USA Wins Team Gold Medal in Dressage at Pan Am Games

Lauren Sammis (right, above) rode Sagacious HF (left, above) to a first place finish and Team Gold for the USA in the dressage competition at the Pan AM Games in Brazil today. This candid photo was shot during casual training at the new equestrian center barn. (photo courtesy of Lauren Sammis and Hyperion Farm; isn't email wonderful?)

THE USA SCORED GOLD in Rio de Janeiro earlier today. Lauren Sammis, Chris Hickey and Katie Poulin-Neff held off Canada (silver) and Brazil (bronze) to win the dressage competition. Lauren Sammis on Sagacious HF finished first overall, but I think that individual medals are not awarded in this competition. Scroll down to yesterday's post to read more about Lauren, Sagacious, and his owners at Hyperion Farm.

Horse Health Headlines from the Pan Am Games

Thanks to Hyperion Farms' owner Al Guden, some of the health-specific details of the horses competing at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are finding their way to the Internet. Al and Judy Guden own the dressage horse Sagacious HF, ridden by Lauren Sammis.

Things started off a little shakily for all the horses headed to Brazil when their chartered plane developed mechanical difficulties and the departure was delayed. All the dressage horses had gathered to complete their quarantine requirements in Wellington, Florida in preparation for the trip.

Al reported that veterinarian Rick Mitchell of Fairfield Equine Associates hydrated the horses with IV fluids an hour before they were vanned in the Florida heat from Wellington to Miami for the takeoff.

Speaking of veterinarians, apparently the veterinary hospital that was to be built at the showgrounds in Rio did not get finished or equipped on time, so the Americans carried every imaginable veterinary supply and piece of equipment on the plane with them. And when they arrived in Brazil, they were told that their cargo crates could not be cleared until Tuesday.

That meant, roughly, that there were grooms, horses, halters and leadlines...but little else because everything--literally everything--was packed in the crates.

It took a few hours, but apparently the crates are now on their way to the showgrounds.

Those are just a few of the rough details. Many thanks to Al Guden for his early report.