Photo of Piggy and Topper by the great Nico Morgan
If Piggy French felt nervous riding with the lead in the Olympic test event on home soil, it never showed. Piggy and Topper finished the course in 5:01, 4 seconds under the optimum time, and they extended their big lead slightly. Sara Algotsson Ostholt and Mrs. Medicott moved up two places into second with Michael Jung and Clayton Fredericks picking up a few time penalties. Piggy will take a big lead into the show jumping, but the next three spots are separated by less than a rail.
[Official XC results PDF, fence-by-fence results PDF]
Here are a few notes from a great day of cross-country action. Please imagine these notes in a British accent, I know I am imagining them like that…
–The cross-country today taught us a lot about what we can expect from the London Olympics course. The hills and the turns are certainly going to be a factor, both in terms of making the time and negotiating the fences. The time was a bit easier to make than I expected, but this course twice as long will be a big challenge. If Sue Benson builds a large Olympic track, the London Olympics is not going to be a dressage competition to say the least. One key that I think a lot of the less experienced riders learned today is that the environment of a twisty track combined with big and noisy crowds backs the horses off way more than normal. The best rides of the day occurred when riders used this to their advantage and kept kicking down to the fences.
–Of the US riders, Will Faudree and Julian Stiller both had great rides. I was so impressed with how DHI Colour Candy handled this track for Will considering that the test event environment is unlike anything the horse has ever seen. I’m not ready to say that Will has yet another superstar, but so far so good for this horse’s development. Julian Stiller’s horse, Wallstreet, was very impressive as well. On the downside, Logan Rawlings picked up a stop at the water, but her horse looked good when I saw him towards the end of the course and I know Logan learned a lot of good things today about her horse. Will moved up into 12th going into the show jumping.
[Photos of the Cross-Country by Nico Morgan]
—Canada had a great day as Waylon Roberts and Kathryn Robinson both just added a few time penalties to their dressage score. Kathryn moved up 11 places into 25th and Waylon is in 16th.
–The one other North American pair, Nina Ligon and Jazz King of Thailand picked up an uncharacteristic stop. Nina got things back on track quickly and Jazz King looked better than I have ever seen him at the end of the course. Fixing things on course is a tough thing to do at any event, much less at the Olympic test event, but Nina did just that.
–In a very cool story line, Sara Algottson Ostholt of Sweden is in second and her husband, Frank Ostholt of Germany, is in 6th. Frank is riding Sir Medicott and Sara is riding Mrs. Medicott. That’s enough symmetry on the leader board to give me a headache.
-As I already mentioned, the crowd played a major role in the way the riders had to ride the course. The test event organizers gave out thousands of tickets to local Greenwich residents as well as local schools. The kids spent most of their time playing in the fields outside the galloping lanes, but when a crossing guard would blow their whistle the kids knew that a horse was coming and they would run towards the ropes. When the horse came into view, they would often start screaming and cheering–well before the horses reached the jump. And when school kids scream, it’s not that nice comforting scream of a male adult, but more of a harpy’s shriek. This caused some horses, including Logan Rawlings’ to back off the fence. This was a particularly big factor in the water complex, an obstacle that quickly became a really tough ride when the horses backed off.
–The test event was very well run today. The announcers were great, the volunteers were knowledgeable and polite, and it felt like everything was completely under control. My only question for the Olympics from an organizing perspective is that when you start packing tens of thousands of people into Greenwich Park it is going to start feeling very small. That being said, the plan is to use additional land that was not open for the test event.
–The water complex caused the most problems today. The complex rested at the lowest point on the Greenwich course and was a jump, two strides, and then a very small jump to a big drop in the water followed by a narrow jump off a turn. It would be considered an easy 2* question if it wasn’t placed at the bottom of a hill surrounded by a screaming crowd. Renan Guerreiro and his very experienced horse picked up a stop at the drop, Alberto Giugni retired after two stops at the jump before the drop, and Logan Rawlings picked up a stop at the drop. The footing in the water jump was also a bit sticky and the horses were not jumping well out of it.
–Of the 39 cross-country starters, only three riders did not finish the course, but I think that number was a bit higher than expected considering the caliber of the field. As I already mentioned, Alberto Giugni retired at the water, Lukasz Kazmierczak (type that three times fast) fell at 7A, and Sandra Auffarth of Germany fell at the corner 16 after a beautiful round up until that point. All the horses and riders were fine, which was the major goal of the day.
–I didn’t spend a lot of time in the vet box, but from what I heard the horses were pulling up pretty well with an average temperature around 103 Fahrenheit. This is to be expected because the course was only 5 minutes long, but it’s nice to hear that the horses were finishing strong.
–People were using some huge studs today. The ground was maybe a bit firm and not the least bit muddy, but it was still slick. I don’t know how to describe the ground at Greenwich–it isn’t sand but it isn’t clay and it doesn’t have the feel of plain dirt. It does not have much hold and after the first few rides word quickly filtered back to the barns to really stud up. With the big studs the ground rode fine.
—Sue Benson should get an A+ for the course design. It was very safe and not too challenging, which is exactly what we were hoping for today. My only comment for the Olympic design is that I heard one anonymous EN tipster say that if the Olympic water complex is really challenging, that environment with a much larger crowd is going to make it extremely challenging and I completely agree.
–All of the jumps will be removed from the course this evening and by tomorrow the cross-country area will be completely returned to park status. This is a herculean undertaking for the course builders and Greenwich crew, but they are doing a great job trying to reduce the impact of the test event on the local community as much as possible.
–I had a George Morris sighting and I would imagine the show jumpers will stick around to watch the action tomorrow.
—Karin Donckers was one of a few riders that I put a star next to on my start sheet for having a great ride. Karin is an incredibly hard worker and a consistently strong rider for Belgium. William, Mark, Clayton, Pippa, Piggy, and Andrew had great rides as we would expect. Clarke Johnstone had the best ride through the water of the day.
–The best helmet cover award goes to Takayuki Yumira of Japan, who had the rising sun emblazoned on the front. The best save of the day goes to Benoit Johner, which you can see in our XC recap video.
–If Piggy wins tomorrow, and I definitely expect her to considering that the horse has finished third at a CCI3* before, it will be a great story and a boost for the Olympics eventing competition.
[Pippa’s XC thoughts, Piggy’s]
The British team is also in great position to take home the test event ‘gold.’ The Belgium team continues a really impressive weekend with three good rides today. Your updated team scores:
GBR: 131.9
BEL: 154.0
NZL: 175.8
USA: 215.2
GER: 1097.7
Go eventing
