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The Tokyo Olympics is one month away, and the U.S. Eventing Team will have their final mandatory outing starting tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The mandatory outing will be held at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. from Wednesday, June 30 through Friday, July 2. With a maximum of 15 entries, learn more about the field, the facts, and the schedule of this upcoming event.
The Field:
A total of 12 athlete-and-horse combinations will be participating in this mandatory training session, which will include the three combinations currently on the U.S. Eventing Olympic Team, the traveling reserve, the second direct reserve, and the six alternate combinations.
U.S. Eventing Olympic Team for Tokyo:
Second Direct Reserve:
The Traveling Reserve:
Team alternatives (listed in selected order):
The Facts:
The three riders currently on the U.S. Eventing Olympic team have all previously earned the title of "USEA Rider of the Year." Halliday-Sharp was the USEA Rider of the Year in 2020, Martin has been the USEA Rider of the Year four times (2016 - 2019), and Dutton has been the USEA Rider of the Year an impressive thirteen times (1998, 2000 - 2010, 2012).
All horses listed above competed in April at the 2021 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L, and Boyd Martin riding On Cue was the highest placed U.S. pair and placed 4th overall.
There are 10 geldings and only one mare out of the 11 horses listed above: the Selle Francais mare, On Cue.
The youngest horse in the field is the second alternate, the 10-year-old gelding, Mama’s Magic Way, and the oldest horse of the field is the traveling reserve, the 17-year-old gelding, Vandiver.
There are three horses in the field who have graduated from the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) Program: Tsetserleg (class of 2012), Mai Baum (class of 2011), and Off the Record (class of 2014).
Windfall II (Habicht x Wundermaedel), the 1992 Trakehner stallion owned by Dr. Timothy and Cheryl Holekamp, is the sire to two out of the four horses traveling to Tokyo - Boyd Martin’s mount, Tsetserleg (Windfall II x Thabana), and Doug Payne’s mount, Vandiver (Windfall II x Visions of Grandeur).
There are three American bred horses: Tsetserleg (Windfall II x Thabana) bred by Timothy Holekamp, Vandiver (Windfall II x Visions of Grandeur) bred by Debi Crowley, and Vermiculus (Serazim x Wake Me Gently) bred by Lawson Williams.
This will be the fifth year that Great Meadow hosts the mandatory outing for U.S. Eventing. They were hosts of the preparation trials for the 2014 Normandy FEI World Equestrian Games, 2015 Toronto Pan American Games, 2016 Rio Olympics, and the 2018 Tryon FEI World Equestrian Games.
Three horses have been victorious at Great Meadow in previous years - Deniro Z won the Great Meadow International CCI4*-S in 2020, Off The Record won the Great Meadow International CCI4*-S in 2018, and Tsetserleg won the Combined Test for WEG Nominated Entry Horses in 2018.
Luke 140 (Landos x Omega VI), a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by the Luke 140 Syndicate, was originally named to the U.S. Eventing Olympic Team as Boyd Martin’s mount, but, on June 22, 2021, US Equestrian announced a horse substitution for Martin. Luke 140 sustained a minor injury during his training preparation and was replaced by Martin’s first direct reserve, Tsetserleg.
Following the mandatory outing at Great Meadow, the team and the first two alternates will head to Gladstone, New Jersey, in preparation to fly out on July 8. From there, the team will travel to a Pre-Export Quarantine in Aachen, Germany, which will serve as the final training camp before Tokyo. The first two alternates, Tamra Smith on Mai Baum and Will Faudree on Mama’s Magic Way, will travel to Aachen with the team and have the option of staying in Aachen to compete in CHIO Aachen on Sept. 17-18.
The eventing portion of the Tokyo Olympics will take place on July 30 - August 2, 2021, at the Equestrian Park and Sea Forest Cross-Country venues. The team will be led by Chef d’Equipe Erik Duvander and USEF Managing Director of Eventing, Jenni Autry.
According to the US Equestrian Olympic Selection Procedures for Eventing, all combinations on the team will be required to demonstrate their continued preparation, soundness, and ability at the mandatory outing.
Event Schedule:
*Updated on Wednesday, June 30.
Wednesday, June 30
Thursday, July 1
Friday, July 2
This event will not be open to public spectators and will not be live-streamed, but make sure to follow the USEA social media for live updates and coverage of the event!
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