EVENTING NATION

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I met Bill Levett for the first time in 2011 in a bar in Soho, London, during the Olympic test event.  The story of that evening is too long for this post, but I'll just say that all the rumors are true -- Bill struck me as a complete class act.  He was extremely nice, and very humble, and I've rooted for him ever since.  I was thus thrilled to see Bill take home the Saumur trophy for Australia today aboard Shannondale Titan.  Host nation France had to settle for second and third with Nicolas Touzaint and Arnaud Boiteau.

Photo via USEF HP

Team USA continued their momentum from Badminton and took another step towards being competitive internationally.  46 horses started the Saumur CCI3* and Team USA finished the weekend with two pairs in the top 8.  Only three countries -- France, New Zealand, and Great Britain finished three or more pairs above the USA's top three pairs and both France and Great Britain had more starters than the US.

Will and Andromaque had a fantastic comeback weekend.  I've been one of Missy's biggest fans for a long time and I can't wait to see what Will and this mare can do as they make a charge for the WEG team.  In my opinion, Missy is built for Pierre Michilet courses and I think we saw that play out this weekend.

Marilyn is based in Europe for the summer and it's so-far-so-good with a brilliant weekend at Saumur aboard RF Smoke On The Water.  I was surprised to see the pair accrue two rails today and I know Marilyn will surely correct that for the next event.  Without those jumping faults this pair would have finished in the top 4.

Buck and Hannah didn't have the weekend that they were hoping for, but I know that they both learned a lot about their horses and hopefully they feel one step closer to coming back to France in 2014.  You could say that the final hypothetical "team" score for the US isn't great because it does include a stop, but I look at this weekend as a clear indicator that our best CCI3* pairs can compete with the best in Europe.  That being said, we still surely don't have nearly as many top CCI3* pairs as the top European nations, and that needs to keep improving.

[Full Saumur Results]

Great Job USA at Saumur! 2 in the top 10 we are getting there...keep that the norm & it won't take USA long to be winning #road2thepodium

— sinead halpin(@sinead_c_Halpin) May 26, 2013

Go eventing.

The US Eventing Team for the championship CCI3* in Aachen on June 27-29th was announced on Tuesday eventing.  The selection pattern is mercifully simple -- the two highest placed US horses at Rolex who applied for the Aachen trip and the two highest placed US horses at Badminton were selected for Aachen.  I don't know the full list of pairs who applied for Aachen, but I do know that Lynn Symansky and Donner (5th at Rolex) did not apply, and it's important to note that this was very much an application event--you had to apply to go to get selected.

The Aachen team:

Buck and BallynoeCastle

Will Faudree and Pawlow

Clark Montgomery and Universe

Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister

Reserves:

Marilyn Little and RF Smoke On The Water

Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen

I take two main points away from the selection:

1) The US is sending our best competing 4* pairs at this moment to Aachen.  I know US coach David O'Connor wants to make a statement at the international competitions this year, and this team is sending our best of the best right now to go and try to win.

2) The team appears to have been selected largely on the merit of latest 4* results.  My guess is that we'll see more and more of a correlation between selection and competition performance as the new selection system is used more and more.  It's hard for any pair to gripe about not being selected when it's so clear that achievement at the biggest events of the spring led to selection.

Clark's selection as a reserve with Glenny make sense because Loughan Glen will be the best US horse based in Europe who is not already selected to the Aachen team.  Marilyn and RF Smoke On The Water have already received the Saumur competition grant and nothing about tonight's announcement changes that.

Go eventing.

When I asked friends for advice on venturing to England — something I've never done before until this weekend — they essentially told me to pack every warm and waterproof piece of clothing I own. Well, considering how sunburned I am right now, I'd say I packed the wrong wardrobe entirely. No matter — I'll be bathing in sunscreen tomorrow before the trot up at 8:30 a.m. local time to bring you a full report on the pairs we'll see in show jumping tomorrow. In the meantime, I've finally managed to get the video of the press conference following cross country to upload. Unfortunately, the audio is a bit hard to hear — as people were boozing on the other side of the press tent — so feel free to follow along with the following very accurately transcribed subtitles:

Peter (the wonderful press conference facilitator): "Michael — you're essentially here this weekend to dash the Grand Slam dreams of Andrew Nicholson and William Fox-Pitt, yes?"

