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How a ‘short lister’ becomes a ‘team member’

By on Sep 13, 2010 5:29 pm -
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Is Boyd wearing a SmartPak shirt?
After a full day of jogging, lungeing, flexions, ultrasounds, x-rays, and everything else on Monday, the US team vets know more about the health of the short listed horses than you or I will ever know about ourselves.  The selectors and vets now have all the information that they will use to pick the US team for the World Equestrian Games and the purpose of this post is to explain how the selection process will play out from here.  Until recently, I thought that the USEF used a Magic 8-Ball, dart board, and a printed out short list, but apparently that’s just how they selected David for the Sydney Olympics.  
The true process of team selection reminds me of learning about how a bill becomes a law in government class–it goes through a lot of committees and then gets voted on.  Everything will begin with the ‘Vet Panel,’ which discusses the findings from the Monday inspections and delivers their opinion on each horse to the panel of Selectors.  These Selectors are the 5 people (and one European observer) that have been watching the horses all this time in preparation for the WEG selections.  The Selectors are a critical part of the process, but their job is just to make nominations (recommendations)–they do not have power to formally appoint the team.  Instead, the recommendation of the Selectors will be passed to the USEF’s Eventing High Performance Committee, which will then vote and pass on their own recommendations to a conference call of the USEF High Performance Working Group and USEF Executive Committee.  The USEF Executive Committee will listen to the High Performance Working Group’s discussion/vote and then the Executive Committee will make the final vote to appoint the ‘Squad’ of 6 pairs.  When that process is complete on Tuesday the USEF will announce the Squad, including, I suspect, the specification of which 4 riders will compete in the team competition. 
From what I hear, it is rare for the committees to not follow the recommendations of the Selectors, but it is possible.  Members of the committees that have a conflict of interest will recuse themselves from the votes.  Link: list of committees.  The USEF has done everything possible to bring home the eventing gold medals at the WEGs, and that journey will take a big step forward on Tuesday.  Go eventing.

Canada’s Team

By on Sep 13, 2010 12:29 pm -
Well that was fast.  The Canadians selectors have officially picked the six members of the WEG eventing team.  The selectors named the six members, but the specifics of who will ride in the team competition and who will ride as individuals will be specified once the team is in Kentucky.  
The team (in no particular order):

Selena O’Hanlon and Colombo
Steph Rhodes-Bosch and Port Authority
Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master
Kyle Carter and Madison Park
Jessica Phoenix and Exponential
Hawley Bennet-Awad and Gin & Juice

Alternates (no particular order):

Diana Burnett and Manny
Ian Roberts and Napalm

All 6 team members and both alternates are already on their way down to Ocala, Florida to train for these last few days before the WEGs.  Canada’s selections match Eventing Nation’s group picks from this morning and I completely agree with the selections.  This team is young, hungry, and very talented.  Except for Kyle, of course, who is an old man and well fed, but I would have put him on the team nonetheless because his horse is a freak of nature.  Go Canada.

Eventing Nation’s WEG Selections

By on Sep 13, 2010 10:33 am -
The Candian vet inspections were held Sunday afternoon at Chattahoochee Hills, presided over by the great Dr. Ober, and the US inspections are being held as I type this.  Basically, the vets jog and flex each horse, and then do whatever imaging or further analysis is necessary to give them a full understanding of the horse.  Of course, the farriers are also very involved in the process.  It’s a terribly nervous time for the riders because years and years of hard work culminates with a soundness evaluation, something that is at this point completely out of their control. 
For me, the biggest challenge in predicting the team selections is trying to figure out the selectors’ strategy with the two individual picks.  Remember that the US and Canada both have 6 WEG spots–4 team and 2 individual.  The priority in picking the team spots is to select the four pairs with the best expected score and a high degree of certainty that at least 3 of them will complete without a stop on XC.  However, the individual selections are a little different because the difference between getting 3rd versus 4th at the WEGs is a lot bigger than the difference between getting 4th and 10th–it’s all about getting a medal.  Therefore, it might make sense to take a horse who probably won’t be in the top-15 but has a chance to put together the perfect weekend and get 3rd over the horse who is likely to finish in the top-15 but doesn’t have as much upside for that ‘perfect weekend.’  Again, I am only talking about the individual selections–for the team spots you undoubtedly take the sure top-15 horse.  With that little selection paradox in mind, make your WEG picks below:
Pick the 6 pairs that you think should make the US team.  Of course, this might be very different from who you think will make the WEG team, but let’s stay optimistic.  Remember that Phillip, Buck, and Boyd can only ride one horse each.
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**Update: We closed this poll Monday afternoon because Canada announced their team!
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Much more later today.  Go eventing.

