Carl Hester has announced that one of his Olympic potentials, Dolendo, has been ruled out of this summer’s games due to injury.
The 17.2hh chestnut gelding, owned by Mrs Ann Cory, won the National Championships last September. Dolendo will now be ruled out of Olympic selection for 2008 and will spend the summer walking and recovering.
Carl told H&H: “It’s a repeat strain of an original injury which happened about 18 months ago. It’s only a small injury but there’s such a lot to do before the Olympics so we decided to call it a day.
“It’s not career threatening but he needs about three months to recover, but it’s definitely not over. We are still hopeful for the Europeans.”
Carl is now focusing on preparing Sasha Stewart’s Lecantos for the Olympics, who performed well recently at Gelderland.
“It is disappointing but I’m really excited about taking Lecantos — he’ll be more suited to the Olympic conditions,” he said.
“The Olympics were always going to be difficult for Dolendo as he is bigger and older and the conditions in Hong Kong would not have suited him so I’m actually in a way quite relieved that he doesn’t have to go through it.”
