2008 Olympic Canadian Show Jumping Team Announced

Mac Cone, Jill Henselwood, Eric Lamaze and Ian Millar will represent Canada in show jumping at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong.

June 20, 2008 — Jump Canada has announced that Mac Cone, Jill Henselwood, Eric Lamaze and Ian Millar will represent the Canadian show jumping team at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong. Jonathan Asselin has been named as the team’s reserve rider, and Mario Deslauriers named as the first alternate.

Cone of King City, Ontario, will ride Ole, a 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by Sara Houstoun and Larry Evoy. Cone was a member of Canada’s 1996 Olympic Show Jumping Team in Atlanta. With Ole, Cone won the $60,000 Kilkenny Cup Grand Prix in Wellington, Fla., and was a member of Canada’s second place team in the $75,000 FEI Nations’ Cup, Presented by CN, in Wellington, Fla, on March 7.

Current Pan Am Champion Jill Henselwood of Oxford Mills, Ontario, will be the lone woman on the Canadian team. She will compete with her 2007 Gold Medal Pan Am Games mount, Special Ed, a 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Juniper Farms. On May 18, Henselwood and Special Ed won the 150,000 Euro King’s Cup Grand Prix held Sunday at CSIO5* Madrid, Spain.

Currently ranked number four in the world, Lamaze of Schomberg, Ontario, will ride his Pan Am Bronze Medal mount Hickstead, a 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Torrey Pines Stables and Ashland Stables. The pair joined Deslauriers and Cone as members of Canada’s second place team in the $75,000 FEI Nations’ Cup in Wellington, Fla.

Millar of Perth, Ontario, has been named with two horses, but only one will attend the Games. Millar’s first horse is In Style, a 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by Susan Grange and Lothlorien Farms. Millar was the 2004 and 2007 Canadian Show Jumping Champion aboard In Style and, this winter, won the $75,000 Suncast Grand Prix in Wellington, Fla. Millar was also named with Redefin, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, also owned by Susan Grange and Lothlorien Farms.

Reserve rider, Jonathan Asselin of Calgary, Alberta, will be paired with Attache Stables’ nine-year-old Hanoverian mare Rayana Chiara. A member of Canada’s Olympic show jumping team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Asselin and Rayana Chiara recently placed 10th in the $200,000 1.60M CN Reliability Grand Prix at the Spruce Meadows CSI5* National Tournament.

A veteran of the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, Deslauriers was named as the first alternate. Deslauriers and Paradigm, a 14-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding, were also members of Canada’s second place team in the $75,000 FEI Nations’ Cup in Wellington, Fla.

A selection committee comprised of Terrance Millar, Laura Balisky, David Ballard, Alan Chesler and Mark Samuel determined the Canadian show jumping team from a group of 19 declared athletes. The decision was made following the two weeks of show jumping tournaments held at Spruce Meadows in Calgary, the CSI5* National Tournament from June 4-8 and the CSI-W Continental Tournament from June 11-15.

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