Anky Van Grunsven and Salinero aim for London Olympics
Anky Van Grunsven is aiming her 2008 Olympic gold medal-winning Salinero at selection for Greenwich.
Many had thought the 43-year-old dressage rider was out of contention for the Dutch team at this summer’s Games, as her new horse IPS Upido is recovering from injury.
But last week Anky said her 18-year-old world-beater is “fit and ready“. She plans to compete him at the CDIO Saumur (26-29 April) and the Dutch Olympic selection event, the national championships in Hoofddorp in June.
“Salinero is still fit,” she said. “The media is calling it a comeback but he has been competing since last summer at international level, for example in Salzburg, where he won both tests.”
However, visitors to the 2012 indoor Brabant CDI-W in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, who had hoped to see the Olympians compete last Thursday (19 April), were disappointed when Anky withdrew her old-stager, citing a fitness issue.
“Salinero is not in shape. I’ll do it next week in Saumur,” she told a Dutch newspaper.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (26 April 2012)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.