EQUESTRIAN: Waterford Crystal, the horse viewed by Olympic team manager John Ledingham as Ireland's best hope of a show jumping medal in Athens, has been withdrawn from this week's Dublin Horse Show with a respiratory tract infection. But the gelding's rider Cian O'Connor stressed last night that the horse will be fit in time to leave for Athens on August 16th.
"It's a big disappointment as Dublin would mean a lot to me," O'Connor said yesterday. "If I'd nothing on after the Horse Show I might have chanced taking him, but the Olympics has been the main goal for the season so it wasn't really a difficult decision to make.
"There's no question mark whatsoever that he'll be 100 per cent for the Games. He's just taken the wrong week for a holiday."
The 13-year-old gelding, which has jumped double clear rounds at both the Rome and Aachen Nations Cups in this year's Samsung Super League series, was given a few days in the field after his return from last month's German fixture when he was found to have a "dirty nose".
O'Connor's vet James Sheeran put the nasal discharge down to the journey, but the symptoms returned when Crystal was put back into work last week and when the horse developed a cough, O'Connor called in the vet again. Sheeran examined the gelding on Sunday night and, after diagnosing a respiratory tract infection, recommended he be given a few days off.
After being informed of the problem, John Ledingham requested that Olympic vet Marcus Swail should also look at the horse. Swail saw Crystal yesterday and performed a tracheal wash to establish the cause of the infection so that the most effective treatment can be administered.
"We want to ensure that our best horse with the best chance of a medal can perform to the best of his abilities," Ledingham said last night.
O'Connor, who had been named for this week's Dublin Horse Show with Waterford Crystal and his two mares ABC Lanliebe and Anabella, will now be aiming Annabella for a place on Friday's Aga Khan Cup team. The 24-year-old has been of the Irish team at Dublin for the past two years, both times finishing the show as leading Irish and international rider.
"With Crystal I would have been sure of a place on the team, but with the mare I'll have to fight for my place," said O'Connor.
The team, which will be named by chef d'equipe Colonel Ned Campion on Thursday, will be selected from a quintet that also includes Athens-bound Marion Hughes, Jessica Kurten and Billy Twomey, along with Army rider Captain Shane Carey.
