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Germany leads by 7.2

By on Sep 30, 2010 4:44 pm -
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A view from the media seating 
It was all about Germany on day one of dressage at the Kentucky Horse Park.  Simone Deitermann was a class above everyone else and leads the individual competition by 5.3 points going into Friday.  Simone is not competing as part of the German team, but the Germans nonetheless leads the team competition behind the 2nd and 4th placed rides of Ingrid Klimke and Dirk Shrade.  The highest placed US pair is Buck Davidson and Ballynoecastle RM, who are in 11th with a 47.0.  We will have a full recap post, photos from Leslie, and much more from the Horse Park soon.

Team Competition (Thursday):
1. Germany  83.8
2. Australia  91.0
3. Sweden  91.7
4. Great Britain  93.2
5. United States  96.5
6. Canada  103.3

Individual Competition:

1. Simone Deitermann and Free Easy (GER)  36

2. Ingrid Klimke and FRH Butts Abraxxas (GER)  41.3

3. William Fox-Pitt and Cool Mountain (GBR)  42

4. Dirk Shrade and Gadget de la Cere (GER)  42.5

5. Paul Tapner and Inonothing (AUS)  43.8

6. Jonathan Paget and Clifton Promise (NZL)  44.0

7. Susanna Bordone and Carrera (ITA)  45.2

8T. Linda Algotsson and Stand By Me (SWE)  45.5

8T. Pippa Funnell and Redesigned (GBR)  45.5

10. Niklas Jonsson and First Lady (SWE)  46.2

11. Buck Davidson and Ballynoecastle RM (USA)  47


People have already posted some of the rides on Youtube: 

4th placed Dirk Schrade of Germany:

Go eventing.

Germans Dominate Thursday Morning Dressage

By on Sep 30, 2010 12:01 pm -

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My favorite moment during Thursday morning’s dressage was watching Mark Todd ride, but the Germans stole the show by placing first and second.  Simone Deiterman had a lovely test with superb trot work and even better canter work and she leads her fellow German Dirk Schrade by 6.5 points.  Unfortunately for the Germans thus far, Simone is riding as an individual and her score does not count for the German team.  Boyd Martin got big cheers from the hometown crowd and put together a solid test to sit in 7th.  
Thursday AM Scores:
1. Simone Deitermann and Free Easy (GER)  36
2. Dirk Shrade and Gadget de la Cere (GER)  42.5
3. Paul Tapner and Inonothing (AUS)  43.8
4. Jonathan Paget and Clifton Promise (NZL)  44.0
5. Linda Algotsson and Stand By Me (SWE)  45.5
6. Mark Todd and Grass Valley (NZL)  48.5
7. Boyd Martin and Neville (USA)  49.5
8. Selena O’Hanlon and Colombo (CAN)  50.8
9. Nicola Wilson and Opposition Buzz (GBR)  51.2
Go eventing.

Late night links

By on Sep 30, 2010 12:37 am -
Tipperary:  I have become increasingly convinced that the US team made a very reasonable decision to keep “Paddy” on the team when the definite entries were named over the weekend.  Word is that the cellulitis first appeared on Paddy’s leg in the middle of last week.  Obviously everyone took the situation very seriously; multiple scans were taken of the leg which revealed no problems and Paddy never took a lame step last week or through the weekend despite the swelling.  It’s worth noting that Paddy has a reputation for being one of the soundest US horses.  The team was able to get the swelling down so Paddy was included on the US definite entries as the deadline to change those entries came and passed–again, from what I hear, at this point he had never taken an unsound step and nearly 10 scans from multiple vets had revealed no injury.  Then, inexplicably, the cellulitis got worse on Tuesday morning and the rest is history.  I feel terrible for Kim, Paddy, and also the US alternates who are left wondering what might have been, but sometimes good decisions don’t work out due to bad luck and horses are certainly good at teaching us that lesson.
Picks: I promised to make my WEG picks and I have my handy-dandy blindfold, dart board and, entries list so there is no point in delaying further.  In my mind, Germany, Great Britain, USA, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia are in a different class than the rest of the countries in the sense that anything but a WEG medal will be a disappointment.  All the other countries will likely be happy with a weekend that qualifies them for London 2012.
1. USA
2. Great Britain
3. Canada
Canada is obviously a dark horse pick, but I have been writing about them as a dark horse since well before Rolex so I don’t see any reason to abandon them now.  Germany really scares me, but the nature of having so many quality countries is that some of them are going to be left off the podium.  If the Games were being held in Europe I would probably have Great Britain winning and Germany in the top three–I think home field advantage makes a big psychological difference.
My individual pick to win the World Equestrian Games is Phillip and Woodburn.  This is based in large part on the fact that Woodburn has been going extremely well for Phillip in the training sessions and I have a feeling that the XC time is going to be really tough to make on Saturday.  If Woodburn is ever going to win a four-star, this is the weekend to do it.
Names: As a final thought before I get to the links, I want to thank everyone for some great comments over the past few days.  I know we have said this before but we have picked up some new readers over the past few weeks–if you leave a comment please do not leave the ‘name’ section of the comment form blank as it gets confusing if too many people post under anonymous.  Use your area code, a random sting of numbers, a color, the phrase “John stinks,” or anything you like but please don’t leave it blank.  

