THE Irish para dressage team have settled into quarantine at Aachen in Germany ahead of their trip to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games later this month.

Just days after the Olympic Games concluded in Japan with a team gold for the Swedish show jumping team (see pages 86-87) equestrian attention immediately switched to the para dressage team of Tamsin Addison, Rosemary Gaffney, Kate Kerr-Horan and Michael Murphy who will compete at the Baji Keon Equestrian Park in Tokyo from August 26 to 29th.

All four riders are competing at their first Paralympic Games. Tamsin Addison, British-based Grade V who will ride Fahrenheit in Tokyo, said all four horses – two from Britain and two from Ireland – arrived to Aachen in great form on Monday after the journey and fly from Liege to Tokyo next Thursday, August 19th.

“They all travelled really well,” Addison told The Irish Field from Aachen. “Because of all the paperwork and customs [with travelling from the UK], the UK-based and Irish-based horses travelled separately. If something went wrong with one horses’ paperwork, it would invalidate everyone’s and we didn’t want that.

“For Michael and I, we stopped overnight in Dover at Parker Transport and they were absolutely brilliant. They segregated a yard for us, the place was immaculate, everything was disinfected; we were really well looked after.”

Rosemary Gaffney and Kate Kerr-Horan’s Irish-based horses, Werona and Serafina T, were transported on the long ferry to France, avoiding the paperwork involved with cross the UK landbridge. “The guys from Ireland had a much longer ferry journey and stayed overnight in France. But it was great to see everybody get off the lorry looking fresh,” Addison said.

A former marketing director with Virgin Media, Addison leaves a yard of 29 horses behind at her Northwest London stable. “We arrived on Monday and I thought ‘what are we going to do all day’ but actually the day goes very quickly and we have a lot to get organised. We have a sports psychology session later today,” she said, adding that the team spirit is high.

“I hadn’t seen the chef d’equipe (Debora Pijpers) in person in almost two years. It is just really nice to catch up with people and to be in a camp environment where we have lots of banter!”

Ability

Alongside athletes, grooms and trainers, team vet Nick Hart from the Royal Veterinary College is also in Aachen, as well as Pijpers.

When announcing the team, Pijpers said: “I am very excited to take a team to Tokyo! All the High Performance riders have worked hard in the past two years. During the Tokyo selection process all riders showed flexibility and ability to perform and improve, also in difficult circumstances. That it is possible to go with a team now instead of with two individual riders is a great boost for Irish para dressage sport.

“Performing at the Paralympic Games is challenging, and I expect that Tokyo 2020 might even be more challenging because of Covid. However, I believe in the potential and ability of the selected riders and I am confident that these riders will do everything that is within their reach to perform to their potential.”

The athletes will be attempting to win Ireland’s fifth para dressage medal. The team of Helen Kearney, Eilish Byrne, James Dwyer and Geraldine Savage won team bronze at London in 2012, and Kearney added individual silver and bronze. Ireland’s only other para dressage medal winner is Joan Salmon who won bronze at Atlanta in 1996.

Next week: Full preview of the Para Dressage in Tokyo