Retiring Without Respect: Degas 12 Is Done

The Push For Tokyo 2021

The 2021 season of the Global Dressage Festival has kicked off a do-over season of Olympic qualifiers. Jill Irving and Degas 12 were one of the top Canadian combinations to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo. Unfortunately due to Covid-19, the Olympics did not happen, and for a few equestrians that means that there is an end to their dream of competing there.

When Jill Irving and Degas 12 entered the ring yesterday, I barely looked up from updating the Dressage Hub website. Degas 12 has 121 Grand Prix dressage starts and 11 Grand Prix dressage wins with Jill Irving. This combination has always proved to be a steady 68-70% at the horse show, but yesterday was different.

At the first halt, you could see something was wrong with Degas 12. He broke into the canter in the first extended trot, an uncommon mistake for a horse this seasoned. After that, it all went downhill. Degas 12 scored a generous 63% and the most disastrous score this combination has ever seen.

Edited To Add: Many people are asking why the judges did not ring the horse out. Here is the list of the judges for the ride:

E: Christoff Umbach (France) H: Agnieszka Majewska C: Debbie Rodriguez (USA) M: Janet Foy (USA) B: Cesar Torrente (Columbia)

You can watch the ride here:

Developing A Plan B

Jill Irving has a second horse in the Grand Prix named Arthur. So why take the 19-year-old Degas 12 down centerline lame and end his career in complete humiliation?

Moving the Tokyo Olympics back a year has hurt a few riders including Dressage Hub Favorite Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K who will also be 19 this year.

Making The Right Choice

In March of 2020 when the Olympics were rescheduled, Euro Dressage did an article on Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K, as well as a few of the other riders who would have to make other plans for the road to 2021.

Judy’s horse is not the only senior equine athlete with Tokyo 2020 marked on the calendar. Danish Cathrine Dufour’s most experienced horse is the 17-year old Atterupgaards Cassidy, who would be 18 in 2021. Dufour has already expressed that she will be taking her younger horse, Bohemiam, to Tokyo because he will be able to cope better with the heat. 

Spanish Beatriz Ferrer-Salat has been long-listed by the Spanish Equestrian federation with her now 19-year old Westfalian Delgado. Ferrer has not yet announced a retirement date for Delgado (by De Niro x Weltmeyer) and it was unsure whether she was actually opting to compete Delgado  in the Spanish team qualifiers this year. The Spanish Olympian injured herself severely in a riding accident in February and will take a long time to recover from two pelvic fractures.

Pushing The Limits

Knowing when to retire your horse and make the right choice for them is part of the professionalism of the sport. In 2018, Dressage Hub posted a video of another Canadian Olympian, Jaqueline Brooks, who rode her London Olympic mount D’Niro down centerline at the age of 19 years old. With 161 starts and 11 Grand Prix wins you could see him being pushed to his limits and going downhill in the dressage ring.

That video became a hot topic here on Dressage Hub called Retiring Without Respect: DNiro’s last piaffe.

You can watch it here:

Retiring With Respect

While Grand Prix dressage horses are treated like kings and queens in the stable it seems that the Canadian contingent of riders, coached by Ashley Holzer need to get every last ounce of Grand Prix out of them before they put them out to pasture.

So the question remains, when is the right time? How do you retire a horse with respect?