You're never too old ...

Do you know what I love about watching the equestrian portion of the Olympics? It's one of the only sports in the Olympic games where age and experience are considered benefits.

I mean, in gymnastics if there's a 16-yr-old competing, the commentators often say that she's old for the sport and most likely this is the end of her Olympic career. Really? Wow.

But, yesterday as I was watching the jumping portion of the equestrian games, I was pleasantly surprised to see a 60 year old man making his Olympic debut. The commentators stated that age and experience are considered benefits in equesterian sports. It's about darn time!

In addition, there's a 67 year old man on the Japanese equestrian team.

I find that amazing and I love hearing things like that.

It makes me feel like a spring chicken and gosh-darn-it ... if a 67-year-old man can go out there and ride his heart out at the Olympics ... well ... then at 31 I should be able to get my horse out on a trail ride occasionally!

Yeah!

But maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

Now, off to watch more Olympics.

Happy trails!

Olympic Videos

In case you've missed any of the coverage, here's a link to view the latest and greatest videos from NBC.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/rss/sport=eq/video/index.xml

Too Hot to Trot

Here's an interesting video that was found on the Wall Street Journal site. It talks about how the teams keep the horses cool in the hot and humid Hong Kong weather.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid86195573/bclid1481452986/bctid1723493488

Poggio - the Olympic Pack Horse

This is really a great story that ran in the Seattle Times a couple days ago.

Olympian Poggio a former pack horse

The horse Amy Tryon will ride at the Olympics in the graceful, precise sport of equestrian isn't Best in Show.

By Gregg Bell

AP Sports Writer

SEATTLE —
The horse Amy Tryon will ride at the Olympics in the graceful, precise sport of equestrian isn't Best in Show. More like Best in Tow.

Poggio II was a pack horse.

The 16-year-old bay gelding and Tryon are representing the United States in their second consecutive Summer Games next month. A decade ago, while most of his competitors were being groomed for blue ribbons or thoroughbred racing, Poggio was lugging camping gear and other equipment up and down the Cascade Range east of Seattle.

"Yeah, it's a unique story," Tryon said, laughing through her phone last week from outside Manchester, England.

She and Poggio have been competing in England during weeks of Olympic tuneups before equestrian events begin Aug. 9 in Hong Kong.

They compete in eventing, a three-day test combining dressage, show jumping and
cross-country.

Tryon, a 38-year-old recently retired firefighter from Duvall, Wash., didn't find Poggio in a stall. She didn't witness the veiled potential of a horse that has since won an individual bronze medal at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Germany and helped the U.S. equestrian team to a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics and gold at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Spain.

She found the only horse to qualify for every U.S. national team over the last six years in the classified ads of a newspaper.

"Poggio's definitely had some humble beginnings, to say the least," said Joanie Morris, communications manager for the United States Equestrian Federation.
"I'd have to say he's the only pack horse to be in the Olympics. He's an anomaly, for
sure. Not too many Olympic horses are found in the want-ads."

Tryon first began riding horses in competitions at age 8. She was a firefighter at the
Eastside Fire and Rescue, in the suburbs of Seattle, in 1997 when she saw an ad
for a horse for sale in the paper. It mentioned the horse was sired by Polynesian Sire, which she knew to be a particularly strong jumping horse. Based on bloodlines alone, she and a friend bought Poggio for $2,500. A week later Tryon traded with her friend - Poggio for a horse Tryon had on her farm.

It was not love at first sight.

He was in pretty sad shape," Tryon said. "His feet needed attention. He had been living in a paddock with a bunch of horses and was a bit chewed up. And his feet were not put on his body very straight. He had long hair that needed cut.

"He certainly wasn't a show horse."

Poggio had a short and failed career in thoroughbred racing before becoming a pack horse. Tryon's challenge: Make Poggio a master of dressage - the disciplined display of natural movements often called "horse ballet" - plus show jumping and cross-country racing.

Throughout exhaustive retraining, Poggio showed his inherent jumping ability.

