Shortly before the start of the Equestrian World Championships, two synthetic horses caused a stir in Milan. The organizers react.
Two white horses in the course caused a stir a few hours before the start of the European Championships in Milan.
The two plastic animals were installed as part of an obstacle in the time competition on Wednesday and caused trouble for some show jumpers.
The World Equestrian Federation FEI initially allowed the artificial horses to move away from the obstacle by about a meter, but that wasn’t enough. After lengthy discussions, the two horses were finally completely dismantled and carried away.
National coach Otto Becker: “It’s not possible”
“That doesn’t work, it distracts the horses“, national coach Otto Becker had complained: “This can be particularly difficult with stallions.” The German coach and several colleagues had campaigned for the plastic animals to be removed. They then disappeared just under two hours before the start of the first special stage.
“That’s just unfair“, Christian Kukuk complained. The individual starter at the European Championships from Riesenbeck had feared that his stallion Mumbai would keep an eye on the plastic animals from the start. Mumbai was “actually not peppy“, explained Kukuk, but through the use of breeding he knows such dummies and is distracted by them on the course.