The German Equestrian Federation announced today that double Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Jung has withdrawn his Olympic partner horse La Biosthetique Sam FBW(“Sam”) from the upcoming European Eventing Championships at Malmo in Sweden.
Michael’s father, Joachim Jung, made the announcement for his son. A rough translation of his statement indicates that Sam did not perform well at the training session at Warendorf last week for the long-listed horses named to Germany’s European Championship team. “As it turned out, on closer examination, Sam has slightly injured?the left hind leg and cannot be trained,” Jung said.
Sam is a 13-year-old W?rttemberg?gelding. Jung and Sam have the glorious honor of being the reigning European, World and Olympic champions. They have all but dominated the sport for the past three years.
The German Federation further reported that it expects that Sam will also not be able to complete at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (4*) in England in September.
“We obviously (don’t) want to take any chances,” Jung said. “Too bad, Sam was previously fantastic in training. “
Jung is expected to keep his place on the German team, and defend his European title won in 2011, when he and Sam led a German sweep of the medals. He will go forward on his alternate mount, the W?rttemberg gelding Halunke FBW. German coach Hans Melzer said that he was confident of Jung’s ability to defend his title on Halunke.
Other Germans preparing for the Malmo gold medal defense are Jung’s teammates, Andreas Dibowski with?FRH Butts Avedon, Ingrid Klimke with?FRH Escada JS or?Butts Abraxxas, Dirk Schrade with?Hop and Skip, Peter Thomsen with?Horseware’s Barny or?Horseware’s Cayenne and Benjamin Winter with?Ispo.
