Saving something for the Paris Olympics and other things the horse world is talking about

Top scores

Charlotte Dujardin and her Paris hopeful Imhotep continued their preparations for the Games in style by winning the grand prix and the special at Wellington CDI3*, a significant event in selection for the Olympics. The combination were scored 79.89% in the grand prix and 77.64% in the special – by judges including five who will be officiating in Versailles in a few weeks’ time. “I’m 100% saving something for Paris,” said Charlotte. “He’s a hot horse but he stayed with me and was so rideable – and he’s still improving.”
Read more about the British hopefuls

Teams confirmed

As the Olympics approach, Ireland has confirmed its final showjumping and eventing squads. Having last week named one rider to take part in the dressage in Paris, Horse Sport Ireland has now confirmed all the other combinations selected for the Games. Irish eventing high performance manager Dag Albert said: “It is an honour and privilege to be leading the Irish team into the Paris Olympic Games this summer”. Showjumping high performance director Michael Blake added: “The athletes and horses I have chosen have been performing brilliantly, week in, week out, on the international stage and we’ll give it everything we have to achieve what we’re setting out to do.
Keep up to date with all the latest Olympic news

A second death at Appleby

The RSPCA said overworking of horses was a “significant welfare issue” at last week’s Appleby Horse Fair, as it is confirmed that a second equine died. H&H reported last week that a young horse was “worked to death”; the RSPCA said a Shetland also died, showing signs of exhaustion, a few days later. It is thought most of the overworking took place at night. “And we had to deal with the consequences the day after,” the charity’s chief inspector Rob Melloy said. “In the case of the Shetland, we were called early in the morning, and suspect he was overworked in the evening. A lot of our warnings and interactions were about exhaustion and if the weather had been a little bit hotter we may have been talking about more than these two deaths.”
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