Go eventing.

WEG Cross-Country–Photos of Every Jump

By on Sep 29, 2010 9:23 pm -

The course is big, the course is technical, the course is everything we have been talking about for the last few months and the riders have definitely noticed.  Most of the eventers spent Wednesday afternoon walking the cross-country course.  A few riders who ride early on Thursday might not have walked the course yet, but most of the riders have seen the course and it’s time you did too.  

We will have much more XC analysis and preview later, but one thing that really stands out to me about the Mike Etherington-Smith designed course is that every combination includes an option.  Internation championships present the toughest challenge to course designers because the very best riders in the world need to be challenged while at the same time the riders from smaller nations (who maybe have never even done a four-star) need to be considered.  I feel like Mike ES has risen to this challenge beautifully with the options that he has designed and if a rider were to take every single long route the course would probably ride like a huge and very windy CCI3*.  For the riders who are riding to win and pressured to win, taking all the direct options at speed will make the course feel like a CCI5*.  
The early word from the riders is that the course starts off nice and easy but gets serious in the infield with a very tough coffin that requires a lot of energy out over a big corner.  From there, it’s big and technical all the way home with an especially tough last combination with angles over ditches.  Speaking of angles, there are lots of angled ground lines–the sunken road bank is angled, the first jump into the HOTL has an angled bank ground line, and the final combination has angled ground lines as well.  In his latest blog entry (which is an excellent read), Jimmy Wofford predicts that just 20 horses will go clear and only 5 double-clear.  This is definitely a course to lose some sleep over.  Go eventing.

Wednesday Videos

By on Sep 29, 2010 6:53 pm -

Eventing Nation’s good friend Boyd Martin was kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting with me in front of the camera.  Check out Boyd’s thoughts on the first horse inspection, being the lead rider for the US team, and how the cross-country course looks:

The buzzing in the background is an airplane towing an Adequan banner
With Boyd’s interview out of the way, let’s move on to the next installment of our ‘Worst Videos Ever’ series, which, regrettably incidentally, was founded at Rolex earlier this year.  Join me as I wander aimlessly around the Kentucky Horse Park:
Go eventing.

Live blogs all day every day

By on Sep 29, 2010 4:46 pm -
I am very pleased to announce that we will be live blogging the entire World Equestrian Games eventing competition in cooperation with the USEA.  Emily Daily and I will be starting bright and early with the first dressage rider at 9am on Thursday and we will cover the entire WEG eventing competition through the show jumping on Sunday–all of it completely live.  The live blog feed will be available on both Eventing Nation and the USEA’s website.  Anyone who has followed the live competition blogs on Eventing Nation, such as from Fair Hill, Rolex, or Jersey knows that they are a fun way to keep updated on the competition from afar.  The live blogs are interactive with moderated comments from readers, so please bring your questions and EN shout-outs.  To get a feel for the format, check out this example from Fair Hill.  I’ll just go ahead and apologize in advance for my typso.  Please join us and go eventing. 

Playing the odds with cellulitis

By on Sep 29, 2010 12:48 pm -

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Karen completing her jog with Mandiba
Two big things changed for the US team on Wednesday morning–first, Kim and “Paddy” withdrew, and second, Karen and Mandiba were added to the team competition.   Everything happened really quickly so let’s take each development separately and try to lend some clarity to the situation.
Kim and Paddy–what we know:
1) A few days ago Paddy started suffering from a cellulitis infection in a front leg.
2) The infection was treated with antibiotics and started to significantly improve.
3) Kim and Paddy were entered over the weekend by the USEF.
4) Early on Tuesday, the cellulitis inexplicably worsened.
5) By then, it was well past the deadline for making changes to the definite entries.

This info comes from the USEF press release, this audio interview with CMP kindly linked to by Monty White in the comment section, and sources I spoke with close to the US team.

The first and most important reaction to all of this is that I feel absolutely horrible for Kim and Paddy.  Nobody has worked harder than Kim this year.  The horrible, twisted, awful nature of our sport is that doing everything within your power to succeed is not nearly enough to be successful or even get a chance to be successful on any given weekend.  We have all missed a horse trials due to an abscess or a season due to injury, but I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to be literally 48 hours from competing at the WEGs and having that opportunity taken away by something completely out of your control.   The good news for Kim is that she has already had the chance to prove herself and win a WEG gold medal, an Olympic individual silver medal, and many other outstanding international achievements.  The other good news is that Paddy should be healthy again soon, but it is impossible not to be heartbroken today.
The next reaction is be curious about how the team ended up not using an alternate.  The simple answer is that the team used all of the information available from the vets, determined that the odds of Paddy being ready for the jog on Wednesday seemed quite high, and unfortunately things didn’t go the right way.  Frankly, everyone seems pretty shocked that Paddy got worse on Tuesday.  A vet I spoke with said that the fact that Paddy got significantly worse on Tuesday was a big medical anomaly.  The antibiotics were working prior to Tuesday, the cellulitis was under control, and then suddenly the antibiotics stopped working and Paddy got worse.  The point is that it sounds like everyone thought Paddy would be fine, and we shouldn’t look back on the fact that there was an improbable and unexpected development and immediately say that it was wrong to keep Kim on the team.  In life, we have to play the odds to the best of our ability, and, no matter how likely we are to be right, there is still a chance that things will go wrong, especially with horses.  
Karen and Mandiba: When Paddy was withdrawn, there were only two options to replace him for the team competition: Mandiba and Comet.  Most of the team decisions from all countries have been made based on predicted probability of getting around the XC, and I don’t think Karen’s pick was any different.  Neither Mandiba nor Comet have perfect XC records, but Karen gets the experience advantage, having represented the US 11 times at international championships and the feeling this year is that Mandiba has matured a lot, despite the weird stop at the AECs.  Karen will of course handle the pressure and I expect Mandiba to step up to the challenge.  Go eventing.

