The rider Fredrik Spetz traveled down to Valencia in early February with his six horses - and left Spain on 22 February.

The idea was that the horses would be taken home by the grooms shortly after.

But that did not happen.

"Hard pressure on veterinarians"

- The week I was not here, other riders' horses became very bad, and they even had to kill some horses.

So I decided to go down again, says Spetz and continues:

- I was not here when it was at its worst.

But then you did not have the opportunity to get so many horses to the clinic.

There was a lot of pressure on the vets on site here and there were very many seriously ill horses at the facility.

That's not the case anymore.

Now several clinics around have full focus on receiving horses, which makes it calmer on the competition site.

Fredrik Spetz says that during the penultimate week in February, suspicions grew about the abortion virus (EHV-1) at the competition site.

Then the horses were in a large tent stable - and from an infection control point of view it was not optimal.

- We had all hoped that it would be faster to separate the horses.

Had they been allowed to do so, the horses would have been given separate stables more quickly.

There, the organizer may not have really been in the mood to solve it, he says and continues:

- What was difficult was that riders, grooms, veterinarians on site worked hard for it.

But unfortunately it went a little slow.

"Had but wanted, they would have solved it"

There were no resources or what do you think the reason is?

- I think if you had wanted, you would have solved it.

I dare not answer why you do not work hard for it.

- But there will be an investigation about it afterwards.

Now we need to focus on looking ahead and making the best of it.

Right now there is full focus on horses that do not have symptoms and that feel good and in a good way be able to take them home.

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Deadly horse virus worries Europe