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.
