The eventing CCI1* at the Asian Games starts with the jog on Wednesday. We have been writing about the Asian Games for a while, but as a brief refresher, they are the largest sporting event in the World in terms of number of athletes and they are being held on mainland China this year. Two US based riders from Thailand, Nina Ligon and Terri Impson, are competing at the Games and Terri has kindly sent us this report. Since her last report from the quarantine in Aachen, Terri and the Thai team have arrived in China and attended the opening ceremonies. Click here for video of the opening ceremonies, which were apparently and predictably quite amazing. Thanks for writing this Terri and thank you for reading.
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From Terri Impson:
Ok where to start! The horses arrived in good knick last Wednesday at 1am. There were about 40 people to greet 30 horses as they came on a 19 hour plane ride, from Brussels, landing in Dubai to refuel and then on to Guangzhou, China. After customs they were loaded into A/C vans and trucked 2 hrs North to Conghua, a very rural resort town known for their Lychee fruit and hot springs. We were greeted at the airport and funneled into express lines with our accreditation passes and then on to huge buses to take us north — all the people were very excited, friendly Chinese people wanting to get you were you needed to go.
The athlete’s equestrian sub-village is in a very nice hotel at the bottom of the mountain where the venue is and we have security (x-ray, walk thru and body scan) each time we enter the village. Any person not on an athlete bus (officals included) must go through security halfway up the mountain everyday in order to enter the venue. The barns are fab with icemakers, washer, shower and matted floors with drains. They are super serious about disinfectant and all the vehicles drive thru a large “bath” and we have to put horribly drying disinfectant on our hands and walk across a wet disinfectant carpet each time to get into stabling. There are two large zappers for flies in the barns and none of us have quite got used to the loud WAP they make when an unfortunate insect is drawn to the light.
Kim Severson arrived last Thursday and, after a bit of a steep learning curve, has become the official coach of the Thai Team and stepped up to the plate brilliantly. The Team members from Thailand look vastly more confident and are jumping well. Our Team member from Germany is working with Bettina and Andrew Hoy and we all try and watch each others sessions for support. The horses have had little to no turnout for almost 3 weeks and they are all a bit punchy which is better than tired!
The first couple of days we just walked our horses and then had an easy day and got 30 minutes to ride in the “Field of Play” or main arena with grandstand. Then we have had flat lessons working on parts of the test with Kim, a jump lesson with a few gymnastics, and and did our final gallop Sunday. We get the the horses out to hand walk as much as possible, and hack them if we have had a light ride earlier in the day and have a time slot for the hacking/gallop track. The countries are rotated through all the 5 rings and the gallop/hack/x-country, so you are only ever riding with your own team in a 30 or 60 min slot!
The cross country course is interestingly all on footing…eurofelt and sand almost identical to the rings at Poplar Place. Surprisingly, it is a bonafide one-star course (from what I have seen when hacking ), with a sunken road and all–that’s pretty exciting for eventing if you ask me. There are plenty of options to be safe for those countries with less experience and the time looks like it will be tough. But it’s not a dumbed down Training/Prelim which I had thought could have happened. On our final gallop I thought my horse might feel a bit bogged down, but Windy nearly popped me off bucking with glee at full tilt.
Sometimes I have a reality check that here we are with horses from Charlottesville, Virginia, literally on the other side of the world, in mainland China behind the biggest Area 51 barrier fence (it’s lit up by spotlights at night and over 7 kilometers long), competing in a three -day championship.
This is a first class, brand new venue, impeccably run, but also with the reminders that you can only go where they want “for your safety” which is always said with a smile. For those of you around the world who appreciate your freedom, appreciate it more!
More after the jog on Wednesday!
