2008 Olympics: Hong Kong Riding High with Equine Special Effects

This is just for fun: Hong Kong television is promoting the tiny island province as the ultimate horsey tourist destination for the equestrian sports sector of the 2008 Olympics Games this summer. Watch this little :30 commercial for some creative special effects! See anyone you know? You might want to watch this twice, some of the effects are pretty subtle...and very well done!

Happy Birthday: Dressage Superstar Bonfire Begins His 25th Year

A basket of fruit for the aged dressage super-hero, Anky's Bonfire.

Many arguments can be made for the leading senior citizen of the horse world. In Great Britain, there is even a Veteran Horse Society that promotes the health and welfare of the “senior” horse and rewards the efforts of those who continue to compete with older horses. In Kentucky, the “Old Friends” retirement home warehouses elders of the racing world whose stud or racing careers are over, but who live on in the hearts of their fans.

In the sport horse world, one horse, personifies the electric charge that overcame the sport of dressage in the 1990s and transformed it into an exciting spectator sport. No longer would people say that watching dressage was like “watching paint dry”. Not with a horse like Bonfire in the ring.

Bonfire was the horse who carried Dutch rider Anky van Grusvnen to super-star status. For years, they battled tooth-and-nail against the technically-perfect Germans. Always crowd favorites, Bonfire and Anky infused the sport with risky, expressive performances that dropped many a jaw and elicited worldwide wows.

Together, Anky and Bonfire won the World Cup five times. According to her web site, they have shared an Olympic Gold Medal…and three Olympic Silver Medals. They won the World Championship, the European Championship and were National Champions of the Netherlands eight times.

Today, Bonfire is retired at Anky’s training center. He turned 25 a few days ago and was rewarded with a basket of fruit from a Dutch charity that uses the Oldenburg gelding as their poster boy. The charity provides a retirement home for old riding school horses to prevent them from being slaughtered.

Speaking at the Fourth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in Palm Beach, Florida last fall, Anky's farrier Rob Renirie included senior horses in his four-part master class on sport horse farriery. When it came time to talk about the retired athletes, Rob proudly drew on the example of his old friend Bonfire, who has retired to life as a sound, healthy pensioner.

Bonfire has his own page on Anky's web site. He is the first horse among all those featured--obviously always at the top of her list!

All horses should have it so good. Bonfire certainly has earned his place in the paddock. Long may he graze.

Among Bonfire's routines are solarium sessions.

RIP: Olympic Dressage Veteran Euthanized After Paddock Accident in Germany

British Dressage is reporting today that, in spite of boots and bandages and a relatively small sand paddock, international dressage star Mr G de Lully broke his lower leg in seven places on Sunday and was humanely destroyed. The accident happened at a training center in Germany.

“We tragically had to have ‘G’ put down today despite all efforts to save his leg. What he had done we will never know. He was turned out in a 20x20-meter sand school with every boot and bandage on, but he had seven fractures between the hoof and fetlock, so there was nothing we could do,” owner Fiona Bigwood told British Dressage.

Currently owned and trained by Great Britain's Fiona Bigwood, Mr G de Lully was truly an international horse: The 15-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding competed for Switzerland at the Athens Olympics. With Fiona riding, he represented Great Britain in the 2005 and 2007 European dressage championships. In 2006, while Fiona was pregnant, the horse was ridden by her partner, the leading European rider Anders Dahl of Denmark, who in turn trained with the German Rudolf Zeilinger. Small world!

Bigwood and Mr G de Lully were preparing for selection trials to represent Great Britain in the Beijing 2008 Olympics equestrian events in Hong Kong this August.

To learn more: Read performance-horse expert veterinarian Midge Leitch's recommendation on turnout safety for dressage horses on equisearch.com; Leitch explained in Dressage Today magazine that European horses are not accustomed to turnout and recommends that they be sedated before being let loose in paddocks. Leitch highly recommends slowly acclimating European horses to the freedom of turnout but that the longterm behavior and health benefits would help many horses. Alternatives to turnout for dressage horses are usually hot walkers or lunge work, often under tack.

Late Great World Champion Dressage Mare Cloned by French Owner

One of the most bizarre horse news stories of recent years has taken yet another zany twist: a clone has been created of the late great world champion dressage mare Poetin, who died of laminitis in the midst of a stormy international sale transaction.

Here are some excerpts from the August 22nd press release sent out by Cryozootech, the French cloners-for-hire:

Cryozootech is happy to announce the birth of the clone of 2003 dressage world champion Poetin 2, a Brandeburg mare that died prematurely in 2005. This achievement illustrates the use of the cloning technique for genetic safeguarding.

Poetin 2 was born in 1997. This Brandeburg mare has an interesting life story:

Poetin 2 from Sandro Hit and Poesie by Brentano, was promised to a bright future: she won the German championship and the world championship in dressage for young horses, with so far unequaled scores (a 10/10 for her trot). She was sold for 2.5 million (Euros) in 2003 to an ING Bank / van der Zwan farm (Netherlands) consortium.

(French owner) Xavier Marie acquired Poetin at a dispersal sale in 2005 after the consortium broke up. Unfortunately, when she reached his place, Poetin 2 had acute laminitis from which she did not recover. She was euthanized in December 2005. A lawsuit ensured.

Knowing of Cryozootech's work for genetic preservation, Xavier Marie asked for her cells to be collected beforehand, with the objective in mind to get a replacement for his horse. Poetin's clone was born on March 30th, 2007. Now she frolics in paddocks of the Haras de Hus near Nantes on the west coast of France.

In other news: The firm reports that their first clone of a gelding has managed to successful breed a mare. Simultaneously, a research pony mare and the first horse clone to be born, is also pregnant, due to foal in 2008.

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.

Australia's Top Dressage Horse Loses Cancer Battle

The aptly named dressage horse "Cinderella" has danced her last waltz.

With a heavy sense of the inevitable, I have been following the news from Germany and Australia regarding the dressage mare Cinderella. She was the first horse to qualify in dressage for Australia and was ridden by Matthew Dowsley at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen last year in spite of a recurring tumor over one eye.

Franz Venhaus, of the Equestrian Federation of Australia, has kindly shared his reports, but I read on his web site today that Cinderella has been euthanized.

On April 4, the 11-year-old Hanoverian mare had surgery while training in Europe to remove a second malignant growth from under her right eye. The tumur had grown to a length of 8.5 cm. As a result, Cinderella did not make the trip to Las Vegas to compete for Australia's honor at the 2007 FEI World Cup there in April.

According to Franz's reports, Cinderella was given special medication that is also used in human cases of this nature.

Subsequently,a new cancerous growth was discovered on her larynx and Franz warned that there was a chance of it spreading to other organs.

Before 2006, Australia had never had a rider qualify for the Grand Prix Special at a WEG. But both Matthew and teammate Kristy Oatley were among the top 30 riders from the Grand Prix test to make it through to the Special.

Matthew said he greatly appreciated the opportunity he’d been given by Cinderella’s owner, Claudia Harper from Sydney, to base himself (and Cinderella) in Germany with Australian Dressage Training Adviser Ulla Salzgeber.

The EFA has a nice slide show of photos of the late, great Cinderella.

At the 2007 World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany last week, teammate Oatley placed fourth with Quando-Quando in the Grand Prix CDI and 7th in the Freestyle. Australia has come a long way in a short time in international dressage, but will surely miss Cinderella's magic.