Marilyn Little and Mr. Medicott are tied for sixth in the CIC2*.
Mr. Medicott jumped a beautiful clear round in the CIC** this afternoon at The Fork with Marilyn Little at his first event back since the London Olympics last summer. At the press conference, where Marilyn was chatting about her 2nd placed 3* horse RF Smoke On The Water, she also addressed this popular horse’s future. “The plan is to do the Ocala CCI** very slowly. It’s great that the FEI has the qualification system that they do because it really does force you to have that getting to know you period, but it is unfortunate for a horse that’s at his stage in his career that he has to have those extra runs. But it is what it is, so I’m happy to have this time. We’ll go to Ocala and we’ll go very slow. If that goes well, we’ll go to Jersey Fresh and do the CIC*** and then maybe to the CCI*** at Strezegom in Poland. That would be his spring CCI, and then we’ll see where we are for the Fall. We need to get a spring CCI*** so he can go to a four star in the fall, and you get to June and you’re pretty limited, so it’s a pretty big push to do it. So that’s the reason we’ll go slow next week (at Ocala) and slow at Jersey.”
As for long term plans: “He’s owned by the Mr. Medicott Syndicate, and Karen is the manager for the syndicate, and as long as I’m asked to ride him … Karen is riding again; she’s jumping. She’s doing really really well but whether she wants to come back to eventing? She’s gone to a lot of Olympics; she’s got a lot of accolades. If she wants to start doing the Grand Prix show jumping, I think she has a lot of people who would really support that — and what a neat thing to see an eventer go into the show jumping world. She’s got a great eye and a great feel and horses really jump well for her, so there’s no reason she couldn’t be a Grand Prix rider next year. It’s just a matter of having the horse.
Speaking of horses, Marilyn said that Mr. Medicott “was really excited to back at the party today! I knew I was in trouble when I saw him dragging two people, one on either side of him. He looked larger than life out there, and he’s definitely feeling larger than life. Tomorrow cross country will be about letting him gallop on between the jumps but really he’s got to give it up and come back a little because the cross country in London was just go go go, and I know he’s going to be thinking about that — plus the added adrenalin of being back in the game, and I’d like it to be a really positive experience. Basically, it’s just a pleasure to ride him and to be asked to do it, but there’s a lot of responsibility that comes along with it. I’m plenty nervous about it. I think I get along pretty well with him, or rather I would know if I didn’t! He’s different right now because he’s had a long time off, so I’m not getting to know him as a horse who’s been in the sport a long time. He’s been on break now since August, and that’s a long time. I got to get him fit in Wellington and got to know him in ‘my arena’ — the show-jumping field — and the results down there were not great; but to be fair, it was 1 meter 30. They were flat cups; it’s just a totally different atmosphere, so it doesn’t necessarily match. I came here and I was pleased with his round. He was careful; he was sharp. He was thinking and, even as fresh as he was, that’s not the right bit for me in the show jumping. That’s just a personal preference, so I’ll go back to the drawing board, and tomorrow I’ll ride him in a snaffle with a crescent noseband, which I jumped him in at Wellington. We know each other in that; it’s relatively innocuous.”
Smoke on the Water jumped a lovely clear in the CIC*** to move up to 2nd place overnight, and Marilyn talked about the new format and how it might affect the horses and their training. “Smoke is only 8 years old, and he’s changing so fast, so it’s hard to say what suits him. Every event I get to know him a little bit more. I’ve been learning over the past year how to ride a jumper on the third day, so I’m a lot more at home with that format. Being young and having jumped a lot of strong cross-country courses where you do get to the bottom of them more when they’re younger than when they’re older, it’s definitely an advantage to be in this format, but I’m a little bit concerned about then going into a three day and having to go back to the old format. I hope we don’t get caught.”
RF Demeter, who’s headed to Rolex, jumped a lovely clear. “I think if they’re going to have it in this format, it’s very important that the cups be quite flat because if the horses are rattling the rails on a Saturday show jumping and they’re not falling, on Sunday you have to figure they’re not going to jump quite as well. So if they’re rattling them today (Saturday) and they’re staying up … I think they should be a little bit more technical and flatter cups if it’s this format. Otherwise, we could really get caught when we go over to Europe or go to Rolex. It happened to me last year at Rolex. But I think it’s easier on the horses long term. You’re darned if you do and darned if you don’t! I think we’ll have a better idea long term how it works.”
Advanced cross country starts at 9am Sunday morning, and Eventing Nation will be bringing you much more from The Fork during the rest of the weekend. Go North Carolina state troopers! Thank you for not catching me speeding on the way back and forth to my hotel after I forgot my camera this morning. It was a wild ride, and Go Eventing!