Wednesday jog drama

By on Sep 29, 2010 11:26 am -

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

Tipperary Liadhnan withdrawn before the jog

By on Sep 29, 2010 9:17 am -

The USEF has just announced that Kim Severson’s US team horse Tipperary Liadhnan has been withdrawn from the WEG jog due to a cellulitis infection.  The team vets battled the cellulitis over the past couple of days but it took a turn for the worse on Tuesday and rumors started swirling around the barns that “Paddy” would be withdrawn Wednesday morning.  It is too late for the US to make a substitution for the ‘squad’ so the US will only compete 5 horses, but since the teams are not formally submitted until after the Wednesday jog, either Karen or Becky will be added to the ‘team’ for the team competition.  To clarify what can sometimes be confusing terminology, the US will move forward with one individual and four team competition riders, making a 5 horse squad.  The jog has started and we will have much more soon.

Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch: The Early Week

By on Sep 29, 2010 12:51 am -

Once again, a huge thanks to Steph for keeping us updated on all things WEG from a competitor’s perspective.  Be sure to check out Steph’s site and to give an especially loud cheer for Steph and Ollie throughout the weekend.  The XC photos were taken by another EN friend who shall remain nameless but we appreciate their services nonetheless.  We will of course have more photos of the XC soon.  Thanks for writing this Steph and thank you for reading.
—-  
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From Steph:

Monday was a wet and rainy day in Lexington. I think that this is the first time I have been legitimately cold in a really long time!! You know how when its the dead of summer and you’re on your third tshirt, sweat is rolling out from under your helmet, and its nowhere near noon? In that moment, you really wish you were cold. And then it gets cold, and you forget about that hot humid Virginia summer day and you wish more than anything that you were warm. Or hot. Just anything but cold and wet. I reached that point yesterday, and then I remembered that it was Monday, and in after two more days I will be jogging at the World Equestrian Games. Then I didn’t really care what temperature I was. 
 
In order to warm myself up during the times that I wasn’t on my horse, I walked around the park to see what was going on in all the different schooling arenas. There were three or four different languages being spoken outside one arena as big fancy horses did tempi changes and piaffes like it was just a regular walk in the park, and just down the hill the Germans were doing a jump school with their horses in another arena. The medals ceremony was being held for the endurance competition not very far up the road from there, and on the steeplechase track you could spot a handful of different team jackets doing trot sets and light gallops. I have always loved being at big three day competitions, watching all the lovely horses and great riders in the same ring as me, but this is like ten levels of awesome better than that. Not only are the eventing legends on this same piece of Kentucky earth as I am, but the Showjumping and Dressage ones as well!! I’m not familiar with any of the big names in the other disciplines, but its still inspiring to think of the caliber of horse and rider all here at once. Its insane… but anyways… You could hear the same story from almost anyone else who is here in Lexington right now, but as far as your in to whats going on in the Canadian event barn, I’m your girl. So here goes. 

 
JoAnn Wilson, our very fortunate team’s equine physical therapist, worked on the horses again today. I know that Ollie will benefit in a huge way from this, not only during his work, but in all the recovery that must have to go on after the serious work he has been doing. I wish he could have  this kind of treatment on a regular basis!! She saw Ollie today after his jump school, which he was very happy to participate in. There has been an awful lot of dressage going on in that poor boy’s life lately, so Monday morning we hacked around the steeplechase track, and then went for the afternoon jump school instead of more stinkin dressage. He drug his feet a little on the way out of the barn for our second ride, but as soon as we went in to the arena with the jumps in it, I’m not kidding you he put his head up and started this awesome neck pumping walk around the arena. He was so excited. 

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Tuesday, though, more dressage ensued. In the morning, I tried to finesse my way into it by going for a good long hack around the same area where we were yesterday and then somehow magically ending up at the arena that was booked for the team. Lets just say that I didn’t get the same reaction that I got on Monday afternoon. He did actually go to work very well. We got to practice going from a big open ring into a separate 20×60 arena, just to sort of replicate the show day scenario. I can sometimes forget to keep Ollie’s body moving in the transition from one ring to the other, so by the time I get half way down centerline I’m riding an on the forehand 2×4. If I remember to keep him supple and do some mini lateral work and transitions as we are going in between, he stays very rideable. Hm. Ride horse properly…. horse go properly…. Weird. 🙂 This went very well and I got some very nice work in the 20×60.
Around lunchtime Tuesday, they opened the main arena for an open school for all the event horses. So basically, 75 or 80 or however many event horses were careening around in the stadium at the same time. This was a bit of a gong show, but no harm was done (as far as i know) and all the Canadian horses behaved really well. Tucker and Rupert were the only ones that hadn’t been in that ring before, and they both looked great! Its a little difficult to do very much in a scene like that, but we just tried to get up close to the arena (we weren’t allowed in it) and around all the judges booths, and right up agains the boards where all the spooky cameras were. Once we had covered all the areas where boogie men hang out, we did as much as we could without getting into head on collisions, practiced trotting down the chute from the warm up area and going to work, and then got the heck out of there!! 

