Hong Kong Retrains Track Thoroughbreds for Equestrian Pursuits

Olympic horses find new lease on life
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Thoroughbred racing in Hong Kong is an obsession and, on closer examination, there are many aspects of how it operates that could be instructional or even inspirational to American racing.

One aspect that was recently brought to my attention is Hong Kong's retraining program for suitable retiring Thoroughbred race horses.

By the way, the number of Thoroughbreds competing in the Olympics this year is impressive. Those who said that the transition of eventing from the long to short format would be the end of Thoroughbreds in the sport weren't counting on the Olympics being held in hot, steamy Hong Kong. I'm not sure that body type was part of the criteria for team selection in any of the disciplines, but Thoroughbreds are filling those planes headed to Hong Kong from around the world!

Thanks to the South China Morning Post for this video.

Did you know...that you can read Fran Jurga's blog about international Olympic riders and horses, as part of Equisearch.com's Olympic coverage? Click here to read the blog and subscribe to the RSS/Atom feed.

Video: Get to Know What's Different About the Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian Games

These two short videos give you a glimpse into how some countries did their homework for the Big Trip to Hong Kong next month for the 2008 Olympic Equestrian Games. Produced by the host, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the first video takes you back a year to the 2007 "test events", where horses and riders and coaches and staff learned about the facilities and the weather. Would heavier warmblood horses be able to handle the heat? Would lighter Thoroughbred-type horses just sweat out their energy? A month from now, we will see the lineup of what horses were selected by which countries, and perhaps learn how the Hong Kong conditions affected decisions by team selectors to choose one horse over another.

This is definitely an interesting way to approach the world's top eventing, dressage, and show jumping horses. If you were a handicapper, you could have some fun figuring out how level the playing field will be in Hong Kong. I think there is a chance that an Underdog country may slip into the medals. What's your guess? Will the same old flags be flying?

The second video is a news report about the test events from the local news media in Hong Kong. You can see some faces of some of the "Hong Kong Heroes" who will be in the news a month from now!