Within one year, he was the first horse Tryon rode in a world-class eventing competition. Three years later, they were world champions. Now they are back in the Olympics.

"He has very much stepped out of his skill level," Tryon said.

Tryon, who co-owns Poggio with Mike Hart, sees this as the horse's finale after a decade of transformation.

"I'm planning this to be his last big international competition. He certainly doesn't owe me anything," she said. "What I want for him is to step away from competition when he is still healthy and happy."

The giggles and enthusiasm in Tryon's voice show she's happy. She, too, has come a long, unconventional way.

She was initially didn't want to pursue the sport because she saw it as being for the rich. Her parents were separated. Her mother was a school teacher in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah. For her first eventing competition, Tryon rode a borrowed pony.
Her mother helped her graduate in two years from Issaquah High School so Tryon could move at age 16 to the East Coast, more of an equestrian region than the
Northwest. Five years later Tryon was back home in a career in firefighting that began in 1993 as a 21-year-old volunteer. She was hired full-time two years later.

Tryon said she chose firefighting because she could work consecutive 24-hour shifts and then have three days to compete in equestrian.

"The riding is all great, but you have to learn how to make a living," she said. "It's a constant struggle financially to be in this sport."

She retired as a firefighter two years ago so she could compete and train horses full-time. Her husband, Greg, is a battalion chief with Eastside Fire and Rescue. He's on
vacation now to join Tryon in England and, starting next week, Hong Kong. Yes, he comes with his bosses' blessings.

"I keep telling him he can't get fired. He's the only one making money," she said, laughing.

Even at the highest levels, equestrian funding is scarce. The U.S. Olympic Committee gives some money to the national equestrian federation, but the federation has seven sports to fund. This year, Tryon received $5,500. That was to cover training expenses, food and boarding for herself and Poggio, plus rental cars, lodging and meals for the trips to England, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Tryon raised additional money to help defray those costs. She conducted training clinics for young riders around Seattle. She worked horse shows. She made cold calls to friends and strangers. Her mother produced a newsletter for fundraising.
On the eve of the Olympics, Tryon's still seeking contributions.

She has had trials beyond money.

Last summer, she was suspended from competition for two months by the Federation Equestre Internationale (the international governing body for Olympic equestrian sports) and fined about $2,500 after she finished a cross-country event in Kentucky on a horse injured from a stumble just before the last jump of a run.
But an FEI tribunal cleared Tryon of career-threatening charges she intentionally finished the ride knowing the horse was seriously injured. Le Samurai was euthanized because of a leg injury.

Horse enthusiasts from around the world criticized Tryon for not being more decisive and aware, for not pulling up Le Samurai before the final fence to save him.

She says earning a place on the five-member U.S. eventing team a year later does not liberate her from the incident.

"It's not vindication at all. I had a tragic accident and unfortunately lost a horse that
was dear to me," she said. "It's a mistake that I made. He stumbled, which happens a lot in my sport. My reaction was not as quick as it could have been.
"I don't think it's ever something you can put behind you. But it's something you can learn from."

Through that tragedy - and through retiring from firefighting, which she called the toughest decision of her life because of the people there - Tryon has overcome the past to reach the Olympics.

Twice.

Just like Poggio II.

"Oh, yeah," Tryon said. "This is certainly much more than I expected Poggio and I to achieve.

"I guess I never dared to dream I'd be able do it on this scale."

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times
Company

Shipping a Horse to China

Have you ever gotten nervous trailering your horse to Rock Creek or Kalama Horse Camp? I'll admit it ... I have!

So imagine what it must be like to transport your horse to China for the Olympics. These multi-million dollar horses are transported 1/2 way around the world, and then expected to perform in top form.

PRI Internationals The World had a great radio program about this very topic (Aug. 1st - about 42:45 mins into the program for the GeoQuiz).

219 horses from 48 countries make their way to Hong Kong for these Olympic events. So what exactly does it take not only to get the horses to China but to keep these horses comfortable and in top shape? Did you know this process starts at least 67 days prior to the Olympics?

