What an exciting day at the Olympics yesterday for the first round of Grand Prix competition. I’m not sure how to describe the spectator experience. On the one hand it’s the world’s biggest sporting event in an iconic location. Yet at the end of the day it’s still a horse show, with all the highs and lows that entails.

We saw some truly lovely rides, and some heartbreaking ones. I won’t give a play by play of each ride, since many other outlets already do that much better than I ever could. But a few of my personal favourites included:
- Carl Hester for such impeccable riding with nearly invisible aids
- Nanna Skodborg Merrald for a well-deserved high score of the day
​- Lithuania’s Justina Vanagaite for the most joyful, harmonious ride, and the loosest curb rein I’ve ever seen
- Singapore’s Caroline Chew for the gutsiest ride and best recovery after a very hot and tense start

Of course watching the Canadians was the highlight of my day and I believe Naima and Chris will be pleased with their performances. Naima and Statesman had a couple of minor bobbles in the test which kept them shy of the 70% mark but the pair looked confident and polished in the ring. Their draw in the first group of 10 was definitely an advantage today, with temperatures topping 35 degrees.

With a mid-afternoon ride time, Chris and Eclips weren’t so fortunate in the draw. They performed a careful, mistake-free test, however it lacked energy and brilliance. So did all the spectators by the 3:04pm ride time! Chris’ scores ranged from 65.435 to 68.913 for a final 66.863.

At the end of play Naima was ranked 8th in Group A, while Chris finished 7th in Group C. Grand Prix action continues tomorrow with Groups E, F, and G featuring heavy hitters Lottie Fry, Isabell Werth, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, and of course Canada’s Camille Carier Bergeron with Finländerin.

I won’t be in the stands today but will do my best to keep you all updated on both the Olympics and the FEI North American Youth Championships, where the Juniors and U25 riders are in action.

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As the athletes prepare for tonight’s opening ceremonies, Equestrian Canada announced today several significant changes affecting the Olympic dressage team.

Unfortunately for Jill Irving, Delacroix has been deemed unfit to compete and the decision was made in the best interest of the horse to withdraw him from competition. They will be replaced with the earlier named travelling reserve pair athlete of Chris Von Martels and Eclips, who represented Canada at the Tokyo Olympics.

With second reserve Ariana Chia and Guateque IV previously declining to travel to the pre-Games staging camp, and logistical challenges prohibiting the sixth-ranked Denielle Gallagher and Come Back de Massa to arrive in France in time for competition, the seventh-ranked rider horse combination Jill Irving and Genesis have been named as traveling alternates and will join the team in Paris.

In other news, Equestrian Canada also announced that Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu will assume the roles of Team Chef d’Equipe and Team Manager to support Team Canada riders on the ground. Due to personal reasons, the original Team Chef d’Equipe and Team Manager Christine Peters stepped back from those roles.

The Canadian team is settling into their home base near Versailles and making their final preparations before the first day of Grand Prix competition on Monday. I’ll be there in person and can’t wait to cheer our riders on. Go Canada!






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Who says dressage is boring? The run-up to the Olympics has featured a level of drama usually reserved for Real Housewives and Kardashians, not our staid and genteel sport.

​Morgan Barbaçon found herself ousted from team France after repeatedly running afoul of the FEI’s doping reporting system. Carina Cassøe Keith was set to be named as alternate for Team Denmark when a video surfaced which allegedly showed her mistreating a horse. Team Germany second reserve Rafael Netz was ready to pack his bags for Paris when first reserve Ingrid Klimke announced her horse was injured. However Netz apparently shared Barbaçon’s struggles with the FEI’s anti-doping website, thereby ceding his Olympic opportunity to Sönke Rothenburger.

All of that pales in comparison with today’s news that Charlotte Dujardin has been temporarily suspended by the FEI and British Dressage pending the investigation of a four-year-old video which allegedly shows her abusing a horse. The announcement not only disappointed thousands of fans who were looking forward to watching one of the sport’s brightest stars compete at the Olympics, it has shaken the dressage world to its core.

There was much rejoicing when well-known abusers Andreas Helgstrand and Cesar Parra were finally put under formal investigation by the FEI. There is no room for unethical riding, training and teaching in our sport. In the wake of Dujardin’s announcement, however, there is so far just shock, confusion and unanswered questions.

How could someone renowned for her ethical training and horsemanship have mistreated a horse?

