I want to extend a big EN "get well soon" to our good friend Clayton Fredericks. Clayton was involved in a fall on the Saumur CCI3* cross-country today. The good news is that Clayton's team is reporting that even though Clayton has been hospitalized, he "is in no danger." Team Fredericks has released the following on their website:
"We have spoken to Lucinda, who is returning from Little Downham and is monitoring the situation closely. Clayton is being moved to another hospital at Angers and will stay there overnight for observation but is in no danger . The details around the fall are unclear but it appears Lottie may have stepped on him or grazed him with her knee.
Clayton has been involved in a fall on the cross-country course at Saumur. He was riding Be My Guest (Lottie) when the accident happened. Bystanders have reported it was a serious fall but Clayton is reportedly OK. He was moved to hospital by ambulance after 30 minutes and is undergoing tests. Lottie is OK too, apparently. We will post more as we hear; meanwhile there has been discussion from people at the event on our Facebook page." [Team Fredericks Website]
Clayton and Lucina have been wonderful members of the eventing community all over the world and it was a pleasure to see Clayton most recently at the 2011 USEA Convention, where he delivered a fantastic keynote address. For the lasted on Clayton, follow @TeamFredericks on Twitter.
After cross-country, Australia has five riders in the top six on the Saumur CCI*** leaderboard. Christopher Burton sits first and second on Holstein Park Leilani (49.8) and Haruzac (52.8). Fellow countryman Bill Levitt sits 4th and 5th with his two, followed by Paul Tapner on Kilronan in 6th. France managed to split the Aussie domination with Donatien Schauly MDL on Pivoine des Touches claiming third place, and Fabrice Lucas in 7th. New Zealanders Mark Todd and Caroline Powell are notably in the top 10, rounded out with Sam Watson.
The rainy weather can probably be blamed for much of the trouble on course, making the footing very deep and the time impossible to make. Fences 15 and 25 caused most of the trouble; 15 a/b appeared to be angled brushes, while 25abc was a water combination with a 3-stride turn to a skinny that caught out several (including overnight leader Laura Collett and Rayef). USA's Tiana Coudray suffered a runout at 15b, but finished well most of the way and sits in 16th place.
Abbie linked to the free live video feed from the Saumur CCI3* in France last night, but I think it deserves its own post. US Olympic hopefuls Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister start out on course in just a few minutes. The USA's Jules Stiller is riding two horses at Saumur. She was eliminated earlier today for three refusals on Enjoy Me and is scheduled to ride Chapel Amble at 11:08 am ET. Canada's Lindsay Pearce had a great ride with Saniki this morning, picking up no jumping and just 14.4 time faults to move up the leaderboard. Lindsay rides Candar van het Neerveld around 11:30.
There was a significant hold on the course today after Clayton Fredericks took a fall on Be My Guest. Early word from Saumur was that the horse is ok and Clayton might have been stepped on--we're wishing the best to Clayton and hopefully he will be able to ride his 3rd placed horse later today. The technical Saumur course has been riding really tough with no double-clears so far.
It's an exciting day of eventing with a bunch of great events here in North America and Saumur in France. As always, stay tuned to EN for the latest eventing news and ridiculousness. Go eventing. ---- Update 10:35 am -- Tiana and Finn finished the course provisionally with one runout at 15b and 13 time penalties.
Update 10:52 -- Notably for British high performance, Laura Collett and Rayeff were eliminated when Laura fell at her second attempt at #25.
Update 11:45 -- Julian Stiller and Chapel Amble were eliminated. Lindsay Pearce and Candar van het Neerveld finished with 20 jumping and 46 time.
Good Morning EN! Today I have the honor of telling you all to break out the champagne, because last night at an Olympic fundraiser Tik Maynard and Sinead Halpin formally announced that they are engaged! Sinead and Tik have been dating for several years and got engaged earlier this week on vacation in the Bahamas. They are a wonderful match and everyone at EN is so proud and overjoyed for the both of them. Now we just have to get John to stop tearing up long enough do to a live blog of the wedding. Big congrats to Sinead and Tik! Watch the video below to hear Tik's announcement.
