Wendy and Sun Set 3rd at the Welsh Masters Grand Prix in the lead up to Linz
With the good news this morning that the Australian showjumping squad is doing well at Bourg-en-Bresse in France, some people may be wondering what has happened to Wendy Schaeffer as she is not competing at this event.
We heard from Wendy this morning and she asked us to pass some information about what has happened recently and thanks for the support she has been getting at a difficult time. As many know, Wendy has been campaigning towards London 2012 in both showjumping and eventing and recently competed with her showjumping mare, Koyuna Sun Set in the first stage Nomination Event at Linz with an "excellent Nations Cup round" for 4 faults and achieved a 3rd qualifying result for London in the process.
Unfortunately this good performance did not count towards a qualification for the Sunday Grand Prix and Wendy was required to also start her in the Saturday qualifier, to make certain that she gained a Grand Prix start to fulfil selection criteria. Saturday's class was held in continuous rain and the arena surface conditions deteriorated towards the end of the class where Sun Set jumped in 62nd place. Many horses withdrew late in the draw and the jump off was cancelled, as was the Silver Tour Final afterwards that day to allow the arena to recover.
Sadly Wendy's Olympic showjumping campaign essentially ended there as the mare sustained a suspensory ligament type injury landing awkwardly at the third last fence, on the then waterlogged arena, and was not able to take her earned place in the Grand Prix.
Subsequent veterinary advice has ruled her out of contention for London.
Naturally Wendy and her Team Sunburst supporters were devastated to have to make this decision - to withdraw. However, in accepting that injuries are always a risk in high level competition, Wendy is grateful for the opportunities presented by the High Performance Program to have participated in the Nomination process and the Nations Cups program over the past two years in their London Campaign and for the HPP support initially to take Koyuna Sun Set to compete in Europe.
Wendy may be a bit down but is certainly not out! She is now re-focusing her energies on her remaining long listed Olympic eventing contender, Koyuna Sun Dancer.
Dancer was part of the 2nd placed Australian Nations Cup Eventing Team at the CICO 3*- NC held at Houghton Hall, UK last weekend and is to contest his Olympic selection event at Luhmuhlen CCI4* June 14 - 17, in Germany, along with a contingent of Australians also re-routed due to Badminton's cancellation in May.
Wendy asked us to pass on her thanks to all her supporters in Australia for their encouragement and best wishes at this stage of her London Campaign.
We’ll be bringing you all the action from Luhmuhlen and, as always, we’ll be focusing on the Aussies competing there and bringing you the latest updates
Wendy and Dancer - on their way to Luhmuhlen Photo: Pauline Chevalier