Michael: "Most people don't know this, but Sam is a unicorn, and we actually fly slightly above the ground on the cross-country course, which really saves him from tiring around tough tracks like Badminton."

Peter: "So you're saying the horse can become completely airborne?"

Michael: "Yes, it's a new type of sport horse we're breeding in Germany specifically for eventing. It's really come in handy on four-star tracks like this one."

Reporter: "Michael, were there any surprises for you on course or places where you thought Sam's magical unicorn dust would prevent him from getting around?"

Michael: "No, Sam actually has an endless supply of unicorn dust."

Reporter: "Were you surprised that you didn't take a swim at The Lake?"

Michael: "Could you please repeat the question?"

Reporter: "How did Sam manage to scramble through the brushes at The Lake?"

Miichael: "Like I said before, Sam's unicorn dust gives him the ability to leap tall brushes in a single bound. I just sprinkle on extra when needed."

Peter: "Now to Jock Paget. How did Clifton Promise cope with the heat wave that seemed to hit South Gloucestershire at approximately 3 p.m. local time?"

Jock: "The Kiwi horses are too focused on the job at hand to worry about things like 'heat' and 'sunshine' in England, so he went quite well."

Peter: "What parts of the course rode trickier than you expected?"

Jock: "I thought The Lake was quite tricky, as we saw with Michael Jung's horse. It's a good thing they had that unicorn dust to get them around safely."

Reporter: "Mark Todd more or less described the course as a glorified three-star. Can you comment on that in a way that won't insult the designer, organizers and everyone involved with the event?"

Jock: "I'd prefer not to answer that question?"

William and Michael: "You REALLY shouldn't answer this."

Peter: "To repeat the question, Mark Todd said he thought it was more of a three-star course. Please don't answer this question."

Jock: "The footing was really good, and Michael dropped a bit of unicorn dust in the morning with Leopin FST, so that really helped the rest of us."

Peter: "Now to William Fox-Pitt. Remember how you had a runout with Oslo? How did that change your ride with Parklane Hawk in the afternoon?"

William: "Well, I'm trying to win $350,000 this weekend, so I figured I should try not to have a runout with Parklane Hawk. We kicked on and I made it home double clear despite the fact that I smashed my finger into smithereens at Rolex last weekend."

Peter: "It's a good thing you had that first trip with Oslo so you didn't make the same mistakes with the second horse."

William: "Yes, I do believe you're right."

Reporter: "Did you mean to take the longer route when you screwed up on course with Parklane Hawk?"

William: "Yes, that was 100-percent intentional on my part."

Peter: "The obvious question for William is how he feels about the two men sitting to his right trying to ruin his chances to take home $350,000."

William: "I feel great about it. Who needs $350,000 anyways? May the best man win, and I hope Michael's unicorn dust carries him to the victory tomorrow."

Go eventing.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Kennedy, Crows Toes Photography

You wouldn't know it to meet me, but I spend an inordinate amount of time in my own head, thinking, re-thinking, and mostly over-thinking just about everything. I'm an over-analyzer, and it is only sometimes to my own benefit. I see the problem in students and other riders, and I intellectually understand that their brain is getting in the way of their ability to feel what they need to do, but that doesn't stop it from happening to me at inopportune times. This affects me the worst in lessons, when one mistake can lead to another, and then I start picking for every distance and god bless my horses for putting up with it.

The other time I really feel on edge with my hamster-wheel brain is when I'm moving up a level at a competition. Have I prepared my horse enough? Have I trained for the new questions asked on the cross country? Does he/she have the requisite strength to complete the new tricks required  in the dressage? Did I practice enough grids to make sure that he/she can handle that one jump in show jumping that I inevitably blow the distance on? I think that my consumption of Tums leading up to a new competition would rival that of a ninety-year-old man who's been eating fried food his whole life.