Once Ollie was taken care of and put away, we hustled back to where we came from where the real dressage was back underway for the afternoon session. The talk of the day was (of course) Moorlands Totilas and Edward Gal. I have been obsessed with this horse since the youtube videos went viral a while back. He is a-freaking-mazing. I went up there very early and stood at the first of four warmup arenas that they cycle through before ending up in the competition arena. I got right up close to the fence, whipped out my camera, and had at it like a paparazzi. After a minute or two though, I put down the camera and just watched this incredible animal. There were an inordinate amount of people around for the warmup, and rightly so. His trot work is so fantastic, I could barely pull my eyes off him to go take my seat in the grandstands. IHe did not disappoint. But I’m sure there are many more educated articles being written about Totilas and Edward’s performance today, so I will finish that by saying I don’t think I have ever been that inspired by anything, ever. I’m not that educated about this kind of dressage, and its not my great passion in life, but I had chills watching that display of just freak of nature athletecism maximized by great training and riding. It was cool. 

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So, Team Canada had our Eve of Competition dinner tonight at a great place in Lexington… I of course forget the name… but if you’re in Lexington for the games, go check out downtown. It looked like a lot of fun, and there are signs outside of all the places welcoming the athletes and fans, so go get it!! I am so happy to be part of such an awesome group of people, and thats not just the riders, its everyone involved. So supportive and talented and…… fun. We have a ridiculous amount of fun, and it starts at 630 am around the breakfast table at our hotel. I know the mood is probably going to get more serious starting tomorrow, but the last few weeks have been a lot of ….  well I can’t really say good, clean fun, because honestly… certain 6’4″ ish members of this group ( and 5’2″ members as well) can take the sense of humor in a bit of a different direction. We have a good time, and after all, isn’t that why we’re here?? It starts tomorrow.
 
Go Eventing

Canada’s Team Picks

By on Sep 28, 2010 2:39 pm -
I have just gotten word that Canada has made their team and individual competitor decisions for the WEGs.  The nations have until after the Wednesday jog to pick their riders that will compete in the team competition.  The US announced the team/individuals when the full US squad was announced right after the AECs but many countries have waited until now to make their team/individual picks.
Team:
Selena O’Hanlon and Colombo
Steph Rhodes-Bosch and Port Authority
Kyle Carter and Madison Park
Hawley Bennet-Awad and Gin & Juice

Individuals:
Jessica Phoenix and Exponential
Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master

As anyone knows, I think the Canadian squad will do really well at the WEGs, and I am sure it was incredibly tough to pick four out of their six brilliant pairs.  Ultimately it looks like the decision was made based mostly on the experience of the horses–all four of the team horses competed at Rolex in April and performed really well.  Canada should be really proud of their entire squad and really optimistic about this weekend.  Go Canada. 

Another horse eliminated from the WEG dressage

By on Sep 28, 2010 1:43 pm -
The second dressage pair was eliminated on Tuesday when Australia’s Hayley Beresford was asked to leave the ring after her horse, Relampago Do Retiro showed lameness in the second extended trot.  The Chronicle is reporting that the horse apparently kicked himself during the half-pass.
Meanwhile, the Dutch bleeding mouth story continues to develop…

Earlier this morning, Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands was eliminated when her horse was visibly bleeding from the mouth during their test.  Eurodressage is reporting that “Parzival bit the tip of his tongue.”  The Chronicle originally reported that the horse bit his lip, but has written a more lengthy report since then quoting Adelinde as saying that the horse bit the tip of his tongue and apparently the Dutch team provided a photo of Parzival’s tongue showing a “tiny dark spot.”  Other online reports conflict between the tongue and the lip, but at this point Eurodressage and the Chronicle are the two most credible reports I have seen so far and they both are reporting that it was the tongue.  In situations like this, the media has to rely heavily on what the rider and team say and it wouldn’t surprise me if we never get the full story.  
Not to belabor the point, but as I wrote this morning and as I still see it, bleeding from the mouth, whether directly or indirectly is likely related to the training methods used on the horse, including the amount of force applied to the horse’s mouth.  Either way hopefully the dressage folks will stop getting eliminated so we can get back to writing about eventing.
Video of Adelinde’s elimination from some random person on Youtube:

Tuesday evening update: Edward Gal and Totilas delivered a 84.043% for first place to lead the Dutch team to gold, and Laura Bechtolsheimer of Great Britain led with British team to silver with a 82.511%.  Go Totilas.