AEC combined test results

By on Sep 13, 2010 5:05 am -
You do not want to miss a second on Eventing Nation over the next couple of days.  For our one or two readers who haven’t noticed Eventign Nation’s pattern, we usually do a morning, lunchtime, and afternoon/evening post each day and breaking news as it happens.  Rest assured–there will be breaking news in the next couple of days as both the US and Canadian teams get named.  I also have a bunch of analysis, inside info, and ridiculous commentary to get to on Monday and Tuesday.  Don’t worry selectors–I have already done all the work for you.  But, before we ruffle everyone’s feathers, I thought I’d start the week off with a nice and easy AEC follow-up post.  
One of the complications posed to the selectors at the AECs is that different riders had different strategies on the cross-country and some horses didn’t even run cross-country.  So looking at the full competition results as a measure of performance is pretty useless without a contextual understanding.  The only two phases at the AECs where every rider put their full effort into getting the best score possible are the dressage and show jumping.  Therefore, as one exercise to analyze the selection trials results, I have composed a combined test leaderboard.  This combined test leaderboard is the only full effort head-to-head competition that the entire short list has had against each other–ever.  Obviously, this only represents the dressage and show jumping performance at one event, so it should be very much taken as one tiny piece of the entire selection puzzle.  
1. Allison Springer and Arthur  35.7  +4  =  39.7
2. Phillip Dutton and The Foreman  41.5  +0  =  41.5
3. Phillip Dutton and Woodburn  42.3  +0  =  42.3
4. Phillip and Connaught  42.8  +0  =  42.8
5. Karen and Mandiba  42.8  +0  =  42.8
6. Boyd and Remington  43.8  +0  =  43.8

7. Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg’s Joshua  43.8  +0  =  43.8

8. Will Faudree and Pawlow  44.0  +0  =  44.0
9. Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan  44.5  +0  =  44.5
10. Phillip and TruLuck  45.3  +0  =  45.3
11. Becky Holder and Courageous Comet  41.5  +4  =  45.5
12. Buck and My Boy Bobby  46.8  +0  = 46.8
13. Buck and Ballynoecastle RM  47.5  +4  =  51.5
14. Boyd and Neville  48.5  48.5  +4  =  52.5
15. Amy Tryon and Leyland  46.8  +8  =  54.8
16. Holly Hudspeth and Last Monarch  55.2  +0  =  55.2
17. Buck and Titanium  57.0  +5  =  62.0
1. Hawley Bennet-Awad and Gin & Guice  46.0  +4  = 50.0
2. Selena O’Hanlon and Colombo  48.8  +7  =  55.8
3. Steph Rhodes-Bosch and Port Authority  53.3  +4  =  57.3
4. Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master  56.5  +2  =  58.5
5. Jessica Phoenix and Exponential  59.7  +0  =  59.7
6. Ian Roberts and Napalm  59.7  +1  =  60.1
7. Diana Burnett and Manny  50.7  +15  =  65.7
8. Kyle Carter and Madison Park 64.0  +6  =  70.0
So, now that we have figured out whose going to be on the WEG teams, let’s all take a coffee break, right?  Hardly.  But these rankings do bear some interesting findings.  For example, The Foreman beat Woodburn by 0.8 points; is that enough to help justify taking the older horse with more mileage?  Probably not.  Remington beat Neville by 9 points; is that enough to take the horse who has only been to one 4* over the horse who has proven himself at several?  Perhaps.  The highest placed Canadian scored three points higher than the 12th placed US rider; is this a concern?  Maybe, but of course looking at the combined test doesn’t consider the XC, which is where the Canadians really moved up at Rolex.  
My main point is that comparing pairs of riders and horses in eventing is extremely hard because there are an almost infinite number of factors to consider.  We’ll give it our best shot here on Eventing Nation over these next couple of days, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be one of the selectors right now.
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As a complete aside, I’d like to give a big thanks to the Chattahoochee Hills, the USEA, and all the volunteers for putting on a great event at the AECs.  I don’t consider myself a member of the media, but Emily and Josh at the USEA were kind enough to make the seating, electrical plugins, and free Gatorade at the media center available to me throughout the weekend.

Kat’s COTH recap explains that Phillip jumped double clear on all 5 of his horses

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AEC's-Haley-and-Eliza.jpg

Another way to have fun at the AEC’s….dirtbiking on the Land Rover Course! In this picture is Harley (competing in Junior Training) and Eliza (competing in Training Horse).  Thanks for sending us the photo Eliza–we always love getting fun photos from our readers at events.  Go eventing.

Blenheim Results

By on Sep 12, 2010 10:50 pm -
I hope everyone has enjoyed our late night Blenheim updates nearly as much as I have enjoyed finishing them.  William Fox-Pitt jumped a clean round on Sunday to win the Blenheim CCI3* with Parklane Hawk.  Like Saturday, show jumping brought the Americans competing at Blenheim mixed results.
Will Coleman had a tense moment in the show jumping when Nevada Bay slipped but kept things together and jumped one of the first double-clears of the day.  Sharon White had two rails and a time penalty with Rafferty’s Rules.  Madeline Blackman did not show jump Gordonstown.  UK based Julian Stiller and Salsa had four jumping penalties and finished as the highest placed US pair in 34th.  A lot of money was spent to send the US horses over for Blenheim, and I doubt anyone is satisfied with two stops and a withdraw but the process of investing in young talent is going to involve ups and downs.

Julian is based in the UK and trains with Mark Todd

Go eventing.

Show Jumping Recap

By on Sep 12, 2010 1:24 pm -
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It’s Katie Prudent’s team on Sundays

(1) The fact that Becky and Comet won the AECs and the US World Equestrian Games selection trials is certainly impressive, but the win needs to be put in context.  Ten horses were within a rail of Comet’s dressage score and of those ten, eight show jumped double-clear and all of them could have made the time on the cross-country if they had tried to do so.  My point is that the selection trials results would have been a lot different if the entire US short list had gone all out for the win.

