again and again…

whatevah!![/QUOTE]

I haven’t really seen anyone trash the Team but this is professional sports and part of professional sports is second guessing. To be honest, decisions made in regards to the Team over the last decade have been quite questionable. I think it is entirely legitimate to question the travel schedule for Loughlan Glen. It is not trashing Clark but questioning the decision making process surrounding the Team.

It is also not trashing the team to say they are a long shot for a medal. It doesn’t mean people are supporting them but merely being realistic.

[fordtraktor]

IMO the showjumpers on the top tours seem to me to travel a whole lot more than that and perform.

[FrittSkritt]

Given the climate difference between the UK and South America, I’m going to guess having Glen in the U.S. for several weeks prior (and humid VA/FL, no less) will actually help him in terms of acclimating.