Indeed, Estonian sports horse Caesar and his rider You Chang were the most stable pair in the Chinese Jumping Team, finishing 2nd in the Tokyo Olympic Trial after New Zealand, and these two teams took on the two team places that are known as G- group. Qualifying for the Olympics takes place in 8 groups, of which Group G includes Asia and Oceania, and this group held a test competition on 13 August at Valkenwaard in the Netherlands.
All the important athletes in this group live and train in Europe and this test competition was held quite modestly on one regular working day among 22 athletes from 6 countries. Japan had already secured places in the Olympics as an organizer and Australia with 6th place in 2018 World Games (WEG). In Valkenwaard was by far the best New Zealand, followed by three Chinese – China, Taiwan and Hong-Kong, and slightly better by mainland China. Their Estonian sports horse Caesar under the young You Chang played an important role in their team. His result was not great, still only 7th place and 160 cm two rounds with results 8/8. Winner Samantha Mc Intosh made it 4/0, only 14 riders finished in the second round. But our Chinese, as he may be called, did their job gloriously, as this show was the only real chance for China to qualify for the Olympics. Even if that pair doesn’t go to Tokyo, they’ve created a chance for another teammate.
It is a pity to see that some teams in the Olympics are made up of riders and horses that are somehow not more worthy than our Estonian riders and horses. But in no way do we have 3-4 of these horses in the hands of the right riders, even though we have had them at different times, like Rhythmical (went to the Sydney Olympics), Bambuk, Novesta, A Big Boy, Ibelle, Alfons Ra etc If any of them had jumped worthy to get individual place, one might doubt it, but the team would have gotten together if they would have lived in Estonia at the same time.
Stronger equestrian countries have tougher competition and difficulty in qualifying. Belgium, France, England and others are still without an Olympic ticket and have yet to try to win it at the European Championships and the Cup of Nations. These teams will be divided into 4 teams, plus 2 teams from Group F, competing in Africa and the Middle East. A total of 20 teams will qualify for the Olympics, from our Central European zone Israel as the winner of the Moscow qualifying competition against Poland and the Ukrainian from the Budapest qualifying competition
But no one other than China has an Estonian sports horse on the team so far, except for Yuri Mansur, a Brazilian who has just bought esh Alfons Ra. If his miraculous Ibelle would be not healthy for the the Olympics he might miraculously get on the team with Alfons Ra. It would not be bad for our horse economy if big countries like China and Brazil discovered Estonia more.