Following Canada's Equestrian Team

Hard to believe it was only 4 years ago when everyone flocked to London, England for the Olympics.

Athletes – both human and equine – are already landing on the shores of Rio de Janeiro to take part in history of the first Olympics ever to be held in South America.

The Opening Ceremonies will be held Friday August 5th at the famous Maracanã stadium. This is the same location where the 2007 Pan American Games opening ceremonies were held, and I can’t tell you what a memorable experience that was walking in the parade of nations. The roar of the crowd was like nothing I had ever heard before, and the sheer immenseness of the stadium was jaw-dropping. Our athletes who have the opportunity to experience this are going to carry that memory and feeling with them for a lifetime!

Our Canadian Eventers have now all safely landed in Rio with their horses, and will be settling in and familiarizing themselves with their surroundings so they can quickly get into a routine.

Our Dressage athletes will be hopping on a plane Monday so they can get to Rio ahead of their horses who are flying out of JFK, New York on Tuesday.

And you thought YOU packed a lot when you’re traveling!

Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master

Jessica Phoenix & her supergroom Sandra Andresen – Facebook

Olympic Athletes Village

The Eventing and Dressage athletes will be sharing an apartment in the Olympic Village, while their grooms will be staying at the venue in new Grooms Village accommodation that was specifically built for these Games. No more UN containers like the 2007 Pan Ams!

Of course anyone who has been to an Olympics knows that the word “routine” takes on a new meaning in a Games environment. Where you can walk one day may be blocked the next. You may breeze through the “mag and bag” (similar to airport security where your bags are checked & screened) today, and tomorrow be subjected to extremely thorough checks and screening.

So it’s always important to have a “go with the flow” attitude, and not get too hung up on the variables you can’t control.

The Canadian Olympic Committee always do a fabulous job in inserting lots of “Canadianism” into the Village, and making you feel very welcome.

Can you spot Team Canada’s building?

Canadian Swag

And how cool is the Canadian swag for these Games? Maybe not quite as psychedelic for the 2008 Bejing Games (few things could be!), but gotta love the hard case suitcase.

Deodoro Venue

The equestrian events are again being held at the Deodoro military compound, which is roughly 40 minutes from Rio itself. Thankfully the promised new highway has been finished and is operational, making transport far more direct from the Athlete Village to the venue.

The stabling is all new, and Canada finds themselves neighbours with the USA again – as we do quite often at Major Games. Although staunch competitors once inside the field of play, many of the athletes and support personnel from both countries are great friends so it makes for some fun times.

Jessica Phoenix & A Little Romance

Competition

While typically it’s Dressage who kick things off, these Games will be different in the sense that it is Eventing who is first on the schedule. Their Horse Inspection will take place August 5th, with the dressage competition taking place August 6th-7th followed by cross-country on the 8th and the final showjumping and medal ceremonies on the 9th.

Dressage doesn’t start until August 10th with the Grand Prix, so Belinda Trussell and Megan Lane will have plenty of time to fit in sightseeing.

Where the magic will happen…..

What it’s all about

And this is what all the hard work, sacrifice, pain, sweat, tears is about….

Masanao Takahashi and Fabriano clinched a qualifying spot at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for Japan at the special Olympic Dressage qualifying competition staged in Perl, Germany
photo FEI

It can be a little confusing trying to figure out which dressage countries have punched their team ticket for Rio given the new formula for these Olympic Games.

The FEI’s qualification rules can be found here.

FEI Olympic Groups used in determining qualification quotas are:

• Group A (North Western Europe)
• Group B (South Western Europe)
• Group C (Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia)
• Group D (North America)
• Group E (Central and South America)
• Group F (Africa and the Middle East)
• Group G (South East Asia, Oceania)

WHO WILL BE COMPETING?

In total, there is a maximum of 60 athlete-horse combinations (10 teams plus 20 individuals plus 1 possible composite team) who will be cantering up the centreline in Rio.
As the host country, Brazil automatically will take 4 of those spots.  
The remaining countries who have qualified teams include:

• Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands (top three finishers at the 2014 World Equestrian Games)
• Spain, Sweden and France (top finishers at the 2015 European Championships excluding those countries already qualified)
• United States (top finisher at the 2015 Pan American Games)
• Australia (top ranked team from FEI  Groups F & G from 2014 World Equestrian Games)
• Japan (top ranked team from FEI Groups C, F & G at an FEI approved special qualification event which held at the Perl, Germany CDI2*)  bringing the total number of teams to 10.<br /><br />Along with those 10 teams, whose athletes take up 40 of the available spots, there are 20 starting places to be filled individually. If a country can qualify at least three athletes as individuals, they can join the team competition as a composite team of three or four.

20 Individuals

This will use the FEI Olympic Athlete Ranking list, which denotes a pre-determined list of qualifying FEI competitions where the best 4 results per athlete/horse combo between March 9, 2015 – March 6, 2016 is used.
This is organized as follows, and where the word “athlete” is used, it is actually the country whose athlete achieved the result (ie. it’s not  the athlete themselves who is guaranteed a ticket to Rio) :

1. 14 athletes according to the FEI Groups
   • Groups A, B, C (6 Quota places): The first and second place athlete in each Group on the FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking
   • Groups D, E (4 Quota places):  The first place athlete in each Group on the FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking INCLUDING the highest ranking athletes from the Grand Prix at the 2015 Pan American Games (which is Canada and Mexico)
   • Groups F & G (4 Quota places): The first place athlete on the FEI Olympic Athletes Ranking  INCLUDING the highest ranked athletes from the Grand Prix at the FEI special qualification event (Perl CDI2* which is South Africa & Korea)
2. 6 athletes from the best ranked in the FEI Olympic Ranking Athletes from countries who HAVE NOT already qualified an individual quota place for their FEI Group at the Pan Ams, Perl CDI2*, the FEI Olympic Ranking list above or who have qualified a team.

See the FEI Olympic Athlete Ranking list – updated as of August 31, 2015

Megan Lane & Caravella is the top Canadian in the overall FEI Olympic Athlete Ranking List, currently ranked 16th
photo Globe and Mail

And finally…..Composite Team
There is an opportunity for a non-qualified country to create a composite team (min of 3 to a max of 4 horse/rider combos).
This is determined by using the Individual Qualification mentioned above.

Wait, there’s more! Minimum Eligibility Requirements
Not to be forgotten, is the all important minimum eligibility requirements which must be achieved by all horse/rider combinations who are to compete at the Rio Olympics.
This means twice achieving a minimum of 64% in the Grand Prix at 2 different CDI3*, 4*, 5*, CDI-W, CDIO between January 1, 2015 and June 19, 2016.
This might be where Brazil falls short in being unable to form a complete team and could open the door to others.

Yes….that was as exhausting to type as it was to read.

As you can see from the above list, there are a number of dressage countries who are missing on the “already qualified” list including: Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland and of course Canada to name just a few.

The race for Rio is certainly not over, and it will be interesting to see both who can qualify a composite team as well as how the individual quota slots shake out.

Stay tuned!