The most exciting jog that i have ever witnessed just finished–let’s jump right into it.  By now, most people have heard that Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan were withdrawn right before the jog on Wednesday due to cellulitis that the US team vets have been battling for a couple of days.  But the short version is that Karen or Becky will get bumped up to the team and the US will move forward with 4 team riders and one individual rider.  I’ll have an entire post on this in a few minutes, but here is how the rest of the jog played out.

The jog crowd was smaller than expected but the mood was tense and that combined with the cool morning air made for fresh horses.   A combination of the early 9:00am jog time which was hardly publicized, and the general admission fee normally absent on Rolex Wednesdays probably combined to keep many eventing fans waiting to come until Thursday.

Including Tipperary Liadhnan, five pairs from the definite entries list are not moving on to the dressage.  The last pair of the day, Escipion de Mendivil and Azteca (MEX) were held and spun on re-inspection.  Lionel Guyon and Metisse de Lalou (FRA) did not present, reportedly do to a recent colic.  Ronald Zabala and Mr. Wiseguy of Ecuador also did not present at the jog.  Elizabeth Power and Kilpatrick River (IRL) did not present, but we reported that they had been were withdrawn several days ago due to an injury last week.  Lukasz Kazmierczak and Ostler of Poland and Duarte Seabra and Fernhill Gloster Rebel of Portugal were held but passed on re-inspection.  

Cool Mountain was totally cool for the gound jury–the calmest horse at the jog

Boyd Martin’s horse Neville Bardos was extremely fresh and was asked to re-jog.  Several other pairs, including Jose Ortelli and Jos Aladar, were asked to re-jog mostly due to the horses being so excited that they did not give the ground jury enough straight trot steps the first time down.

I’m not going out on a limb by saying that the Canadians don’t have much of a reputation for their jog outfits at the last few international competitions–at least not a positive reputation.  But this time team Canada consulted their young fashion savvy riders and they hit a home run this year.  In the above photo, Canadian chef Graeme Thom and team vet Dr. Ober showed the Canadian outfits also worn by the riders.

I’m still not sure how I feel about the US outfits.  At first I hated them, but I am starting to like them as I get used to the cowboy hats, which every US rider wore at the jog.  I think they should make the grooms and riders wear the cowboy hats all the time.

Mark Todd has had a bit of a hitch in his giddy-up, as we say here in Kentucky, walking around the Kentucky Horse Park this week.  Andrew Nicholson jogged Mark’s horse, Grass Valley, for him but I can’t imagine that anything could stop Mark Todd from riding this weekend.

With five horses not moving on from the Wednesday jog, the WEG field of 85 entrants was reduced to 80 and the field of 23 nations was reduced to 21.  The dressage starts at 9am on Thursday.  Go eventing.