(2) Whoever decided to have show jumping legend Katie Prudent help the US team with their show jumping deserves a gold medal just for that decision.  Katie has transformed the look of the US eventers in the show jumping and clear rounds are starting to become the expected result.  The riders I spoke with really respect her no-nonsense approach and said they are starting to feel like show jumpers on Sunday rather than eventers.  My favorite thing about Katie is that she watched every short lister in every phase this weekend.  Katie watched the dressage all day on Friday and was out on the XC course watching on Saturday–and she had some pretty strong opinions about the cross-country rides.  Not that Katie would want the job, but I nominate Katie to be the US eventing team’s next coach–applications are being accepted now, after all.
(3) The crown jewel of Katie’s work with the team has been the complete resurrection of Tipperary Liadhnan’s show jumping.   After a stop in the Rolex show jumping and 4 rails at Bromont, everyone sighed with regret that the horse’s fabulous dressage and cross-country wouldn’t have a chance to make the WEG squad.  But Kim has worked with Katie literally every week through the summer, taking lessons on multiple horses.  In August we reported that Kim and Paddy had a successful jumper show with Katie in Kentucky.  At Richland the pair pulled just one rail and I wrote that Paddy was finally working with Kim and helping her out when necessary.  Kim knew that the show jumping at the AECs would make or break her WEG hopes and she used the tools that Katie has given her to jump a double clear.  
I tried to not cluck for Paddy too loudly behind the camera, but I couldn’t help myself
(4) Speaking of clutch performances, I knew Karen would ride great after yesterday’s mishap and she did not disappoint with a double-clear.  Mandiba jumped bigger than I have ever seen him and that gives Mandiba three straight big time clean rounds dating back to his win at Rebecca Farm.
(5) Along with hackamores, bonnets are all the rage these days amongst top eventers.  Arthur, Woodburn, Ballynoecastle, and several other advanced horses all competed in bonnets.  The idea is that bonnets muffle external sound and help keep the horses focused.  Hackamores have been trendy for a while, but I noticed Phillip switched back to a bit on Woodburn after trying a hackamore at Richland.
(6) Nate Chambers and Rolling Stone had two rails to drop from second to third, but Nate should be pleased with the improvement from his last couple of competitions.  Nate rode his round using a ‘bicycle grip,’ which means he held the reins in the palms of his hands with all 4 fingers wrapped around them and the ends connected to the bit coming out the front and covered by his thumbs.   The bicycle grip is a great training tool because it makes you use your reins in a correct opening and leading technique, but you sacrifice some control with the hands.
(7) The Saturday heat and humidity really stressed some of the horses and there were multiple colics Saturday night, most due to dehydration.  All the horses are fine, but it’s something to keep in mind as the training for the WEGs continues over the next couple of weeks.

(8) I was completely shocked at how well Remington jumped for Boyd.  I have been writing this whole year about how Remington is all-effort, but Boyd has been working as hard as anyone this summer and Remington looked downright athletic today and cleared the show jumps with ease.  This spring, there’s no way I ever would have imagined that the team might select Remington over Neville Bardos, but I’m not so sure anymore.  
(9) The time was a factor in the show jumping, with over 15 horses having time penalties.  Several of the riders, mostly Canadians, took a tight angle over the 9th fence and cut inside of another fence on their way to the triple bar.  The later riders had fewer time penalties as the word got around to ride forward through between the fences.  
(10) The US and Canadian teams will make their selections in the next two days.  The US squad will stay at Chattahoochee Hills and the Canadians will head down to the OCET training facility in Ocala, Florida until they leave for Kentucky.
(11) The show jumping felt a little strange because the short listed horses that withdrew on Saturday morning or retired early on course jumped before and after the horses that were still competing–so Becky finished and then five more jumped.  I’m not sure if we should read anything into the order of the withdrawn horses, but Neville, Bobby, and Woodburn were the last to jump for their riders.  Of course, we will have much more wild and ridiculous speculation about the teams over the next 24 hours.  Go eventing.

Becky Holder and Courageous Comet win

By on Sep 12, 2010 11:28 am -

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Carl Bouckaert congratulates Becky on her win

Becky Holder and Courageous Comet pulled one rail in the show jumping but still won the advanced division of the AECs by 9 points.  The biggest news of the day with respect to WEG selection is that Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan jumped a double clear show jumping round.  Much more including more videos soon in our SJ recap post.
1. Becky and Courageous Comet +4  45.5
2. Will Faudree and Pawlow +0  50.8
3. Nate Chambers and Rolling Stone +8  56.0
4. Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan +0  56.1
5. Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg’s Joshua +0  57.8

Show Jumping Sunday

By on Sep 12, 2010 8:06 am -

Link: Live AEC scores–Advanced starts at 8:45am ET

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Today is maybe the most important day of the selection trials for the US team hopefuls.  All eyes will be on Tipperary Liadhnan and Courageous Comet in particular, but a 2+ rail performance by anyone will be a big cause for concern.  The Canadians have a really strong squad of show jumpers and Kyle Carter will be looking to put in a good round after having a bit malfunction at Richland.
The internet speeds at Chattahoochee are just slow enough to prevent a live blog and I want to avoid a repeat of the infamous Fair Hill live blog moment: “And now Phillip is entering the arena” [followed by 2 minutes of silence as I tried to reconnect to the internet].  We will have results and video minutes after the final ride.  Go eventing.

