Olympic debutante eliminated from Tokyo dressage under blood rule

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Singaporean rider Caroline Chew is eliminated under the blood rule with Tribiani at the Tokyo Olympic dressage grand prix
Caroline Chew ( SGP) riding Tribiani during the Grand Prix - Team and Individual Qualifier for the Olympic Dressage Competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games held at Equestrian Park in Setagaya-ku in Tokyo in Japan between the 23rd July and 8th August 2021
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

Full-time London lawyer Caroline Chew’s Olympic dream came to an end when she was eliminated from the Tokyo Olympic dressage grand prix under the blood rule (Article 430.7.6.1 of the FEI dressage rulebook).

Her 17-year-old gelding Tribiani was midway through his test, when the judge at C – Francis Verbeek of the Netherlands – rang the bell and stepped out of the hut. The judge dabbed Tribiani’s lip with a wipe to show there was blood, and Caroline, who rides for Singapore, then left the arena at a walk.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.