Marilyn Little and RF Tabasco. Photo by Julia Rau.
In another round of bad news for Team USA at Boekelo, Marilyn Little withdrew RF Tabasco tonight after the horse sustained a minor injury in the pasture. This news comes just a week after Buck Davidson officially withdrew D.A. Adirmo and Caitlin Silliman withdrew Catch A Star. Will Coleman withdrew OBOS O’Reilly last month. As the goal presumably remains to field a team for the CCIO3* competition, I’m assuming an alternate will be named. At this point, Team USA will be Boyd Martin and Trading Aces, Lauren Kieffer and Veronica, and Elizabeth Halliday-Sharp and Fernhill By Night or HHS Cooley.
“Unfortunately, RF Tabasco sustained a minor injury in the paddock yesterday, which will preclude him from completing his final preparations before the event at Boekelo next week. Though it appears Tabasco should require only a few days of monitoring before returning to normal work, with only a week prior to the event the timing couldn’t be worse.
“I am incredibly grateful to my staff, veterinarians and farriers for their attention around the clock and am so sorry to miss the incredible opportunity to join the U.S. team at Boekelo this year. It goes without saying that the chance to represent our country while competing at what has become the Raylyn Team’s ‘hometown event’ — located only 10 miles away from our summer base here in Holland — is an opportunity sadly lost, but we all look forward to coming to support the other U.S. riders throughout the week.
“Fortunately, Tabasco should be back in form in short order, and we are hopeful that upon confirmation from our veterinarians that he is fully ready to return to competition, we will be able to re-route our fall plans to include a CCI3* at this year’s Galway Downs in California before our team returns home to the East Coast in November.”
Update 10/04: Joanie Morris, the USEF Managing Director of Eventing, confirmed this afternoon that an alternate will not be named to replace Marilyn Little and RF Tabasco. According to the FEI rules governing Nations Cup competitions, teams of three are perfectly acceptable, so the U.S. will still be able to compete as a team. The lack of a fourth rider means there’s no drop score, unfortunately.
According to the USEF High Performance Facebook page, Veronica and Trading Aces are currently waiting at JFK Airport to board their flight to Boekelo. All the action kicks off on Wednesday at 1 p.m. local time with the first horse inspection, and I’ll be your boots on the ground to bring you all the action and news from Team USA. Go eventing.
