FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Equestrian - Eventing Individual Jumping Final - Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France - July 29, 2024. Julia Krajewski of Germany riding Nickel 21 in action. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
VERSAILLES (Reuters) - Horse welfare was in focus on the first day of the dressage competitions at the Paris Games on Tuesday, with organisers rolling out a special heat protocol as the sport grapples with the fallout from a major abuse scandal involving a top rider.
The World Equestrian Federation (FEI) activated a special plan to protect horses from the heat, the body's chief veterinarian said, which involves monitoring climate data and ensuring cooling while watching horses with thermal cameras.
Hydration is key, FEI chief vet Goran Akerstrom told Reuters.
Some of the musclebound dressage horses weigh up to 750 kilos and would need around 50 litres of water per day just for their basic body functions, he said.
"If they are sweating, and working, they drink more and they are very carefully looked after. And if there's a need ... we have the opportunity to give them intravenous fluids," he added.
Tuesday's Dressage Grand Prix, in which riders perform the sport's most difficult exercises like pirouettes, piaffes and flying changes in a roughly eight-minute ride, was marked by temperatures well over 30 Celsius.
Akerstrom said FEI officials were checking with heat cameras on the horses' core body temperature - which during training and competition can reach 40 Celsius - and would pull the brakes if they overheat.
Teams are provided with cooling tents and ice buckets while Olympic stables in Versailles are also equipped with a temperature regulating system, allowing for temperatures six degrees below the outside weather.
"The horses have not shown clinical signs of heat stress. They have recovered well and there has been no need for heat-related fluid therapy treatments," an FEI spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Equine welfare is under close scrutiny during the Paris Olympics after a video of British rider Charlotte Dujardin involved in horse abuse shocked a global audience and renewed debates about riding's future as an Olympic discipline.
No major incident of animal suffering was reported during the first three days of Olympic riding.
The FEI, however, sanctioned a Brazilian rider for having caused "unnecessary discomfort to the horse" during a training session, while an Italian rider was disqualified after his horse was found bleeding from the mouth.
During Tuesday's dressage competition, the governing body disqualified the horse of a U.S. rider when blood was seen on its leg.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Ken Ferris)
