Dressage Horse, Blind in One Eye, Makes Olympic Debut

After losing an eye in a stable accident, the Swedish dressage horse Santana made an Olympic-sized recovery.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

It was one of those dressage tests a competitor would just as soon forget: Off to a good start, the horse lost it toward the end of the ride, and there went the score. The test in question might have been forgettable, except for three things: The horse is green at Grand Prix (he only debuted at this level in January); the venue was the 2012 London Olympic Games; and the horse is blind in his left eye 

His name is Santana, and he’s a black 11-year-old Hanoverian stallion owned and ridden by Minna Telde, 39, of Sweden. Telde, the mother of a 14-month-old boy, entrusted her active toddler to her own mother for a few minutes so she could tell The Horse about Santana’s journey to the Olympics.

Telde, a veteran of the 2004 Athens Olympics, has been training Santana since he was three and bought him outright as a 5-year-old. She has brought him up the levels and got him approved as a breeding stallion.

Then "three years ago, he had an accident in the box (stall) overnight," Telde said. "We don’t know what happened. It’s the same box he’s stayed in for years. He had a big scratch on the surface of the eye. It was really swelling and running. We called the vet, of course, and we took him to the hospital

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Jennifer O. Bryant is editor-at-large of the U.S. Dressage Federation’s magazine, USDF Connection. An independent writer and editor, Bryant contributes to many equestrian publications, has edited numerous books, and authored Olympic Equestrian. More information about Jennifer can be found on her site, www.jenniferbryant.net.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
297 votes · 297 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!