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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Olympic News - E-mails From Debbie McDonald

US Olympic Bound Horses Begin Quarantine in Aachen

Today we started our first day of quarantine (Thursday July 17). What we all thought it would be a night mare, but ended up not being so bad! Peden who is basically in charge of this and our transport arrangements seem to have things very much under control. To get the horses into the quarantine stable the horses first were given a number, then went into a vet clinic where blood was drawn. They then went into another room where they did a nose swap, then into another room where they were sprayed down with some type of insecticide?

You then went out and waited to see if the results came back negative and then were given another number to get into the stables. Since we were already stabled there we had the choice of going in later which gave us time to ride in the morning and get organized.

It worked great, by the time we were finished most of the horses had arrived and were finished with the tests. We all hung out and organized the barn again, and then watched as a few of the teams came out to ride. All I can say is, that I am proud to be an American!

The weather is rain and more rain. It is not very warm, not what you would hope for before for Hong Kong? But we still have two weeks so all we can do is hope that it warms up. I will give you another update in a few days but that it pretty much it for now?

Miss everyone!
Love Deb