Team USA Eventing grooms and team vet at the Olympic Village
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Top Level Care in Tokyo By Emma Ford
Pony Club graduate and grooming pro Emma Ford shares her experience at the Olympics. This summer marked my fourth Olympics as groom to Team USA eventing rider Phillip Dutton (Nyngan Pony Club, New South Wales – Pony Club Australia) and his mount Z. Although we were away for five weeks, between doing the mandatory quarantine in Germany and spending 16 days in Japan, the time flew by.
since 2008. Witnessing how hard the riders, ground staff, farriers, therapists, coaches and team leaders all work to try and gain the best end result is a great and humbling experience and one that I always learn and grow from.
missed having that truly electric atmosphere. However, spectators or not, the horses still needed to look and feel their best.
For me, my Olympic preparations are an everyday occurrence. The same standard of care has to be maintained to ensure horses arrive Olympic Standards at the competition feeling their best. The Olympic Games in Tokyo were What made the Tokyo Olympics very different from previous ones. As a team, we were all disappointed different from others were the Covid Without spectators the stadiums we didn’t do better although we regulations, packing logistics and seemed ominously big. Some horses did finish sixth to improve on our over 24 hours of shipping for horses thrived without the audiences, highest Olympic team placing just to get to Japan. while the ones that like to show off
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