Prelude to WEG’s Great Equine Airlift: Fly with 30 Jumpers from Australia to Singapore for the Youth Olympics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3YNcLOsQYg

What are news reports from Singapore doing on a blog about the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky?

As enthralled as I am with the spectacle of the World Equestrian Games, I think I am equally fascinated with the prospect of how and when all the horses will actually arrive in Lexington, whether they’ll all be there at the same time, and how you figure out who’s going where, and when. In addition to hundreds of competitions horses, there are even more demonstration, performing and exhibition horses coming. And don’t forget Molly the Pony!

The FEI must be one of the busiest organizations on earth. Not only is the FEI hosting the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this fall; it is also responsible for the equestrian portion of the Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Singapore in August.

The Youth Olympics Games is limited to show jumping and the organizers took the step to not expect the riders to bring their own horses. Instead, the Singapore government acquired 30 horses through the Glen Haven Park training center in Queensland, Australia, where the horses have been trained since the spring.

A group of enthusiastic young trainers and grooms travelled with their mounts to Singapore and will care for them and help the international young riders settle in with the horses. The horses will not be allowed to return to Australia.

The FEI has done a terrific job of documenting the Glen Haven Park project, and Paula Hamood of Glen Haven Park has done a stellar job of blogging about the entire process over the months. She’s still blogging from Singapore, where the horses are in quarantine. Our WEG airlift into Lexington will be largely via Cincinnati’s huge international airport, and the Channel 5 television station there produced a nice video on Monday about how temporary stabling would be constructed right at the airport for the arriving horses. That means they can go through quarantine at the airport instead of in Lexington.

I hope you’ll click on this Cincinnati WEG airport preparations video link and learn about some of the preparations. Then I hope you will enjoy watching the FEI’s series of videos about the horses selected for Singapore and how they’ve come along.

Glen Haven Park assembled a lively group of young trainers and grooms to take on the challenge of preparing a group of talented horses to be ridden over fences by young riders who would be unfamiliar with them.

First of all, meet the riders and grooms and horses:

In this video the trainers and grooms present the horses to FEI and Olympic officials.

I’m looking forward to finding out how these horses do in the competition. If this project catches your imagination, as it did mine, I suggest that you follow the Glen Haven Park Blog. It will definitely get you in the mood for WEG!

You’re reading a story from DiscoverWEG with Fran Jurga, a blog about the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, which will be held September 25 to October 10 at the Kentucky Horse Park outside Lexington, Kentucky. The direct address for this blog is www.discoverweg.com. You can subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed by clicking on the icon at the top right of this page; headlines are also posted on Facebook at the DiscoverHorses.com Page. DiscoverWEG is just one component of the Discover Horses support web site for the Games. Make Discoverhorses.com your go-to WEG destination site!

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