Paris seems poised to host an amazing Olympic Games.
For equestrians, the Palace of Versailles venue has historic connections to horses and their place in European culture. It’s relatively easy to get to for most of eventing, dressage, show jumping and para-dressage’s power-player countries. The City of Light stages look ready to showcase equestrian sports at their finest.
The appeal of Paris, however, has nothing to do with why the United States’ 16 horses and riders will be there. They’re there to fulfill dreams drafted in childhood and realized through years of hard work, patience, persistence, broken bones, broken hearts, big bills, bad days and a million other things about which the rest of us have only a small inkling.
And they’re there because they had the right horse, the right plan to bring him along, the right backers and funding, and a National Federation focused on nurturing horses and riders at various levels of the ever-narrowing Olympic pipeline.
Given that we’re talking about horses—they probably had some old-fashioned good luck, too.
But first, let’s start with Paris …
Versailles as a Venue
It’s unlikely that U.S. equestrians will be among the 10,500 athletes floating down Paris’ Siene River in the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Especially the eventers. The procession is Friday, July 26, the same day as eventing’s First Horse Inspection and the day before their Games begin with dressage on Saturday, July 27.
But equestrians have a
