Two white horses in the course caused a stir just a few hours before the start of the European Championships in Milan.
The two plastic animals were installed as part of an obstacle in the time competition on Wednesday and caused trouble for some show jumpers.
The world equestrian association FEI initially let the artificial horses move about a meter away from the obstacle, but that wasn’t enough. After lengthy discussions, the two horses were finally completely dismantled and carried away.
“That doesn’t work”
“That’s not possible, it distracts the horses,” national trainer Otto Becker complained: “It can be difficult, especially with stallions.” The German coach and several colleagues campaigned for the dismantling of the plastic animals. They disappeared almost two hours before the start of the first special stage.
“It’s just unfair,” Christian Kukuk complained. The European Championship individual starter from Riesenbeck had feared that his stallion Mumbai would keep an eye on the plastic animals from the start. Mumbai is “not really peppy,” explained Kukuk, but through the use of breeding he knows such dummies and is distracted by them on the course.
