s’
Watching Belinda Trussell and Anton’s stellar Grand Prix dressage performances in 2015, you wouldn’t guess the pair had ever faced tough times. But the reality is quite different.
Makes Canada Proud
by Kim MacMillan
hometown crowd exploded with thunderous applause and raucous cheers for Canadian team members Belinda Trussell and Anton. It was a personal best, scoring a 75.078 percent, the second highest score of the Grand Prix Special entries at the Games and a new Canadian record. Belinda and Anton, riding as the anchor pair, had clinched the team silver medal for Canada in front of family, friends and fans. Belinda beamed in her post-ride interviews and Anton looked fit and happy. Rewinding four years, the outlook for Anton had been
I
quite different. Belinda and Anton had represented Canada at the Alltech World Equestrian Games in the fall of 2010 in Kentucky; it was their first major games together. Then in 2011 they headed to Europe to work with Christilot Boylen in Germany, who Belinda had been training with since the 1990s. They did two shows in the spring and early summer of 2011, Hagen in Germany and Fritzens in Austria, then suddenly Belinda could feel something wasn’t quite right. Since nothing showed on the radiographs, she was afraid they were searching for a needle in a haystack.
t had been a wonderful Grand Prix Special test at the 2015 Pan American Games in Ontario, capped with a beautiful finish down centerline, halt and salute. The
Difficult Diagnosis As the veterinarians puzzled over Anton’s vague symptoms in Europe in 2011, Belinda knew her partner was hurting. “I knew he wasn’t right, but I didn’t know what was wrong. My first indication was the rhythm in the canter changed. Going to the right he felt heavier in his stride, but did not show any irregularity in the trot. It wasn’t an easy detection as far as lameness and it was hard for my coaches to see. I had one of the vets in Europe at the time look at him and he thought it was a bone bruise. He just said, ‘He’ll be fine, you just have to give him time. You feel that he’s a bit sore because it’s a bruise and it hurts, but he’ll be fine.’ But it just got worse and worse,” shares Belinda. They moved back to Canada and finally determined with
a CAT scan that Anton had a bone lesion. He had surgery and according to Belinda he also “had every single thing known to man done to him to try to help him.” This was all done through the fall at 2011 and still nothing seemed to help. The U.S. veterinarian Belinda was working with at the time thought that with time there was a fifty-fifty chance he might
ABOVE: Belinda and Anton at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky. It was their first major games appearance.
Warmbloods Today 29
A
n M
t
j
o
n o
o
Allen MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100