WEG definite entries posted for eventing

By on Sep 28, 2010 11:24 am -

The FEI has published the eventing definite entries for the World Equestrian Games.  85 eventing competitors from 23 nations are now entered.  The definite entries were submitted to the FEI on Saturday and provide a list of all the eventing pairs entered.  14 countries have enough riders to field teams, and all of the nations that submitted their nominated entries in August were able to enter riders in the Games, which is pleasantly surprising.  If you have been following Eventing Nation throughout the team selection process there’s nothing new about the list.  The team/individual selections will be submitted to the FEI by the teams on Wednesday after the jog.  Go eventing.

Dutch rider eliminated from WEG dressage

By on Sep 28, 2010 9:59 am -
Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen was eliminated during her dressage test Tuesday morning after blood was seen in her horse’s mouth.  The C judge and the head of the ground jury, Stephen Clark of Great Britain, asked Adelinde to leave aboard Perzival after her halt and rein back when Stephen saw blood in the foam around Perzival’s mouth, according to the Horse and Hound.  
Adelinde and Perzival might look familiar because we published a photo of Adelinde practicing at the WEGs in Eventing Nation’s ‘late night links’ post on Monday:
More photos at st-georg.de
Afternoon update: Eurodressage and the COTH are reporting that Adelinde says Perzival bit his tongue. 
Adelinde and Perzival were contenders to win gold and were in the lead when they were eliminated.  The elimination also disqualifies them from the individual competition.  The Dutch team is still winning as of this morning but they are down to three riders, with their anchor, Edward Gal and Totilas, set to ride Tuesday afternoon.  

Late Night Links

By on Sep 28, 2010 12:33 am -
Anyone who takes fun/interesting Eventing Nation related photos such as these photos during the WEGs and sends them to [email protected] will win a gift certificate for a free Eventing Nation hat if their photo is used on Eventing Nation.  The gift certificate can be redeemed whenever I have the time to order hats for EN, hopefully soon after the WEG madness calms down.  It’s late and tomorrow is a busy day so here are your news and notes:





Go eventing.

The week that is about to be

By on Sep 27, 2010 7:33 pm -
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The British and US teams faced off at the Land Rover Challenge on Monday–Brits won

One week from today we will all be talking about the new eventing world champion.  Will we be talking about how Phillip and Woodburn thundered around the XC to take the lead, or how William repeated his win at Rolex, or how Mary King’s veteran poise propelled her to the top, or how some bright new star put together the perfect weekend?  Some incredible stories are going to be written this week and here is a look at how things will happen outside of the arena:

Team Schedules: The US team horses are each on a unique preparation schedule over the next several days based on what their riders feel is best for their horse.  Phillip and Boyd are concentrating mostly on the dressage, and others will probably have one jump school early in the week.  Israel’s Oded Shimoni is helping the US event riders with their dressage as well as competing for Israel at the WEGs.  Oded scored a 66.298% on Monday, a score that put him near the middle of the pack.  Oded has been working with the US team since the beginning of the year and I have only heard good things from the riders about his training.  The Canadian team jumped on Sunday, did flatwork on Monday, and will also do flatwork on Tuesday, with a couple of the more energetic horses also jumping again.  
Frustrations: I have heard some frustration about logistics and that the organizers keep randomly changing the availability schedule of the arenas, gallops, and hacking areas, but issues like this are to be expected at such a large event with so many different disciplines.  Every single one of the riders that I have spoken with has praised the friendliness and kindness of the WEG volunteers.  
Tuesday: On Tuesday, the riders will have the first rider briefing and the cross-country course will open for walking.  The draw order will also be picked on Tuesday which let the riders know whether they will be riding dressage on Thursday or Friday and their order of go.  We will not have any ride times until then, and, to my knowledge, the FEI has still not publicly released a list of the definite entries, which were submitted by the national federations on Saturday.  
Wednesday and Beyond: The first horse inspection is scheduled for 9:00am on Wednesday.  The XC course opening and the jog will happen sooner than at traditional three-days to give everyone more flexibility with their schedules.  All of the teams will submit their final designations of which riders will compete as part of the team and which riders will compete as individuals.  After Wednesday, the rest of the weekend will be pretty simple, with just the most exciting and action packed 30 minutes of total competition that each rider will ever face.  
As an aside, I have been frustrated so far with the online video and media coverage, especially for the endurance event which received very little attention.  But, all that will change because Eventing Nation will be arriving in force.
Eventing Nation’s Coverage: The insanity that is Eventing Nation’s live event coverage will never be more insane than over the next week.  We are planning complete live blogging coverage, like our Fair Hill, Rolex, and Jersey Fresh live blogs [Rolex SJ example].  I don’t even want to think about how many posts we will have this week, but it will be as many as it takes to give our readers a fun, informative, and live look at the WEGs.  Nearly every writer from Eventing Nation will be on scene and they will contribute with varying degrees of regularity.  If, by some extraordinary twist of fate, we don’t cover something, we will link to everyone who does.
As a bare minimum, starting on Thursday, I will be doing a morning live blog, a lunch-time update, the afternoon live blog, the afternoon update post, then a recap post with more in-depth coverage, a preview of the next day, and any breaking news.  I do not plan to eat or sleep, so I imagine that my live blogs and posts will get more delerious as the weekend progresses, which may or may not be a good thing.  Leslie is also going to be especially busy taking tons of photos which will we plan to post on EN in daily slideshows.  
Online Video: Unfortunately, I think if you want to watch any of the eventing live online, you are going to have to pay around 30$ to either FEI TV or UniversalSports.com.  Universal Sports offered free video replay of parts of Rolex, and parts of the WEG so far, but they have not offered any specific guidance about replays for eventing.  The USEF Network has been a fantastic and mercifully free service, but they only broadcast the live competition that is not broadcast by Universal Sports, so, to my knowledge, they will not have any eventing live.
Update: Suzanne was kind enough to mention in the comment section that “if you live in Canada – CBC Bold is covering XC and SJ live from beginning to end.”  I have also reports that some of the video sites are not working in Canada.  As always, please help each other out in the comment sections.  I also should have mentioned that NBC will have the eventing show jumping finals and some XC replay televised on Sunday. 
By now, you all know the drill: sit down, strap in, and get ready for the best week ever on Eventing Nation.
Go eventing.

