The 2016 Olympic countdown is on and the test event for next year’s equestrian events in Rio starts today (Thursday 6 August).
However, only Brazilian horses will be taking part, despite plans originally to send riders and horses from other nations.
“The national federations were offered the opportunity to send horses and riders, but due to the high costs involved, the national Olympic committees and national federations felt they could learn as much by being on the ground as they could by bringing horses, so made the decision to save their money for next year’s Olympic Games,” said an FEI spokesman.
A spokesman for the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) told H&H it would be sending a “team of observers”.
“The contingent will be made up of logistic and veterinary experts, as well as eventing chef d’equipe [Yogi Breisner] and the BEF performance director [Dan Hughes]. However, unfortunately we will not be sending rider and horse combinations,” said a BEF spokesman.
“We expect to gather vital insight into the 2016 Games, and will be taking every opportunity for our support teams to visit the venue as it develops during the build-up. We are very excited about the plans for the venue and are eagerly anticipating the countdown.”
Team GBR will be joined by representatives from 15 other national federations at the Olympic equestrian centre in Deodoro.
All five technical delegates will be present at the test event: Tim Randle (veterinary), Jacques Van Daele (dressage), Alec Lochore (eventing), Santiago Varela (showjumping) and Amanda Bond (para equestrian dressage).
John McEwen, chair of the FEI veterinary committee, and the FEI sports directors of the three Olympic disciplines: John Roche (showjumping), Trond Asmyr (dressage) and Catrin Norinder (eventing) will also attend.
The CIC2* competition, which will be contested by local horses, features a cross-country course designed by Pierre Michelet, who was responsible for last summer’s World Equestrian Games track.
The event allows for the testing of a wide range of components including technological aspects such as results, scoring and timing, the field of play (both the main arena and cross-country), training arenas, stabling operations, sanitary and biosecurity procedures, spectator flows and management, accreditation and media operations.
Anti-doping processes will also be tested, with human and equine sampling being conducted during the event.
“As equestrian is one of the first major test events for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games it will play an important role in establishing the organising committee’s systems and processes”, FEI secretary general Sabrina Zeender said.
“The event is a vital stage in the preparations to assess operational readiness, and a huge amount that needs to be tested will be tested.
“There are still some areas that will have to be tested between now and Games time, such as accommodation for athletes, grooms and national olympic committees.
“Another aspect that won’t be tested is the arrivals and departures process for horses, as we only have national horses at the test event, but Rio 2016 has an expert and hugely experienced team in place led by Peden Bloodstock which flies horses all over the world, including in and out of Brazil, so we are confident that this process is in safe hands.”
The event also allows for comprehensive testing of the footing in both the main arena and on the cross-country.
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Christian Bauer, the footing advisor appointed by the Rio 2016 organising committee, and Professor Lars Roepstorff, the international footing specialist from a scientific perspective, will both be in attendance. In addition to the horses contesting the CIC, a small group of jumping horses will be brought in to test the main arena.
After the London 2012 test event the surface had to be redeveloped prior to the main event after being described by showjumpers as “pudding-y”, so riders will be hoping for thorough feedback.
“We’re interested in how the surface performs at the test event and will be watching this with interest. It’s a very different surface from London, primarily as the London arena was a raised platform,” a BEF spokesman told H&H.
H&H columnist Graham Fletcher said it “wasn’t ideal” that no British riders were going, but that it was understandable with budget cuts and costs.
“I’m sure enough research has been done on surfaces,” he added. “In an ideal world we’d send riders but it is offset by the amount of money it costs. In terms of conditions, our top horses are so used to travelling now I can’t see there will be any problems there.”
While the test event is limited to Brazilian horses, a total of 200 equestrian athletes will join 10,300 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which run from 5-21 August 2016.