The good news is that all of the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team horses (including their reserve horse) presented this morning at the Olympic equestrian venue in Versailles passed the first inspection today. The bad news is that the last two days here in France have been a roller coaster of ups and downs for the members of the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team. On Wednesday (July 24) it was announced that Will Coleman, who had been named to the U.S. Team with Off The Record on the evening of June 3rd, would now be riding his direct reserve horse Diabolo instead.
Then early this morning, fate intervened for Coleman again. Diabolo had a foot abscess, and Coleman made the difficult decision to withdraw. With their departure from the roster, traveling reserve pair Elisabeth Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker moved onto the team. The U.S. second reserve pair of Sydney Elliot and QC Diamantaire (who had traveled to France but were stabled off site) moved into Olympic stabling as the new traveling reserve for the team.
After the shuffle, the new U.S. Olympic Eventing Team line up is:
◆ Elisabeth Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker, a 2014 Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tolan R. x Cobra) owned by Chris Desino, Rob Desino, Deborah Halliday, Liz Halliday, and Renee Lane and cared for by Abby Steger
◆ Boyd Martin (Cochranville, Pa.) and Fedarman B, a 2010 KWPN gelding (Eurocommerce Washington x Fedor) owned by the Annie Goodwin Syndicate and cared for by Stephanie Simpson
◆ Caroline Pamukcu (Springtown, Pa.) and HSH Blake, a 2015 Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tolan R. x Kannan) owned by Mollie Hoff, Sherrie Martin, Caroline Pamukcu, and Deniz Pamukcu and cared for by Chloe Teahan
◆ Traveling Reserve: Sydney Elliott (Hoffman, N.C.) and QC Diamantaire, a 2010 Oldenburg gelding (Diarado x Sandro Hit) owned by Carol Stephens and cared for by Caitlin Martin
U.S. Chef d’Equipe Bobby Costello explained the series of events that transpired, “The last 48 hours have truly been tough for our team, but particularly for Will Coleman. Off The Record looked well in training camp, but Will’s direct reserve, Diabolo, continued to impress, and was physically in such great condition, so we made the decision to place him into the team roster before moving to the venue. Diabolo trotted up 100% sound prior to shipping from training camp and arrived at the venue happy and fit. Unfortunately, shortly after settling into stabling, he showed significant signs of discomfort and the team immediately got to work to address a potential abscess in the right front foot. Team Farrier Beck Ratte, Dr. Susan Johns, Diabolo’s groom Hailey Burlock, and Will’s wife, Katie, were so diligent and tireless in treating Diabolo, and he did in fact trot up sound last night. With that said, we felt after weighing the risk, it was not in Diabolo’s, or the team’s, best interest for him to move forward with the competition this week. We’re all truly devastated for Will and his entire team. It takes so much work to get to this moment, and it’s just such an unfortunate turn of events. We’ve got to look forward though. We are heading into this competition with four competitive horses and l feel very confident in this team’s ability to be successful here in Paris.”
Of the other horses presented to the Olympic Eventing Ground Jury for inspection today, there were five horses from other countries that were held, four of which returned for re-inspection and were accepted to start competition tomorrow (Moroccan horse Cash in Hand ridden by Noor Slaoui, Swiss horse Toubleu de Rueire ridden by Melody Johner, Sweden’s horse Golden Midnight ridden by Malin Asai, and Great Britain’s 2022 World Championship gold-medal horse Banzai du Loir ridden by Yasmin Ingham). Sadly, Austrian horse, DSP Fighting Line, to be ridden by Lea Siegl was spun from the Paris Olympics competition; that pair had competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but it was not to be this time.
Eventing competition starts tomorrow at the Palace of Versailles at 9:30 a.m. Central European Time (3:30 a.m. U.S. East Coast Time, 2:30 a.m. U.S. Central Time, 1:30 a.m. Rocky Mountain Time and 12:30 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time). NBC’s Peacock and NBCOlympics.com will livestream the competition from 3:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time.
Find the full Olympic equestrian television and streaming schedule here.
Find the order of go for the dressage phase here.
For more news, visit our 2024 Paris Olympics main page.
Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.
