Meet the Riders: Mary King of Team GBR Eventing in Top Ten Going into Cross-Country

Mary King is an anchor of experience and talent for the British eventing team.

Great Britain's Mary King began riding in her fifth Olympic Games eventing competition when she entered that dressage arena today. That's as many as Andrew Nicholson and Mark Todd. It's one more than Karen O'Connor. Mary is without a doubt one of the world's leading event riders and also one of the most consistent. If you need any more proof, look at the leaderboard after two days of dressage: Mary is in ninth place overall, she was one of the very last riders to go, and she's the only Brit in the Top Ten.

This woman doesn't like to stay home. She made the team and helped Britain win the European eventing championship in 1995...by not letting on that she was five months pregnant!!

I'd like to ask you to go to the web site of the web site of the British newspaper, The Independent, and read a terrific interview with Mary King by the journalist Brian Viner. 

It's not often you see such a piece in a newspaper about an equestrian--or any sports figure, really. This is more like a magazine feature and it is very well written. Mary comes through with flying colors, much as she will probably do tomorrow when she goes cross-country with Call Again Cavalier.

CLICK HERE to read this four-star article about one of the sport's great heroes. Cheer for Mary King!

WorldRides Video: Equine Airlift Unloads Precious Horses in Hong Kong

This narrationless video was spliced together by the Hong Kong Jockey Club so you can all see how the horses are off-loaded from the cargo "stall" containers and immediately transferred to waiting air-conditioned horse vans.

The footage was shot on one of the first flights and shows the Dutch dressage team horses arriving. (You know that, from reading this blog, because you can see the orange t-shirts!)

The process is still going on! The man in the blue shirt and khaki pants is Martin Atock, the transport mastermind for airlift managers Peden Bloodstock. I wonder if Martin has been kicked yet...

Tropical Storm Kammuri News: Sheik Mohammed Takes in Stranded Olympic Horses When Flight is Grounded!

Australian dressage and eventing teams met in their stable aisle at the equestrian center in Hong Kong. Their show jumping teammates are stranded in Dubai during the tropical storm. (EFA photo by Russ Withers)

Australian newspapers are hot tonight with news that the flight carrying the Aussie and Saudi Arabian jumping team horses from Amsterdam was waylaid in Dubai. The papers tell us that ten horses are aboard the flight. A second flight, which contained the US team horses, was aborted in Amsterdam. We have no word yet how the delay was handled there.

A friendly barn for the night was provided by Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, who also just happens to be the husband of International Equestrian Federation (FEI) president Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein.

But it was all in "Plan B" of the international equine airlift organizers at Peden Bloodstock, the flight managers. One reason the US horses flew to Hong Kong via European quarantine was that no horse-friendly stopover could be found in the North Pacific. (Alaska just wouldn't do. Dubai, on the other hand, halfway between Europe and Southeast Asia, and with lots of quarantine and equine transport experienceis ideal.)

Meanwhile, back in Hong Kong, storm force warnings of level 8 have been sounded.

Perhaps of more concern is that the eventers already in Hong Kong had to cancel training because of the high winds. The vet check is on Friday, so all the teams are following training regimens very carefully but the bad weather forced them to stay locked inside their stables.

Bad weather is common this time of year in Hong Kong and extra days have been blocked on the schedule to allow for makeup sessions.

The Spaniards, Germans and Dutch were the first to arrive in Hong Kong.

The Horses Have Landed!

Well, some of them, at least.

The extremely efficient plan was to offload the horses from the jumbo jets and sprint them off to their stables faster than the human passengers could collect their bags and get through customs. The horses would travel in air-conditioned vans with police escorts and support vans. And it all went according to plan, at least with the first group that arrived on Saturday!

These images are provided without captions by the Equestrian Games office and the Hong Kong Jockey Club. I know the bay with the snip on his nose, led by the red-headed groom, is Salinero, and the bay behind him is Hunter Douglas Sunrise but I am not sure of the others. (It's nice that the Dutch usually wear orange so you can always pick them out of the crowd.) 

The fellow in khakis and a blue shirt helping the grey out of the van is the transport mastermind for Peden Bloodstock and the FEI, Martin Atock.

It's interesting to note the transport legwear worn by each horse. And no coolers! The temperature in Hong Kong is....hot. It's a pretty big switch from Canada or Ireland or Sweden.

G2K (Get to Know): Canada's Kyle Carter, Eventing

Get to know Canada's Kyle Carter in this video clip from www.ocala.com

Kyle Carter lives outside Ocala, Florida, on his prophetically-named "Five Rings" horse farm and training center. You may remember him flying around the cross-country course at Rolex or heard about his fifth-place finish at the Pan Am Games in Brazil last year.

But when it comes time to compete, Kyle Carter wears the maple leaf, not the stars and stripes, on his saddle pad. 

And now it's time for Hong Kong. For the first time, the 39-year-old Alberta native will be representing his home country at the Olympics. Riding the known-to-be-mischievous 10-year-old American ex-racehorse Madison Park, Carter has been preparing by schooling under the watchful gaze of Olympic gold medalist David O'Connor.

Kyle Carter and Madison Park flew to Hong Kong on July 25th. Kyle told Ocala.com that he has opted to skip the experience of being with athletes from all sports as part of Team Canada in the open ceremonies in Beijing on August 8 because it would require a plane trip and time away from his horse. He competes the next day.

Take a Look: The 2008 Olympic Medals

Take a look at the front (top) and back (lower) silver, gold and bronze medals for the 2008 Olympics. Each medal is also made with some jade inlay as the inspiration for the design is the ancient Chinese "bi" coin, made of jade.

Yes, take a look: this might be as close as most of us will ever get to one!