This is an exciting morning, as the riders at Samur head out onto the cross country course at 10am, which equates to 4am EST with the six-hour time difference. Even more exciting is that there is a live feed of the cross country that can be accessed from the Samur home page. Luckily for US viewers, the CIC** will ride first, and the first CCI*** pair, Jules Stiller and Enjoy Me, doesn't leave the start box until 2pm, or 8am EST. US rider Tiana Coudray, who is sitting in second place after dressage, goes at 3:48 (9:48 EST) and Jules goes on her second ride, Chaple Amble, at 5:08 (11:08 EST). A link to a PDF of cross country times can be found on official leader board. [Dressage Results]
There are a lot of events happening at home this weekend: good luck to all riders, whether at home or abroad!
Something about those blazing fractions—among the fastest in Kentucky Derby history—has swayed all but the lionhearted from chancing Pimlico: Twenty gates swung in Kentucky, but only 11 will open in Baltimore, marking the smallest Preakness field since 2007.
Which means that Bodemeister, the Preakness morning line favorite and Derby frontrunner responsible for setting those fractions, only to be run down by 1 1/2 lengths at the wire, won’t have early speed like Trinniberg and Hansen on his heels tomorrow. And if his 9 1/2 length victory in the Arkansas Derby’s any indication, the prospect of Bodemeister heading into the stretch with some gas in the tank could be a sight to behold.
“He was glorious in defeat,” Bodemeister’s trainer, Bob Baffert, told the New York Times of his Derby finish. “It was the only time I’ve run second where I’ve been happy, because he ran his race.”
But don’t discount his rival, Derby-winning second favorite I’ll Have Another, this year’s sole hope for a Triple Crown sweep—which hasn’t been done in over three decades, since Affirmed in 1978. I’ll Have Another shipped to Pimlico just two days after the Derby, and trainer Doug O’Neill likes what he’s been seeing:
Four additional Derby starters are on the card (Creative Cause, Daddy Nose Best, Optimizer and Went the Day Well) along with five newcomers (Ray Paulick has been doing some excellent video profiles here).
Check out the full line-up here, then head over to the Blood-Horse to see how your predictions stack up.
After a silver medal at WEG 2010 and the individual gold medal and team silver at the Pan American Games last year, Canada has made a transition into an international eventing force. With such a transition comes the pressure of expectations. Canada's performance at the London Olympics will be determined by their ability to handle that pressure with the same intensity, focus, and poise of the previous two years.
As with the US high performance squad, all of the Canadian Olympic hopefuls will be competing at Bromont June 7th-10th. From what I hear, most of the Canadians will do the CIC3* and anyone not qualified will do the CCI3*, but of course the final decision will be based on what Canadian coach David O'Connor, the riders, and the selectors think will be best for the horses.
The Canadians will make their short list announcement shortly after Bromont and send approximately 7 horses to England for the lead up to the Olympics.
Call me captain obvious, but four of Canada's five Olympic spots are in all likelihood going to Canada's WEG 2010 horses that are still on the path to the Olympics. These horses all produced clutch performances at the WEGs and they all performed well at Jersey Fresh last weekend. There's no reason to overthink these picks--it's bubble wrap time. In no particular order:
Jessica Phoenix and Exponential Hawley Bennett and Gin N' Juice Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master Selena O'Hanlon and Colombo
Assuming that these four horses stay sound, Canada will have a great shot at a medal in London. Canada enjoyed a nearly perfect performance at a perfect venue for them at the WEGs. The setting for the London Olympics is less ideal, requiring a flight overseas and cross-country over unfamiliar terrain, but the pairs have had two more years to gain invaluable experience together. Canada will perhaps be one of the only nations at the Olympics with the luxury of 4 returning WEG pairs on their Olympic roster.
In contrast to the first four spots, selection for that tantalizing 5th team spot is wide open. The Canadian selectors have the choice of picking either a more experienced pair that will give them a great chance for a solid clean score (think Kilrodan Abbott) or investing international experience in one of the country's rising stars. Here are the 7 Canadian pairs that I think have the best shot to make the team after the four aforementioned veterans, in no particular order:
Jessica Hampf and High Society Peter Barry and Kilrodan Abbott Lindsay Pearce and Saniki or Candar Van Het Neerveld Diana Burnett and Shigatzi Shandiss Weworia and Rockfield Grant Juan Michele Mueller and Amistad
Lindsay Pearce is based in the UK and was kind enough to blog for EN about her experiences of moving to England. I'm hoping that Lindsay's distance from Canada won't hurt her chances in the eyes of selectors and perhaps already being based in England will give her a good shot at being short listed. Lindsay is competing at Saumur this weekend along with US Olympic hopefuls Jules Stiller and Tiana Coudray, who is placed a very impressive second with Ringwood Magister after the dressage. Go Team Canada.
