Dressage champion Jody Hartstone’s decision to step back from her World Equestrian Games campaign has been met with disappointment but understanding at Equestrian Sports New Zealand.
ESNZ High Performance Director Sarah Harris said it would have been a tough decision for the seasoned star to make but he is heartened to see she is already talking about the London Olympics.
Raglan based Hartstone, who has been in the United States for the past two months hoping to gain the selectors’ nod by posting the required top score, says Whisper V was just not fit enough.
The combination was to compete at 7500 feet above sea level at a show in Colorado. Both had been injured on arrival in the US and Hartstone said her stunning stallion would have struggled in the challenging conditions at that final qualifying show.
“It was absolutely heart-breaking,” she says, “but he had just lost so much fitness in that down time.”
Both are now well but it comes too late.
Whisper is now in quarantine in Kentucky and will be in New Zealand in time for the breeding season in early October. If Hartstone hadn’t decided to bring him home now, they would have had to wait until after the World Equestrian Games anyway, because of a lack of flights.
“I don’t like giving up, and I know we have done what most would be too scared to do, but at least I won’t be thinking ‘what if?’. We have had phenomenal support up here – I have met the most fantastic people, many who have done things for free just to be part of our journey.”
Hartstone is heading to Europe where she will hold clinic in the United Kingdom, Ireland and possibly Holland.
“Of course I am always on the lookout for new opportunities as we work towards London,” she said.
And she hasn’t discounted heading to Kentucky to learn what she can for future championships.
Media Release: Equestrian NZ, 13.08.2010