To find out more information, take a listen for yourself. It's truly an amazing undertaking.

Olympic Blogs

Here are a few blogs that might be interesting to check out for more information on the equestrian events.

EVENTING:
Becky Holder - http://www.holdereventteam.com/

Max Corcoran for OCT - http://special.equisearch.com/blog/maxcorcoran/
Greg Tryon for Team Tryon - http://teamtryon.blogspot.com/
Phillip Dutton - http://phillipdutton.com/cms/

CANADIAN
Kerri McGregor. She's the Assistant Team Manager to Mike Gallagher for the entire Canadian contingent
http://kerrimcgregor.wordpress.com/

GENERAL
Brian O'Connor is the announcer of the equestrian events - http://special.equisearch.com/blog/brianoconnor/

SHOW JUMPING
Beezie Madden - http://teamusa.usatoday.com/bmadden/

DRESSAGE
Debbie McDonald- http://special.equisearch.com/blog/debbiemcdonald/

USEF: Brian Soseby's blog: http://www.usef.org/TeamUSA/Blog1.aspx

Joanie Morris' blog (nothing there yet!): http://www.usef.org/TeamUSA/Blog2.aspx

GBR:Mary King (eventing), Tim Stockdale (showjumping), and Jane Gregory (dressage) all blog here for Horse and Hound.

And Team GBR Equestrian leader Will Connell provides interesting behind-the-scenes stuff here on the Team GBR website.

Kerri McGregor http://kerrimcgregor.wordpress.com/

http://www.horsehero.com/ - Interesting info

Equestrian Olympic Schedule

Jody did a bit of footwork and sent over additional information on the Olympics. There's some good stuff here ... including a detailed schedule!

Day by day listing of the events
http://www.nbcolympics.com/equestrian/index.html

Page full of still pictures
http://www.nbcolympics.com/equestrian/photos/index.html

Listing by sport
http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/index.html

Choose equestrian in ‘by sport’ drop down menu and it will give what is shown when. Or, choose ‘tv listing’ in the box toward the upper left and you can enter your TV source and it will show you the stations cover the Olympics.

This page has some information and news items. They also list the teams by country and offer a bit of information about each team.
http://www.fei.org/olympics/Pages/default.aspx

Thehorse.com has a link with an RSS feed.
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12274&source=rss

And, finally, here's a breakdown of the play dates/times from Thehorse.com.

Date: Program--Time (EST) on Channel

Aug. 9: 3-Day: Dressage--2:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. on USA

Aug. 11: 3-Day: Cross- Country--6:00pm-8:00pm OXYGEN

Aug. 12: 3-Day: Stadium Team Gold Medal Final--6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN

Aug. 13: Dressage--6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN

Aug. 14: Dressage Team Gold Medal Final--6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN

Aug. 15: Show Jumping--6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN

Aug. 16: Dressage Individual--5:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. MSNBC

Aug. 17: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final 1st Round--10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m on NBC

Aug. 18: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final Round--6:00pm-8:00 p.m. OXYGEN

Aug. 19: Dressage Individual Gold Medal Final--6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN

Aug. 21: Show Jumping Individual Gold Medal Final--10:00am-1:00 pm

Another link to schedule:
http://www.hkjc.org.cn/eng/equestrian/calendar.asp

Olympics Equestrian Coverage

I thought this was interesting. I'll be watching for sure!

__________________________________

USET Foundation Lauds NBC's Decision to Stream Olympics Live on Web

Gladstone, NJ - July 30, 2008 - The 2008 Summer Olympics marks the first time equestrian enthusiasts will get to watch the competition in Dressage, Eventing and Show Jumping from start-to-finish, thanks to NBC's decision to stream 2,200 hours of live coverage of 25 sports at http://www.nbcolympics.com/equestrian/index.html.

__________________________________

The Olympics start on Aug. 8th and a complete schedule can be found at the site above.