The thirteenth Paralympics will take place in Beijing from 6th to 17th of September 2008 and the equestrian events are scheduled to be hosted in Hong Kong under the slogan of “One World, One Dream”. The Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian Venue is located in “Sha Tin” being a 100 m x 80 m sand arena prepared to welcome 8,000 viewers.
“Equestrian” is a sport where the competitor is supposed to partner with a horse and Equestrian competitions in Paralympics consists of 3 main disciplines such as Dressage, Jumping and Eventing. Dressage, which is also referred to “equestrian ballet”, is a competition of set of movements or freestyle actions according to the music performed by the horse with a close correlation with the rider. “Jumping” is where the horse should jump over the obstacles on the way of the ride and the rider must make sure the ride is completed within the exact duration. Eventing is comprised with both Dressing and Jumping in the ride full of natural obstacles. The winner is decided according to the minimum number of penalties.
The athletes are divided in to 5 stages as Grade la, lb, 2, 3 and 4.Athletes who belong to the grade la encounter most difficult obstacles while the ones of the grade 4 face the least of obstacles. This time, Hong Kong is prepared to facilitate all the requirements with high standard horse quarantine system. The cross country competition which is a part of the Eventing in Equestrian Events is to be held at the Beas River Country Club in Sheung Shui. Moreover, four equine cooling stations have been set up in the main venue of Sha Tin in order to cool the horses after training and competitions. They are composed with many supplies of cooled water to keep horses always in good health.
Apart from that, Hong Kong provides all the facilities not only for such horse competitions, but also it is looking forward to welcoming people from all over the world with premier hospitality services along with prominent
hotels in Hong Kong. One of the best examples of such a hotel is
Cosmo Hotel that offers special packages particularly during the summer.
