‘His welfare is our top priority’: Olympic medallist withdraws from key World Cup event owing to colic

The USA’s top-ranked dressage combination, Adrienne Lyle and Salvino, have been forced to withdraw from this weekend’s World Cup qualifier in Wellington, Florida, after the 16-year-old Sandro Hit stallion suffered a “colic episode”.

Salvino and Adrienne, who are currently ranked eighth and 10th in the world respectively, were members of the US team who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. They also finished sixth individually at the World Dressage Championships in 2022.

They have proved to be on top form throughout the 2022/23 World Cup season so far, having won both qualifiers they have contested, scoring over 83% in each grand prix freestyle performance. A third victory this weekend at the Global Dressage Festival would have secured them a place at the World Cup Final, in Omaha, USA, in April.

“Unfortunately we have to withdraw Salvino from this week’s CDI-W competition. He is doing ok but had a colic episode and we don’t want to push him to go today,” said Adrienne.

“His welfare is always our top priority, so we will be packing up our tackroom set-up and heading home, but we wish the best of luck to all the other competitors and will be there to cheer them on.”

Adrienne is currently sixth in the World Cup standings for the North American League, with three spots available, and one more qualifier before the final, at Wellington in March.

The current league leader is Steffen Peters, who looks to have secured a ticket to Omaha with his Olympic team horse Suppenkasper, with Alice Tarjan and Sarah Tubman vying for places just behind him on the leaderboard. Adrienne is 20 points adrift of Steffen, and would have been hoping to draw level with him in the rankings with another qualifier win.

The World Cup qualifier gets under way with 13 combinations set to contest the grand prix today (9 February). Among the line-up is Britain’s Susan Pape with Harmony’s Eclectisch, as well as British-based Singaporean duo Caroline Chew and Tribiani.

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