Monday News and Notes

By on Sep 27, 2010 1:18 pm -

Courtesy of Samantha Clark

It’s rainy and chilly today at the Kentucky Horse Park but the good news for the eventers is that the weather is expected to improve as the week progresses.  Monday is all about dressage at the WEGs, with the team grand prix getting underway.  The eventers are having one of their final rides today before their competition starts with the jog on Wednesday.  Here are Monday’s news and notes, which can surely keep you looking busy until the end of work: 







Go eventing.

Samantha Clark’s Opening Weekend Report

By on Sep 27, 2010 11:07 am -

Samantha Clark, who has been a dear friend to Eventing Nation from the very beginning, was kind enough to write about her wonderful opening weekend at the WEGs.  Check out Samantha’s 2010 Radio Show from Sunday, and the 2010 Radio Show Facebook page throughout the WEGs for the latest info and photos.  Thanks for writing this Samantha and thank you for reading.
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By Samantha:

It’s hard to delineate when exactly WEG started. Do you count the preparations; for the competitors their journies to Kentucky started years ago, maybe I should consider my path to WEG begining when I (foolishly?!) agreed to co-host the 2010 radio show with Glenn the Geek? Rather like not noticing your own children grow up, the Horse Park, and indeed Lexington has slowly been making improvements, adding infrastructure and making ready, and then the preparations became more refined, the courses took shape, tents started going up, people arrived, then horses, the course now looks fabulous with brush and flags and flowers – how did this all happen?  

We will get to the eventers in a moment, but the reining kicked off WEG competition on saturday morning, and didn’t disappoint. Everyone was excited to see Anky who probably got the loudest cheers of the day, it was a terrific change to see her enter sitting very upright and proper, albeit in a spangled shirt, and then as she moved through her patterns and the crowd egged her on, and the loud music, she really got into, leant forward, (as much as you can in those saddles!), and really gave it some welly!
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The Games officially opened on saturday night with a countdown using Kentucky images, then a terrific spectacle that had so much wonderful stuff in it it was hard to know what maybe could have been left out to make it slightly shorter.  Not the athletes parading by country, certainly not Dr. Lyons and Muhammed Ali, or the Haitian Harmony Choir, definitely not Chris McCarron representing TB racing with four of his students for the Racing Academy, or the wonderful music by CherryHolmes….
For anyone who’s ever been to the Olympia Christmas Horse Show in London, the ceremonies had that feel, of celebration and extravaganza, there was music, lights, fantastic performances, and even the most beautiful pink sunset to accompany Wynnonna Judd singing My Old Kentucky Home, which even made Glenny Glenn tear up!
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For all the athletes who’ve made it this far it must be a dream come true. The venue looks amazing, the energy is great, and all the riders seem to be really enjoying milling around and watching the other disciplines.  For me too, I’m in absolute heaven, I want to slow time down, I truly don’t have enough hours in the day to wander around and take it all in, and then do reports, I wish I could have a RunHennyRun helmet cam so everyone could share this with me.  Yesterday at the endurance start, I bumped into 3 members of the Kiwi event squad, and than later I happened to run into Mark again so we sat and watched the French event team have a jump session together.  Hello? Pinch me!
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On the way down to the reining arena I caught the tail end of a US flat training session with Mandiba and Woodburn under CMP’s eagle eye.  Both horses look stunning – their coats are in perfect condition, their feet looked really good, they look completely ready to go for gold, and their riders look hungry for the spoils too. 
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Then I went back up to the endurance where the British eventers were being supportive, but seemed slightly overwhelmed by the action in the vet gate. 
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The Black Stallion, aka Moorelands Totilas, is the talk of the Games and everyone has been vying for a glimpse, (the same goes for Hamish and Dave, who come in a very close second!), and while biking back from endurance I happened to see him working in the warm-arena, so threw caution to the wind, my bike to the verge, and started snapping.
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Notice the ipod – I have it on good authority he’s listening to the 2010 radio show!  
Yes, there are definitely glitches that need to be ironed out, ASAP, but really it’s already been amazing, exceeded all my expectations, it truly is the Horse Olympics.  As I biked back to my car Sunday night it was a gorgeous evening, I was exhausted but I suddenly saw some of the endurance riders in the distance coming towards me, and I got goosebumps and buzz all over again. This may only come to Kentucky once in a lifetime, and I may be operating on about four hours sleep each night, but I am sure as hell going to enjoy the Games, and hope you’ll join Eventing Nation, 2010 Radioshow, 3D3W, COTH, USEA, H&H and everyone else that my brain is too addled to remember so we can share it with you as best we can.  I should also say apologies to my houseguests who I barely see, and a big shout out and EN karma to 4 time US National Para Champ Rebecca Hart who rides Norteassa next week please.
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Finally, an EN favourite who finally gets to spend a little q-time with his beloved; it was so sweet to see Boyd and Silva walking away from the Dressage trot-up together, arm in arm, and they very generously posed for you.
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Thanks Boyd and Silva, and thanks for reading.