Blenheim XC

By on Sep 11, 2010 9:26 pm -
That photo was taken of Laura Collett at the Blenheim high jump competition.  I’m not sure why anyone would bother running XC after jumping like that, but the cross-country went on at Blenheim nonetheless.  In the CCI3*, William Fox-Pitt jumped a double clear to take a slight lead over Ruth Edge and Carnival Prince.  
Links: Blenheim XC results, ECOGOLD’s blog, British newspaper

The Yanks had a bad day, with Will Coleman and Sharon White picking up a stop each.  I really like Nevada Bay and Rafferty’s Rules and there’s no doubt we will see both of those horses rebounding soon.   The highest placed US rider is Julian Stiller in 41st place with Salsa.  Madeline Blackman and Gordonstown had a solid round with 16.4 time penalties.
I wonder what happens if you gallop across the water outside of the fences.
Thanks to CM for sending the link to Laura’s photo.
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AEC Links: USEF Press Release, Beginner Novice photos, Kat’s COTH recap reminds us that David fell at the final selection trials for the 2000 Olympics

7 horses galloped Saturday morning at the AECs

By on Sep 11, 2010 8:03 pm -

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But I thought you said there were only going to be 6 horses galloping this morning?  That was the plan as I heard it up until Friday night, but the decision was made to also exempt TruLuck from the XC.  This decision made the list of gallopers 7 horses long–Truluck, Woodburn, The Foreman, Bobby, Ballynoecastle, Neville, and Remington.  
I got up early to watch the gallops at dawn and–sure enough–7 horses ran up that hill.  Phillip led a group of his three up the hill, then Buck followed with his two, and then Boyd rode Remington and Neville each himself.  I recorded all of the gallops in the video below, but I missed Boyd’s gallop on Neville because I was chatting with someone and didn’t get my camera turned on in time.

Recall that all the US short listers went to Richland except for Connaught and Truluck.  The Foreman and Woodburn went to Richland were inspected on Monday after Richland and then the decision was made to exempt them from the XC at the AECs.  The point is that unlike the six other horses that galloped this morning, Truluck has not been recently examined by team vets following an event where he ran XC.  Another consideration is that Truluck has not competed since he placed 3rd at Rebecca Farm in July.  All that being said, I have no doubt that Phillip and Truluck would run clean and fast at the WEGs, and the other thing to think about is that it’s big bad Woodburn all the way right now.
As you would expect, there are some riders who aren’t happy that some short listed horses didn’t have to run XC on Saturday and others did.  Such concerns are of course to be expected, but I can sympathize with the sentiment regarding horses that are proven on XC.  That being said, it’s a moot point now and the key is to get everyone show jumping well tomorrow.  The advanced show jumping starts at 8:45am ET Sunday.  Go eventing.

What just happened?

By on Sep 11, 2010 1:37 pm -
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An early morning photo of the stakes marking off the aggravated/treated footing

The competition here at the AECs and the complexity of the WEG team selection decisions provide so many exciting story lines on Saturday afternoon that I barely know where to start.  Let’s begin at the top of the advanced division.
(1) The word from early this morning was that Becky had every intention to go out and make the time on Comet and we all know a clean, fast round around an advanced horse trials is no sweat for Comet.  Becky looked superb the entire way around and certainly makes a good impression to the selectors by taking a big lead in the selection trials.
(2) The dressage leaders, Allison Springer and Arthur had a sticky moment early in their round (see the video) but they got things going and looked very solid throughout the rest of the course.  31 time penalties dropped the pair to 15th place, but I applaud Allison for looking after Arthur.
(3) Hawley Bennet (CAN) with Gin and Juice and Amy Tryon with Leyland skipped the back loop of the course.  Amy pulled up after the water and Hawley finished the shortened course that I described yesterday.  The fence judges were all notified this morning that riders might be modifying their course and the process went smoothly.  Hawley and “Ginny” had a surprising stop at #4B, a skinny after the mound.  The sun was playing a factor at #4B and I still think they will make the Canadian team because of Ginny’s 9th at Rolex.
(4) There was a lot of discussion about the XC course footing leading up to Saturday, but David was out with the aggravator again Saturday morning and the teams wisely put markers down to help the riders stay on the treated footing.  From what I have heard, the Canadian team was more specific about telling each rider what they wanted them to do, while the US team left the decision more up to the riders.  Most of the US and Canadian riders decided to run the full course but took their time doing so.

