Horses Stabled At Greenwich

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happyhacker1

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I was wondering if all of the horses have to stay at Greenwich Stables or are the UK horses able to travel back to their home stables i.e. a long time for the dressage horses to be stabled in between competitions. I have read about all the security and health checks, so it kind of looks as if once on site, they have to stay on site. But I guess they must have turnout paddocks at Greenwich - would be really interesting to know the detail of how the horses are stabled and kept there.

I wonder if there is a programme being made by someone like Horse & Country behind the scenes for the horses at the Olympics showing them arriving, stabling, what happens in between competitions etc., it would be really interesting to see the detail. I have seen the Greenwich interviews and the Carl & Charlotte H&C programmes and they are great so hopefully someone is doing something. Anyone know?
 
I'm under the impression that they have to stay there for the duration of their competition - I think this is the case at other international shows too (eg Hickstead for the showjumpers). I can't imagine that there is any turnout - probably areas to graze in-hand, but the horses would be used to travelling to stay-away shows and going without turnout for a few days.
 
Once the horses have gone through the equine staging facility, they stay at Greenwich until their Olympic participation is complete. Bio-security is extremely tight - I happen to know this because one of my clients authored the cleaning and disinfection protocol, and once they're in, they're in for the duration. There is no turnout - just handgrazing, but that's standard at all competition venues - not just the Olympic site
 
They get hand-grazed (seen pics of this). But it's not as if a lot of horses at this level get a lot of turnout. I'm pretty sure some of the European horses hardly get turnout at home.

I know people with very expensive horses here in the UK, and the horse insurance says that they are not allowed to be out unless they are ridden/handled. Any kind of turn out made the insurance premium go through the roof.

Couldn't do that with mine. She'd kill me without turnout...
 
I know that Mary King said IC would be out in the field as soon as they got home.

Im not sure how many horses at that level are insured in all honesty - my (very limited) knowledge of very £££ horses is that they cost so much to insure (one person i know was quoted 10k a year for a horse thats not olympic standard but jumping JR/YR sj tracks successfully) that its financial suicide to insure, especially if you have several horses at that level.
 
When I looked at the FEI regulations a couple of years back it looked like the equestrian events were scheduled one after the other to reduce the number of stables required to a third of the total. Those regs said that the horses stayed only for the time of their competition plus a day or two at either end.
Could have changed since then though.
I think the horses are stabled on Blackheath at the top of the hill.
 
All International competitions and the Olympics especially that once through the first trot up the competition is declared as 'begun' and as such the horses are not allowed to leave until it is finished unless for injury/elimination, etc reasons. Most if not all of these horses will be hand grazed daily whilst there many many times a day and once home will have weeks if not months roughed off out in the field and just being horses.
 
Jo_x said:
I know that Mary King said IC would be out in the field as soon as they got home.

Im not sure how many horses at that level are insured in all honesty - my (very limited) knowledge of very £££ horses is that they cost so much to insure (one person i know was quoted 10k a year for a horse thats not olympic standard but jumping JR/YR sj tracks successfully) that its financial suicide to insure, especially if you have several horses at that level.
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Good for Mary King, not only an excellent horse rider but also an excellent horsewoman to believe that no matter how expensive or precious your horse, they should still live 'as horses'.

Never forget the documentary on TV about the race track at Hong Kong and how the horses once there spend 23 hours a day cooped up in dark and dingy stables, the other hour being exercised. What a miserable existence. That's their life, they never leave until they die. How sad.
 
Jo_x said:
I know that Mary King said IC would be out in the field as soon as they got home.

Im not sure how many horses at that level are insured in all honesty - my (very limited) knowledge of very £££ horses is that they cost so much to insure (one person i know was quoted 10k a year for a horse thats not olympic standard but jumping JR/YR sj tracks successfully) that its financial suicide to insure, especially if you have several horses at that level.
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The ones I know of are dressage horses - one at Grand Prix level and the other a young prospect that cost in the high 5 figures when bought as a youngster. Owners pay thousands of £ in insurance per year... but would be higher if not constantly stabled.
 
Luci07 said:
But interesting to note that Carl Hester turns his horses out, even Uthopia!! And gasp, Valegro gets to hack too..
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I think Carl is sadly in the minority with his methods of 'horse care'. Dressage horses are generally not allowed to be turned out, fear of injury I believe. Takes years of training to get the muscles built up, and only a few weeks off to undo a lot of hard work,.
I love how Carl treats his horses as horses!
 
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