Sleepless Nights.

13th October.

Victorian, Mary Hanna has competed for Australia at the last three Olympic Games, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens and has her sights set on again representing her country at the Beijing Games in Hong Kong. Whilst Mary in no way compares her plight with that of the many people in the associated horse industry, the outbreak of EI and the strategy to combat it have thrown obstacles in the way of her realising her ambition of a fourth Olympic Games.

“I am waking up at 3am in the morning wondering what to do. I have planned to leave for Europe in two weeks (with Port Said (pictured) and Tango V) and the horses, which have been vaccinated, are in quarantine at the moment for that. But really I did not want to go until February. There is no problem about leaving Australia if they are vaccinated and the property has been EI free for 30 days. If I thought the EI was not going to get to Victoria I would stay, but I can’t just sit here waiting. The rules seem to change daily and the EI protocol here is absolutely insane, it makes me want to go. Unless we officially vaccinate here we will not have competition for a very long time. It is very frustrating and I am pulling my hair out, trying to decide what to do.

I used to love traveling overseas, but after Limbo died of travel sickness complications on the way back from Athens, travel is fraught with worry. Going into winter adds to that and also getting into CDI competitions over there is extremely difficult. Tango V (seven-year-old by Jazz) is working at Grand Prix and he needs to start at that level, but again it is difficult in Europe. There is the possibility of going to the Sunshine Tour in Spain which will give both Port Said (which has an Olympic MES) and Tango competition experience”.

Olympic Qualification.

European based combinations in FEI Group 8 (Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea) will compete in front of a judging panel at Cannes in France next January and the same panel will come to Australia in February to judge the domestic Grand Prix combinations. The same judges will visit all the countries in the Group to determine what two teams will qualify for Hong Kong. The choice will presumably be made on percentages. Some readers will remember the Samsung International competition run along similar lines, with the judges and not the horses traveling. This method of Olympic qualification was put in place after it was clear the Regional Qualifier was not going to happen in October due to the EI outbreak.