(5) Karen’s stop with Mandiba at fence #2 was absolutely shocking because we have come to expect perfection from Karen lately.  Number two was a pretty simple galloping fence but Karen seemed indecisive about the distance and Mandiba didn’t help her out.  Karen always rides at her very best when she is angry and she rode the rest of the course beautifully.  Word is that the selector’s were not terribly upset and today by no means takes Mandiba out of contention for the WEGs.
(6) Much to the XC spectators’ amusement, several PRO riders helped Giles the announcer with the announcing for the advanced division.  Boyd and Doug worked for about an hour and you can imagine the ridiculousness that ensued.  They were relieved by Jon Holling and Leslie Law who brought a more serious tone to the day, and then Nate Chambers wrapped things up.  Boyd mentioned that Nate will be doing free autograph signings and dance lessons tonight at the competitors’ party, so I’m sure that’s exciting news for some of our female readers.  
(7) Mary Bess Sigman had a tough fall at the log corner at #18B.  I saw frame by frame photos of the fall–Guinness X stood off the fence a good distance and put his legs down in the middle of the corner.  Fortunately the back rail was frangible and deployed.  Guinness rolled over Mary but they both were fine and walked away.  The response time of the medical and veterinary personnel was exquisite, but perhaps too good as Jennifer Simmons and JB’s Star had a glance off at #15B as about 7 cars including an ambulance were overtaking them rushing to where Guinness fell.  
(8) Amy Tryon’s stirrup fell off a few fences into her ride with Coal Creek.  It’s not like we need any more evidence of Amy’s toughness, but she rode about 10 more fences with one stirrup before deciding to pull up.
(9) The selectors are paying attention to more than just WEG selection this weekend.  Sinead Halpin and Manoir de Careville had an excellent ride with just 2.8 time penalties to move up from 22nd to 4th.  Laine Ashker looked great as well with Anthony Patch.  Both Laine and Sinead seem like very strong candidates for grants to go to the Boekelo CCI3* in Holland later this year.  The US will help fund 4 riders to go to Boekelo.
(10) The word in the barns all week had been that the advanced XC course looked pretty small and straightforward, but 8 out of 38 starters had problems, including two short listers.  Will prophetically told me yesterday that you have to be really careful not to take for granted these courses that riders might label as simple.  Will had two beautiful rides today and once again finds himself near the top of the leader board with Pawlow.  Whatever happens with the selections, Pawlow has answered every question that has been put in front of him.  You can say the same for Last Monarch, who looked in top form today as well.
(11) One of the most influential jumps on the course was #18B, which caused Erika Treis Pterson and Mary Bess Sigman to fall.  The drop at #12A had really soft footing in front of the ground line and caused sticky drops down all day.  The great Chattahoochee crew did all they could to repair the sand at #12A, but Snooza Alarm was eliminated at that fence.  The skinny over the mound at #4B caught Jennifer Wooten – DaFoe with Nabouco De Lessey in addition to Gin and Juice.  The turning skinny combination at #15 caused several problems as well.  The advanced division started at 8:30am to preserve the horses from the afternoon heat, but several  of the early riders told me that there were some real issues with shadows and glare from the rising sun.  The second half or riders had fewer jumping issues than the first half.  
(12) Several riders who won’t get a lot of attention from the media because they are not team hopefuls rode really well today.  Sinead, Nate, and Laine obviously come to mind, and I would add Holly Payne with Madeline and Jennifer Wooten-DaFoe on The Good Witch to that list.  Escipion Mendivil and Azteca of Mexico looked better than I have ever seen them in their final run before the WEGs.  Robert Costello also had a great ride on Dustin IV.
There are lots of divisions in action today at the AECs, and be sure to check out their scores as well.  We will have much more later today, including a report on the horses that galloped this morning.  Go Cats.

Becky Holder and Courageous Comet make the time

By on Sep 11, 2010 11:17 am -
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Becky and Comet galloped around the AEC track clean and fast to jump into the lead by 7 points.  The big news of the day is that Mandiba had a stop at the second fence, a stone-topped table.  Hawley Bennet-Awad with Gin and Juice and Amy with Leyland were eliminated for intentionally shortening their course.  Everyone who had issues or fell walked off the course safely.  We will have much more including video soon.

Link: AEC XC scores


1. Becky Holder and Courageous Comet +0  41.5
2. Nate Chambers and Roling Stone II +0  48.0
3. Will Faudree and Pawlow +6.8  50.8
4. Sinead Halpin and Manoir de Carneville +2.8  55.3
5. Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan +11.6  56.1
6. Laine Ashker and Anthony Patch +7.2  56.2
7. Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg’s Joshua +14  57.8

Go wolverines.  

Cross-Country Saturday at the AECs

By on Sep 11, 2010 6:55 am -
Link: Live XC scores–Advanced starts at 8:30am ET
The courses at Chattahoochee Hills are beautifully built and I’m looking forward to a great day of XC action.  I mentioned the footing at Chattahoochee yesterday and everyone here has certainly done everything possible to make the ground as good as possible for the horses, and the footing is much improved from a few days ago thanks to the aggravator.  As of 7:00am Saturday morning, it sounds like at most, if not all, of the US short listed horses (other than those galloping this morning) will run the full course, some going for the time, and most of the Canadians will run the full course as well.  Whatever each rider decides to do, a lot of thought has been put into that decision and all that’s left to do is to execute that plan.  One way or another, it’s going to be interesting to see how today plays out.
A big EN thank you to all of the volunteers for making XC possible at the AECs and good luck to all the competitors.  Hannah Burnett is riding in the advanced on St. Barths and was kind enough to send some pictures and a preview of the cross-country for your reading pleasure.
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From Hannah: 

Hey Eventing Nation! The XC here at Chattahoochee looks very nice & inviting overall–most likely to give the short listers a good confident ride before the WEG in a few short weeks. The first few jumps are big gallopy fences, #4ab is a roll top and then 6 forward strides up and down a mound to a skinny wedge. 

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5 & 6 are big tables on an angled forward 2 stride together. A couple more fences precede #12ab: big drop down & a really forward 4 strides to a toothbrush downhill. #14 is a collapsable table (which I’ve never seen in person & its cool!) #15ab are two big skinnies on a left bending 4 stride. A brush fence and roll top are before a vertical on an angled 2 strides to a wide open left-handed corner. The coffin is #20abc with a solid upright, one stride ditch, 2 strides over a skinny on a slight left bend.
The coffin at #20">aecxcjump1.jpg

The coffin at #20
A few galloping tables come before the water jump at # 24abc: a drop, 5 strides brush type fence, slightly left 3 strides to a skinny & gallop out of the water. 
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The only water complex — #24 
The last combination is #25abc with a bank up, bounce over a rail and down a mound 6 strides to a right handed corner.