This weekend, I moved up a level with both of my horses, and the brain was going full-tilt. My big horse, Nyls, was moving back up to Advanced for the first time this year, and for the first time since his injury last spring. My younger horse, Ella, was going to do her first Training event. Their situations were completely different, but equally stressful. I knew that Nyls could complete the necessary tasks, after all, he has done it before a few times, but what about now? Did I have his fitness correct? Had I jumped him enough so that the increase in size wouldn't stress his body too much? Was he going to remember how to do flying changes, and not FLYING changes? Was the increased effort going to bother his old injury? With the mare, was she going to jump straight into water? Was she going to be able to do a reasonable medium trot? Would the show jumping, held the day after cross country, unravel her completely?

Photo generously taken by Christine Lafreniere

In my jump lessons this spring, Jan discovered that I have a tendency to over-prepare for my obstacles and look for my distance waaaaaay too early, and thus make myself completely blow it. I have to force myself to look away from the jump until I'm five to six strides out, or else I will be my own worst enemy. This is exactly like that. I have to force myself to stop thinking about every possibility, and look away until I'm closer to the destination. Instead of worrying about my test or obsessing over how I'm going to ride a combination, I give the thoughts their due time, and then I make myself listen to audiobooks and distract my brain with stories.

Once I'm actually on the horse, I can mostly stop the whirring noise of my overactive brain. There are still minute moments, when I'm on course, and I've got an especially big jump coming, and I think, "What if I totally miss to that, and I finally ruin this amazing horse that has taken care of my ignorant butt all these years??!!" As the years have gone by, I've gotten a little more adept at seeing that worry coming, and cutting it off at the pass. That annoying voice that says you can't find a distance, you can't hold your balance, you'll probably miss your line in this combination, it never really goes away totally, but I've realized that I have to tell it to shut up, and with distinction. When it comes down to it, you have to stop thinking, and just do it already. 

It doesn't matter if you're running Advanced or you're running Beginner Novice, there will always be a certain amount of....uncertainty. The end of this weekend didn't signify the end of my busy brain, and although it was a successful one, it certainly left me with things to improve upon for both horses. I satisfy myself for a few days with the knowledge that both of them tried super hard to behave, and I had a brilliant cross country at each level. I was just as pleased with my Training mare as I was to return to Advanced, and I have to give myself a pat on the back for preparing both horses from the ground up. I think that part of the worry and over-analyzing comes from being a true blue Eventer, as we are never fully satisfied with where we are, and are on a never ending quest for improvement for both ourselves and our horses. And thusly, I both hold disdain for this tendency of mine, but I also acknowledge it's position as an enduring force that pushes me forward towards bigger and better things, and towards betterment on all levels.

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November and December are slow times around the EN/HN compound.  The chinchillas spend most of their time impersonating hibernating bears as the writers desperately search for something--anything--to write about for your reading pleasure.  The FEI occasionally obliges us all with complete incompetence, but even that has been resolved.  Time slows down and we have an opportunity to chase down tid-bits that were lost in the pandemonium of three-day season.  Today I received a quick email confirmation of a story that we heard about last month.  At the time, it was one of those things that wasn't exactly secret but that no one wanted to talk about.  When I got the email today, I thought the story was too old and perhaps a little too trivial for EN, so I sent out a quick tweet about it from my account.  The story quickly picked up some momentum, so here we are.

A source confirmed that Doug Payne's former ride Running Order has been sold to connections of William Fox-Pitt.  That's all I have!  We also know that Doug spent over four years developing Running Order into an established international horse, that Doug sought to syndicate Running Order this summer with considerable success, and that the syndicate was unable to purchase Running Order due to "unforeseen circumstances."   Those unforeseen circumstances are clouded in mystery, but there are rumors of flip-flopping from former ownership and possible involvement by the former US coach.  Doug is too classy to comment on any of it (I tried), and he's focusing on moving forward with his program and his growing string of excellent horses.   As an aside, Stone Hill Farm is still the registered owner, according to Running Order's FEI page, but these things often take a while to update.  If you know anything more about the situation, drop us a line at tips@eventingnation.com.

The good news for Running Order is that he will be of course in excellent hands in William's program as he moves from one of the best riders in the US to one of the best riders in the world.  We wish Running Order and all involved the very best moving forward.  Go eventing.