USEF Boekelo CCI3* Grants

By on Sep 27, 2010 10:18 am -

Wiki Commons

In some non-WEG news, four US riders are scheduled to travel to the Boekelo CCI3* in the Netherlands from October 14th to the 17th with funding from a USEF training grant.  The Boekelo funding was announced earlier this year as part of the USEF’s developing riders efforts.

Will Faudree and Andromaque
Doug Payne and Running Order
Sinead Halpin and Manoir dr Carneville
Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister

The horses are scheduled to leave the US on the 9th.  The USEF will cover travel expenses and other incentives based on the final placings.  Of course, we will have inside coverage of the Boekelo trip, but, due to WEG mania, this will probably be the last that we will write about Boekelo until after the Games, unless there is a last minute change to the list of horses being sent.  Read more about Sinead’s travel plans on her blog.  Hopefully the Boekelo trip will go better for the US than Blenheim, where none of the horses who shipped to Blenheim from the US finished without a stop.  Go eventing.

Endurance and Reining Reader

By on Sep 26, 2010 5:32 pm -
In terms of horse sports, reining and endurance couldn’t be more different.  Nonetheless, both sports made headlines at the Kentucky Horse Park on Sunday as the hometown US reining team won gold and the US endurance team fell out of contention quickly.  Coverage of the endurance was especially hard to find, with no online video feed, no live scoring, and little attention from the media throughout the day.  One thing I have learned is that the Herald-Leader, a local Lexington newspaper, posts very fast WEG news available online at their WEG website. 
Endurance Results: Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton of Spain crossed the line first on Saturday to win the WEG endurance gold.  Maria rode in the 100 mile course in 7 hours, 35 minutes of riding time aboard her French-bred gelding Nobby.  Making the achievement more extraordinary is the fact that Maria gave birth just seven weeks ago to a daughter, also named Maria.  Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, won silver and his son, Sheikh Hamdan Mohammed al Maktoum, won bronze.  Heather Reynolds of the US finished 4th, but was disqualified on the post-race trot because her horse was lame.  
The UAE won an overwhelming team victory behind Sheikh Mohammed’s silver and his son’s bronze, according to the Herald-Leader.  Unofficially, France was reported to finish second, and Germany third.  The US team dropped out of medal contention when two of the US team horses were unable to continue after the third vet check, 59 miles into the 100 mile race.
Visionaire volunteered at the endurance and will have a report on all the endurance ridiculousness soon. 
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Reining: Team USA won the WEG reining gold on Saturday by a dominant 15.5 point margin.  This result is unsurprising because US has won every team reining competition since it was introduced to the WEGs 12 years ago.  Belgium placed second for their first ever podium performance at the WEGs, and Italy placed third for the third time in a row at the WEGs.  The top 15 reiners from the team competition automatically qualify for the individual finals on Thursday.  The other riders in the top 35 will have a chance to win 5 qualifying spots on Tuesday.
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Other news and notes:




Go eventing.

Steph Rhodes-Bosch: Sunday update from the WEGs

By on Sep 26, 2010 4:39 pm -
Steph Rhodes-Bosch continues her posts as an Eventing Nation guest blogger today with an update from Team Canada’s first few days at the Kentucky Horse Park.  I won’t say that I was certain Steph would be representing Canada at the WEGs when I first asked her to be a guest blogger this spring, but I had a pretty good feeling about it.  Steph has been a great friend of Eventing Nation and please visit Steph’s website to learn more about Steph and be sure check out the great fundraising opportunities.  Thanks for writing this Steph and thank you for reading.
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Team Canada’s Captain
By Steph:

So, after our ten days of Florida style R&R at Meredyth South, we have been thrown directly into the fire. The horse park is like a three ring freaking circus! There is so much going on here with all of the horses and people from each discipline it is just a constant hum of activity. Its not any sort of bad or hectic energy, just a lot going on, and a big change from our last 10 days. 

