The last month of the year is here and so it is time to review this 2021 both in general equestrian terms and in the case of Excel Supplements in particular.
When the season started back in January, equestrian competitions and events of all kinds kicked off, with a special focus on the different tours held in Spain: Sunshine Tour, Oliva Nova and Ces Valencia. These tours were attended by riders from all over the world, encouraged by good Spanish competition and the exceptional climate of the camelina country, which is the main differentiating point with any other good competition outside the Spanish territory. Riders, trainers, owners, and fans in general were looking forward to this season, especially after a very difficult 2020 marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made us stay home and abruptly interrupted sports activities and all that it entails (trade, competitions, etc.).
Just when it seemed like nothing else could happen, ‘equine COVID’ happened. We talked about this outbreak of equine rhinopneumonitis a few months ago in this blog. Rhinopneumonitis has been around for years among the equine population, but this year it broke out in a disproportionate way after some infected horses from France came down to Ces Valencia. True to its name, the ‘equine COVID’ evolved in a similar way to this disease. Horses were affected by two different variants: 1 and 4. One affected the central nervous system and caused serious neurological problems, and the other displayed symptoms similar to a simple cold. It has not been scientifically proven why, but the mortality rate was much higher in mares.
Fortunately, thanks to veterinarians, horse isolation and the general goodwill of the worldwide equestrian community, the competition could be resumed in April.
The Tokyo Olympics was the key date for the summer. They should have been held in 2020 but it was not possible due to the coronavirus pandemic. And once again the pandemic comes under the spotlight. These Olympic Games were an atypical and unprecedented event due to the COVID-19 situation in Japan: no public, no freedom of movement within the Olympic village, and a thousand controls to stop the spread of the virus and prevent infections. The equestrian competition format also generated controversy, as they were held under new rules that greatly reduced the participation of many duos. Finalists in each category were decided by a single scoring event, so there were horses that travelled to Japan to compete only one day, betting everything on a single participation.
As for us, we continue to be the Spanish national producer based on sustainable cultivation that continues growing a bit every day, while being committed to competition, with camelina oil as its star ingredient, with several ‘sponsored’ riders in different disciplines, which has done social work sponsoring horses for the Centauro Quirón shelter and has sponsored important competitions such as one of the main CSN5* of Hípica de Toledo last November.
For 2022, we hope to continue being a key axis between riders and horses, promoting animal welfare first and foremost.
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