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On top of the bank complex at #25B, looking down at #25C
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The other courses have some serious questions, including the prelim double corners.
Thanks so much to everyone here at Chatt Hills for running a lovely event, and mostly to Carl Bouchaert & the awesome title sponsor for the AECs this year–Land Rover. Good luck to everyone!
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Josh Walker’s great video from Friday at the AECs

That was fast

By on Sep 10, 2010 11:28 pm -

I’m not sure when a website transitions from small-time to big-time, but I have a feeling it might be somewhere around when people start writing its tag-line on their vehicles.  In my ‘Friday Night Reader‘ post, I wrote that I had heard that someone was driving around the AECs with ‘insanity in the middle’ written on their truck.  Two loyal EN readers, Devan and Miriam, read my post and noticed that very truck at their hotel and kindly took a few pictures:

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Eventing Nation started with me writing one measly little ridiculous post per day with the goal of serving the eventing community and it has grown to what it is today because of the dedicated help of our fantastic writers and readers.  As always, thanks for being part of the journey and go eventing.

6 US horses competing at Blenheim CCI3*

By on Sep 10, 2010 10:40 pm -

We are giving the American Eventing Championships a lot of attention for obvious reasons, but the Blenheim CCI3* is being contested this weekend in England, with 6 US pairs in action at Blenheim.  Will Coleman and Nevada Bay lead the way for the Yanks after the dressage on Friday.  As we have been writing for a while now, Julian Stiller and Aimee Chambers are US riders based in the UK.



19T. Will Coleman and Nevada Bay  50.6
25T. Sharon White and Rafferty’s Rules  52.4
33. Aimee Chambers and After Eight  54.0
40. Julian Stiller and Chapel Amble  55.2
79. Madeline Blackman and Gordonstown  65.2
82. Julian Stiller and Salsa  66.0

Ecogold is taking some great videos this weekend:

Sharon White and Rafferty’s Rules:

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Time for some late night links:
Peter Atkins took Henny for a gallop with his helmet cam

3D3W has taken a ton of pictures at the AECs

Boyd’s blog tells the story of his day at the AECs


Friday Night Reader from the AECs

By on Sep 10, 2010 6:00 pm -

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Carl Bouckaert deserves a huge Eventing Nation ‘thank you’ for building such a fantastic eventing facility at Chattahoochee Hills and hosting such a fabulous event.  Carl is competing this weekend in the advanced on Raphael for Belgium.
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Probably the biggest issue on everyone’s mind here at the AECs is the footing.  The Georgia ground is clay based and very dry.  David O’Connor and Mark Phillips took matters into their own hands Thurday night and used an aggravator (similar to an aerator) to loosen up the clay, but only so much can by done to dry ground and the footing is still noticeably firm.  All the horses here have certainly ran on worse ground before, but the short listed riders in particular are certainly thinking about the ground.

On top of this, the advanced course is relatively small and looks considerably more straightforward than the Richland course that nearly all of the short listed horses ran just two weeks ago.  So, as I’m sure you can already imagine, the logic from the riders goes something like: if we just ran around Richland, why should we have to run our horses on an easier course with bad footing two weeks before the WEGs?  From an information theory perspective, I’m not convinced that the selectors would learn enough by watching the horses on cross-country to justify running a full course.  On the other hand, it makes sense to give the horses some stress on Saturday to get a more realistic evaluation of how they jog and show jump.  The US team has already addressed similar concerns by having Woodburn, The Foreman, Bobby, Ballynoecastle, Remington, and Neville gallop on Saturday morning instead of running XC.

I have heard some chatter amongst the teams about coming up with a revised cross-country course for the potential WEG horses.  Looking at the advanced map below, one option might be to go from fence #8 directly to the water at #24, or to go from fence #12 directly to #21 and then pull up after the water or finish the course.  Obviously, this would eliminate all of the team horses from the competition, but it would save the horses a lot of pounding.  This shortened course possibility is still very much just a possibility, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

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Now a few notes from the dressage:

(1) The US team did really really well on Friday.  15 US short listers finished inside the top 17 and all of the top 10 horses going into the XC are on the US short list.  Mark Phillips and the entire US team support staff should get a lot of credit for bringing in Oded Shimoni to help with the dressage coaching, and, as I have been saying for a while, the US team is looking really good on the flat right now.

Video: Check out Kim’s preview of the advanced water, Boyd’s favorite NFL team, and Steph Rhodes-Bosch’s post dressage thoughts.  Apologies for the announcers, who did a great job today but talked over our interviewees occasionally.



(2) After winning at Richland, anyone would have expected to see Allison Springer and Arthur around the top of the leaderboard after the AECs dressage, but they went ridiculously low on Friday.  Imagine riding against the entire US and Canadian short lists and beating everyone in the dressage by 6 points!  Arthur has been consistent in the jumping since Rolex, but the big question now is how the selectors will weigh the potential upside against a less than stellar record at four-stars.

(3) The Canadian team had a decent day on the flat, with Hawley Bennet-Awad and Gin & Juice leading the way in 12th place.  Port Authority and Colombo both took a slight step back from their great performances at Richland.  It’s great to see Rebecca Howard’s Riddle Master back in action after withdrawing from Richland due to an abscess.  Diana Burnett with Manny and Ian Roberts on Napam round out the top six placed Canadian short listers.  The Canadians usually make their move on Saturday, and the amount that they can move up on Saturday will all depend on the difficulty of the Chattahoochee Hills XC course.