So, quick overview of our last few days at camp. Monday I had a nice long walk hack and spent about ten minutes doing flat work with Ollie in a very low and deep frame. He was very soft and relaxed by the time we started our lesson, and we brought his frame up after a while and did some very nice work through our movements. We didn’t really try to make it ‘dressage ring perfect’ or anything, just making sure that we could use some of the tools we have been working on building and staying nice and limber. Tuesday we went to Sharn Wordley and Craig Martin’s farm right down the road to do a showjumping school. Their company, Wordley Martin, did the footing in their jump arena and I think it is some of the best footing I have ever ridden on. The horses just pinged right up off the ground, but it still had a lot of cushion for them on landing. Verrryyy cool. Their ring is also pretty big, so we got to string together a course to be ridden fairly forward. It had been a while since Sunday at the AEC’s, so all of us were feeling like this was a very good thing for us to do after so much dressage, and only a quick jump school over exercises at ‘home’. 
Wednesday for us was another bit of a playful flat, not drilling the test, but making sure we had all the tricks well established to go out and handle whatever may happen during that all important 5 minute ride in the stadium. He really does feel very good, and I’m feeling pretty confident. 
Thursday was the last gallop for the horses. Alot of the horses in our group are Thoroughbreds, so they dont really need to do much as far as fitness at this point, but my horse and Rebecca’s horse are warmblood, and they definitely needed to go and get their heart rates up one last time. We did one of our regular loops at a regular speed which takes about 3 min 45 seconds, and then walked down the big hill to sprint back up the last section, and then walked back down to repeat the sprint a second time. This was a great workout, and Ollie came out of it verrrry well. After a trip in the ice boots and some quality time out in the paddock, Ollie saw Dr. Ann Baskett for his final selection vetting before the games. 
It was kind of boring, he just looked like he always does!! Very very good boy. In the middle of all the action on Thursday, my mom arrived in Ocala to help us get on the road. She helped me get the house packed up and cleaned up and cooked me some dinner 🙂 Its nice to have a mommy around. 
We left Ocala at 3 am on Friday, which gave us plenty of time to get to the KHP at a reasonable hour. The trip took about twelve hours, and I’m not gonna lie… I slept for almost eight of it. Another reason why its nice to have a mommy (who can drive a truck and trailer) around!! Upon pulling into the KHP in the mid afternoon, you realize right away how different this is from just Rolex. There were SO many horses and temporary stables and people and just activity…. The security coming in in pretty heavy, we had to turn off the truck so a drug/bomb (we’re not sure which) dog could case out the vehicle, then we had to stop at another place and show our horse’s paper work (Piroplasmosis test, deworming certificate, coggins certificate and interstate health certificate, along with the FEI passport).
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We eventually pulled up right by the stabling office (if you’re familiar with the KHP in a Rolex Kentucky context, this is the same stabling office) and unloaded the horses. They had rugs to put on the pavement to prevent slipping as the horses came off the ramps, which was great, and then we went straight into a tent where the vets checked the horses out and basically did a regular “In Barn” inspection for ID control and the horse’s well being. 
There was a great crew of guys helping everyone with their trunks and stuff from the unloading bay into the stabling. Our guy was James from London, and I’m sure he won’t have time to be reading this post, but he was such a great help. He commented that he enjoyed helping out the Eventers, because all the grooms and a couple of the riders were right up there with James moving around all these big heavy trunks. Apparently, and only according to James from London (not myself) the grooms from the other disciplines just sort of pointed him to the stalls and let him have at it. (GO EVENTING) 
We got unpacked and organized really quickly, and then headed off to our very very nice hotel. We are at the Griffin Gate Marriot in Lexington right down the road from the park, and it is super fantastic. I would have been happy to be at the Super 8, but this hotel is the bomb. And apparently the team got a pretty good deal on it too. (Probably at least triple the rate of the Super 8, but I guess you might as well) 
Saturday morning, we went on kind of an epic trek around the horse park, trying to figure out where we could hack. Yes, thats right. Hacking is restricted to certain times and certain areas. So after our grand tour, we went down to the warmup areas for our allotted schooling times. 945-10 am we were in the upper warmup across the path from the stadium and final warmup, and from 10 – 1015 am we were allowed in the final warmup arena right next to the stadium. I really didn’t do hardly any schooling, but it was great practice to get into those arenas to just put his head down and do a little bit. 
I felt really bad for Ginny, Parker, and Rupert because the only hack to get from the stables to this schooling area is on the steeplechase track outside the xc course, and some of the other countries chose to gallop their horses on Saturday. Ginny had a horse zoom up right behind her, and it was a little much for her to take. The three of them were a little theatrical most of the time we were trying to walk from place to place. Thankfully for me, Ollie couldn’t really care less about any of this activity, he just takes it all in stride. Unless there is a tractor around…. for some reason, that is terrifying. 
On Saturday night we had the opening ceremonies!  All the riders from all the countries gathered in the old indoor arena at the KHP and ate free pizza and beer in there as we waited to assemble for the parade of athletes.   We were in the indoor for about 45 minutes and then people walked in with signs for all the countries and we assembled behind them.  We walked in formation all the way to the stadium.  As they introduced each country the crowd would road and it was an amazing feeling.  I could hear especially large cheers for us from the pockets of Canadian supporters around the stadium.  Once we walked around the stadium, we listened to the introduction speeches and watched several demonstrations before heading home.  I’ll have my next report for Eventing Nation on Tuesday.

Until then, get that cheer going: C-A N-A D-A…. GOOO CANADA! 🙂