Why was the video sent to the FEI now, just two weeks before the Olympics, and not four years ago?

What does the video show? Some allege it’s nothing more than standard training of piaffe by lightly tapping the horse’s legs with a whip. Others state it captures Dujardin beating a horse with a whip. Likely few people know the truth, because so far the video hasn’t been made public.

I hope it does become public. If it does show abuse, that needs to be brought to light. If it doesn’t, Dujardin will be vindicated, albeit too late for these Olympics. Regardless, she did the best thing for her team by stepping down. The negative attention would have distracted the athletes from focusing on the job at hand; performing their best at the Olympics.

And that brings me to our own Canadian controversy. Much has been written about the conflicts of interest within the High Performance Advisory Group which selects our Olympic team. There has been plenty of discussion about the successful appeal by second reserve rider Ariana Chia, and the odd sequence of events following the appeal which led to her horse’s owners deciding not to send the stallion to Paris.

​What we haven’t heard is any official statement from Equestrian Canada regarding this decision, whether another second reserve pair has been named to replace Ariana and Guateque IV and if so, whether that horse and rider will be at training camp with the rest of the team.

So far, the questions I’ve submitted to EC’s Director of Communications on that topic have gone unanswered. And that’s ok for now. I will be pursuing all angles of this story and speaking to parties from all sides to help clarify what happened, why it happened, and how things can be improved in the future. But the time for those conversations is after the games. Right now we have more important things to focus on.

We have four riders and their horses (three team members plus an alternate) who earned their spots on the team by virtue of their qualifying scores. They have done nothing wrong. They are focused on achieving their lifelong goal of representing Canada at the Olympics, and they deserve our full support. The task ahead of them is huge. We know they aren’t in medal contention, but they still owe it to themselves and their country try to perform to the very best of their abilities. I can’t imagine how much pressure they are feeling, and how all the negativity surrounding the selection process is affecting them.

Let’s be clear: I applaud Ariana Chia for coming forward, for exposing the issues with the selection process and advocating for change. She has handled an unthinkable situation with the utmost grace and I support her efforts to fix the process 100%. I also fully support the members of our Olympic team. They have each worked so hard for this moment and I want us all to celebrate their achievements and their right to call themselves Olympians.

Our dressage community seems to have been split into two teams: Team Ariana and Team Olympians. But right now, and for the next two weeks we are all on one team. We are all Team Canada.

The wait is finally over. Equestrian Canada has announced our Olympic dressage team. Representing Canada in Paris will be:

- Naima Moreira Laliberté and Statesman
- Camille Carier Bergeron and Finnländerin
​- Jill Irving and Delacroix 11

The reserve combination is Chris Von Martels and Eclips.

Tokyo 2020 alternate athlete Moreira Laliberté will make her Olympic debut at Paris 2024. After winning team gold in Lima 2019 and contributing to Team Canada's Paris 2024 qualification in Santiago, she and her longtime partner, Statesman, competed formidably over the qualification period, posting their best scores in two years. The combination has been together since 2018 when Laliberté was 21 years old and have achieved significant success together at the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) level.

In her first Olympic appearance, Moreira Laliberté is looking forward to competing with her 17-year-old Hanoverian gelding. “I am thrilled and honoured to be heading to Paris with Statesman,” said Moreira Laliberte. “Being the traveling reserve in Tokyo was a challenging task and it was not easy to be in that position. Although I did travel with the team and got an experience out of it, it definitely fuelled me and gave me a lot of determination to chase my dream. For me to now qualify in the number one spot has been really rewarding, after everything Statesman has done for me and we have achieved together, it makes me really proud. I am so thankful to everyone who has helped us including my Dad and my family, my coaches Ashley (Holzer) and Jordi (Domingo Coll), our grooms, caretakers, physios, vets, farriers, and EC for supporting and encouraging us along our journey.”
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Paris 2024 will mark the Olympic debut for 24-year-old Carier Bergeron who was part of the Santiago 2023 team who earned the Paris 2024 qualification, and for 61-year-old Irving, who competed at Lima 2019. Irving is expected to be the oldest athlete on the Canadian Olympic Team for Paris 2024.

in the coming days we will dive into the appeals, delays, and questions surrounding the nomination process. But none of that should detract from celebrating the accomplishments of these riders, or stop us from supporting them 100% in Paris. Go Canada!

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