Please also enjoy a tour of the AECs as I wander aimlessly around Chattahoochee Hills:

(4) Someone told me that there is an SUV driving around the AECs with “insanity in the middle” written on the back window.  Anyone who gets a picture of the SUV with their cell phone and emails it to me wins some huge EN Karma.

(5) 51 horses finished the dressage and as of right now, 45 are scheduled to start the XC.  Go eventing.

Arthur, The Foreman, and Comet top 3 at AECs

By on Sep 10, 2010 5:28 pm -

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After a long afternoon of watching dressage under the hot Georgia sun, nothing changed at the top of the AEC advanced leader board and Allison Springer takes a big lead going into the cross-country on Saturday.  Phillip delivered great test after great test all day and has three horses in the top 6.  Aside from Allison’s, most of the top tests had a slight bobble–either a late change behind or some fidgeting in the walk.


1. Allison Springer and Arthur  35.7

2. Phillip Dutton and The Foreman  41.5

3. Becky Holder and Courageous Comet  42.0

4. Phillip Dutton and Wooburn  42.3
5T. Karen O’Connor and Mandiba

5T. Phillip Dutton and Connaught  42.8
7T. Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg’s Joshua  43.8

7T. Boyd Martin and Remington  43.8

9. Will Faudree and Pawlow  44.0

10. Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan

The US team should be really happy with 15 short listed horses in the top 17 after the dressage.  We will have much more to come from Chattahoochee, including more worst videos ever in a few minutes.  Go eventing.

Allison and Arthur Dominate Friday Morning at the AECs

By on Sep 10, 2010 11:30 am -
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Pawlow getting a well deserved loosened flash from his groom Nat after scoring a 44.0

Friday morning scores:

1. Allison Springer and Arthur  35.7

2. Phillip Dutton and Wooburn  42.3
3. Phillip Dutton and Connaught  42.8
4T. Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg’s Joshua  43.8
4T. Boyd Martin and Remington  43.8
6. Will Faudree and Pawlow  44.0

(1) One thing to remember when we are looking at these scores is that the advanced AEC division is riding the FEI CCI4* test B, and the tests are being scored accordingly.  So, Allison and Arthur scored 35.7 riding a three-day test, and they bettered their score at Rolex by 7 points.  All the other divisions are doing the national USEF B tests.

(2) 17 US short listers are set to start at the AECs and the US riders, vets and team coaches need to get a lot of credit for keeping the US short list sound over these past few weeks.  Inevitably, these last two weeks before the WEGs are incredibly tense but it is definitely a ‘so-far so-good’ for the US team on the soundess front–knock on wood.
(3) The weather in Georgia this weekend is very warm with highs in the 90’s and humidity around 40%.

(4) With 702 competitors, the word is that the AECs are the largest horse trials in history although I have no idea how one would verify that statistic.  Let’s just say it is really really big here.  The Chattahoochee Hills venue is about a kagillion acres but the stabling and dressage arenas are all very close together, giving the AECs the feel of a big hunter/jumper show.
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“We’re going to need a bigger scoreboard” –10 points to name the movie

(5) Brandenburg’s Joshua apparently got loose this morning and galloped around the dressage area for a while during Carl’s ride.  Just another day of eventing.

(6) Of course we will have much more ridiculousness from Chattahoochee Hills later today and throughout the weekend, including my much-awaited NFL Super Bowl picks.  Let’s just say I’m not buying into the Jets.

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In addition to providing our own Eventing Nation coverage, we will be sure to link to all the great AEC coverage on other sites this weekend so that our readers can get the best of all worlds.
Tursday USEA recap video

The USEA Blog has bunches of great photos up now from Thursday
3D3W has a ton of fun photos from around the AECs that go well beyond the competition arenas
Go eventing.

Thank you Paulick Report

By on Sep 9, 2010 10:09 pm -
We are breaking out the official Eventing Nation ‘thank you’ photo tonight in appreciation for the Paulick Report writing about Eventing Nation and Hahahorses.com.  The Paulick Report is a really big website in the horse racing world and it is the go to place for all the horse racing news and inside info.  Mr. Paulick has been a friend and mentor since I attended high school with his son in Lexington, KY and Eventing Nation would not exist without his guidance.  The Paulick Report is such a popular website that the Hahahorses servers are straining from all of the click-thorughs today, so let’s return the favor and flex a little EN muscle by checking out the Paulick Report article about us.  Click here and go eventing.

Opening day of competition at the AECs and Blenheim

By on Sep 9, 2010 4:20 pm -

The beginner novice through training divisions at the AECs started their competition on Thursday, and some of the training and novice divisions even do cross-country on Thursday.  Not surprisingly, almost all of the leading scores are in the 20’s.


The AECs are the pride of the USEA and the great USEA crew will be taking literally thousands of photos over the weekend.  I have heard that the mission is to photograph every single rider and I don’t doubt that they will succeed.  Click here for Wednesday’s photos.  