The next time you hear from Kate she will have her very own EN author account and all of the power and responsibility that comes from such fine credentials. In what can only be proof that she deserves such a responsibility, Kate has complied with true EN tradition by writing a post that has mostly nothing to do with eventing. For more from Kate, check out her website. Welcome Kate and thank you for reading. ----
From Kate Samuels:
We all have our types, whether it is for dating or for riding a horse. Clearly for both, choosing the right type can make a big difference in how nice the experience is for both parties. Some of the best advice I have ever imparted to friends is this: just because that is a beautiful/athletic/successful/amazing horse, does not mean it is the horse for YOU. More important than the dazzling floaty trot of that chestnut is the fact that you might not be comfortable with that much movement and power. It’s wonderful to buy a horse that can jump the moon and tends to overjump by about three feet every time, but can you stay on it? For any horse enthusiast knows, the one that matches you perfectly in style and tact will always be more successful with you in the tack than anything else. It is positively no fun to ride a horse that has opposing values to your riding style.
Having said that, here’s my disclaimer. I am choosing a rather controversial video to share with you today, because I think it is really interesting from a scientific standpoint. I am not trying to pick sides, or comment on one rider being “better” than the other, but I find it extremely intriguing to watch the technical breakdown of riding styles and the effect upon their mounts. I hope that you can view this as a learning experience, and not one that will seem unfair or biased.
This video, “The Taming of Totilas”, somehow popped into my internet browser a few weeks ago. It is quite long (~1 hour), but I’ve slowly chipped away and watched the whole thing. These two gentlemen have collected many videos of both Edward Gal and Mattias Rath, and show them in a way that reveals some of the more subtle characteristics of both riders. After seeing Totilas at the WEG 2010 myself, I was about as hooked as one could possibly be about a dressage horse. The amazing quality about this horse was his ability to capture the awe of riders across disciplines, and obviously his phenomenal performances at a relatively young age. After the WEG, Edward Gal lost the ride to a younger and less experienced Matthias Rath, through a highly publicized, enormously pricey sale to sport horse breeder Paul Schockemole. Since then, the horse world has seen less and less of Totilas, and this has left many of us wondering, where is he? What happened to Totilas?
This video helps to answer your questions by revealing some of the struggles that Rath has experienced with attempting to continue with the career of this phenomenal athlete. Although I admire Totilas tremendously, I am not sure that I would want to be saddled with the responsibility of maintaining the reputation of such a rock star of the horse world.
Hopefully, as you watch this, you will start to see the delicate variations that define one rider from another. I found myself analyzing fellow riders at shows more carefully, trying to find out what made each “good” rider different from the next “good” rider. I hope this starts a positive and beneficial conversation about technical qualities of both horse and rider, and how they can be combined for brilliance, or slightly miss each other by way of differing styles. Enjoy!
American Julian Stiller is in 20th with Enjoy Me (50.8) and tied for 37th with Chapel Amble (58.0). Canadian Lindsay Pearce and Saniki are 51st with a 71.4.
About ten or eleven horses are left to complete dressage in the CCI***. The leaderboard has changed a bit since yesterday, and we can wave our American flag proudly as Tiana Coudray currently sits in second place with a 41.4. Great Britain's eventing dressage superstar Laura Collett and Rayef are solidly in the lead with a 38, while fellow Brit Zara Phillips is in third on Lord Lauries with 45.6.
American Jules Stiller has fallen to 11th with yesterday's ride on Enjoy Me (50.8), but she still has to ride Chapel Amble within the hour.
We'll post the full Top-10 scores when dressage has concluded. So far, 40 horses have competed and 30 of them have scored under 60 penalties (greater than 60% in dressage-speak), that's pretty impressive. Check out the live scores here.
