Australia's Gill Rolton heads the Ground Jury for the eventing
Although the grounds at Le Haras du Pin, the venue for the eventing at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, may be a bit soggy after the past two days’ rain, the runway in front of the Chateau of Haras du Pin was perfectly groomed and solid for the all important first horse inspection.
Australia’s Gill Rolton and her Ground Jury also looked impeccably groomed as they awaited the first of the 100 horses and riders from around the world. Gill had to assure the burly French security that she could pass into the restricted area, indeed without her there may be no trot up, but help was soon at hand to admit her.
Phew! All done and a smile from Stuart!
The horse inspection is of course a tense affair and most of the Australian team looked as if they would be happier when it was all over; even Shane Rose was not his usual beaming self until both of his horses, CP Qualified and reserve horse Taurus were accepted. The Australian squad has three grey horses – CP Qualified (Shane Rose), Kilronan (Paul Tapner) and Pluto Mio (Stuart Tinney) and all three riders looked a little grey themselves until their horses got the all clear.
Bill looks slightly anxious but both horses pass with flying colours
Chris Burton and TS Jamaimo were the first out for the Australians and the Australian International 3 Day Event winning horse, ‘James’ looked on great form, followed by Badminton winners Sam Griffiths and Paulank Brockagh. Bill Levett’s Shannondale Titan and Improvise also looked good on the runway and Chef d’Equipe Prue Barrett looked happy once the Australian horses had their rugs back on and were being led back to the stables – the first test is over!
Three horses were held for re-inspection – Laszlo Egyed’s My Win (Hungary), Yuri Shumskiy’s Pinokolada (Russia) and Ludwig Svennerstal’s Alexander. The first two were passed on the second presentation but sadly for Ludwig the event is over as he opted to withdraw in the holding box.
The outfit of the day had to go to Alena Tseliapushkina of Belarus (above) who had an eye catching appearance to go with her eye catching horse, Passat. From the men we hand the award to the sartorial Mr. Gieves & Hawkes himself, Alex Hua Tian (below) although it has to be said that they all scrub up pretty well!
Earlier in the day the various countries were allocated times for arena familiarisation and we caught a couple of the Australian riders plus the German and Kiwi team having time under the watchful eye of their coaches. The ground around the arenas is quite churned up where various vehicles have been involved in the set up and today the car parks were off limits for officials due to the ground conditions but the weather is set to improve in the next few days so hopefully these areas will soon dry out. Luckily only 3,300 spectators are expected for each dressage day which is a much lower number than the 50,000 expected on Saturday for cross country when the parking will be a much bigger issue. The cross country course itself however still looks in great condition
Later this evening the teams will be announced and the draw for the first day of dressage will be available. Libby's galleries of the cross country course and trot up are coming soon but in the meantime here are a few images from the arena familiarisation earlier today
Above - Bill and we're not sure which horse (!), Shane and Taurus (below)
The defending champion Michael Jung and FischerRocana FST (above) and Ingrid Klimke riding FRH Escada JS (below)
