Judy Reynolds will not contest the European Dressage Championships (22-27 August) as her ride Vancouver K has picked up a slight injury.
The 15-year-old KWPN gelding strained a tendon in training yesterday (15 August), enough to rule him out of the trip to Gothenburg, where he and Judy would have been the sole Irish dressage hopes.
“It’s nothing serious but we didn’t want to take the risk of it getting worse; he doesn’t deserve that,” Judy told H&H.
“He’s a faithful partner in sport; he deserves the best treatment and the best chance, and I couldn’t have ridden him knowing that.
“It was just a normal training session. He was totally fine at the start but at the end, I just felt maybe he wasn’t 100% so we got it checked out.”
Judy and “JP” were the only combination to represent Ireland in dressage at the Rio Olympics last year, where she became the first Irish rider to qualify for an Olympic freestyle.
They finished in 18th place overall but Judy said JP has been improving since, with results this year including fourth place at the World Cup final in April.
“It’s a pity because he was on such good form,” she said. “I really felt we had a good chance of making an impression on the leaderboard.
“He does just get better and better so hopefully next year, we’ll still be able to show that.”
Irish dressage rider smashes previous record to set new top score for her nation
Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K have set a
Tales from Rio: ‘He’s nuts — his difficulty has always been his brain’
Meet Judy Reynolds, the Irish dressage rider who
Horse who was ‘a disaster to teach piaffe’ is grand prix dressage record-breaker
A Dutch-bred horse who had never won a
JP will have a few weeks of ridden walking, after which Judy hopes she will be able to increase his work. She is aiming to return to competition over the winter, when the new freestyle she had ready for Gothenburg will be aired.
“These things do happen, it’s just bad timing,” Judy said.
Don’t miss this week’s H&H magazine (17 August) for a full European Championships preview.