Boyd had a run-in with the law on his way to Georgia.  Fortunately it was only an animal health inspector checking Boyd’s Coggins, and the Coggins for Boyd’s horses, which were all in order apparently.  I want to give a shout out to the member of the Boyd Martin Eventing crew whose first move after being pulled over by the cops was to pull out the cell phone and take a picture–a true member of Eventing Nation.  
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Meanwhile, in England, the Blenheim CCI3* dressage started on Thursday.  The only US rider to compete today was British-based Julian Stiller, who scored a 66 on Salsa.  All the other US riders do dressage on Friday.  I realized that I forgot to mention earlier this week that Will Coleman and Nevada Bay are competing at Blenheim for the US along with Sharon White on Rafferty’s Rules, Madeline Blackman on Gordonstown, and UK based riders Julian Stiller and Aimee Chambers.  Nevada Bay is one of my favorite young advanced horses and to make my omission up to Will, he is featured in both of the videos below.

As always, Will’s groom did a great job of turning out both Nevada Bay and Will.


Patricia at Ecogold was kind enough to walk the Blenheim course with her video camera.  While the footage is choppy, our female readers will at least enjoy watching Will walk around from behind.

Go eventing.

Where does it stop?

By on Sep 9, 2010 2:44 pm -
We live in an era of eventing where the welfare of horses in increasingly being sacrificed for the pride and financial gain of their riders and national federations.  The number of stories that I hear that lead me to believe horsemanship has been entirely abandoned by many of today’s top riders is astounding.  I have always thought of Irish eventers as great horsemen, which is why today’s story really surprises me.  
Ireland’s Geoff Curran and The Jump Jet have been placed on the Irish WEG squad despite having just completed Burghley last weekend.  Geoff and The Jump Jet were on the Irish reserve list and were moved up after team member Mike Ryan withdrew Ballylynch Adventure and first reserve Jayne Doherty withdrew The Only One, both due to injury.  Those withdraws left Geoff as the only remaining member of the Irish reserves.  I liked watching Geoff compete in his military uniform at Rolex this year, and I have heard good things about his personality, and I have a ton of respect for Irish eventing, but this is a ridiculous and blatant disregard for horse welfare.  The cross-country at the World Equestrian Games is 27 days after Burghley and no one can convince me that the best thing for The Jump Jet to run at the two largest four-stars in the World in under a month.
It’s unfortunate that Ireland has run out of listed reserve riders, but just because Ireland has bought six spots on an airplane headed for Kentucky doesn’t mean they have to put six horses on that plane.  I understand how much is at stake for Geoff and Ireland, and I can sympathize with the idea that you need to take advantage of a good four-star horse when you have such a horse, but where are we supposed to draw the line?  What about running four-stars three weeks apart, or two?  
The shift in our sport to the short format has led to less and less rest time for horses and a willingness to compete at more three-days closer together.  I for one do not want to wait until a horse breaks down after competing two four-stars close together to start getting serious about not running horses off their legs.  The simple fact is that no one knows for sure yet what is a good amount of rest time between short format four-stars.  But, a policy that says “pushing the envelope hasn’t ended in disaster yet so let’s push it a bit farther” will only end with disaster.
The Horse and Hound makes the point that Ireland’s Mark Kyle competed at the Olympics and then Burghley in 2004 which were 17 days apart, but just because something has been tried before doesn’t make it acceptable.  The word around the upper echelons of eventing is that our sport absolutely needs the WEGs to be safe and incident free and I can’t help but worry that decisions like this put our entire sport at risk.  Go eventing.

The Ginger Giraffe, part 2 — Patience

By on Sep 8, 2010 11:22 pm -

Eventing Nation’s UK connection, aka lec, recently adopted a rescue horse and generously offered to take us on a multi-part tour of the horse’s development.  Thanks for writing this lec and thank you for reading.   

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Link: Part 1

From Lec:  

Since last time I wrote to Eventing Nation, I have not done a huge amount of interesting things with my young ginger giraffe, but I have been working on key issues that affect every young horse–namely contact and forwardness.

 

Arthur now has a very clear idea of going forward. A dressage lesson with a GP dressage trainer shouting forwards at me all the time drilled into me and the horse how forward we need to be. My main struggle is that this was all very well in an indoor arena which was 60 x 30m but as soon as I took my schooling onto grass (I do not have an arena at home) we were inverted, hollow and slightly out of control with no walls to bounce off and provide boundaries. I could not touch his mouth as it made him more inverted so I was almost weeping hecause I had this horse who was going in flat out trot with its head up my nose. Arthur was never going to relax over his back and stretch into the contact like this, so I reverted to the good old neck strap. Slowly I managed to slow the trot down and Arthur responded to my tugs on the neck strap every time he shot off. With slowing down the trot came the relaxation across the back and stretch in the neck. Last week he just suddenly got the idea of long and low which seemed like a massive breakthrough and I was glad I had been patient about it.

 

At the last time of writing Arthur had no canter. This gait has now progressed and I can canter in a light seat in a circle. His kicking out attitude has gone and been replaced by a willing worker. The canter will be a slow progress but I think it will come as he gets stronger. Slowly he is beginning to understand the ‘inside leg to outside hand’ concept but lateral work still is met with the idea that leg on means forwards faster!

 

Recently, I went to an unaffiliated dressage competition to do the walk and trot test. I was just hoping to introduce him to dressage boards, atmosphere and vaguely doing the right movements in the right place. I had no expectations as he is on a knifes edge with the contact–he is either beginning to stretch into it or inverted. I was actually quite pleased because he was superbly behaved and he did all the transitions in the right place. On his 20m trot circle he actually relaxed and stretched. The test was a bit dull and boring but I feel that balance and control are more importance than flash and panache. I took the horse home as the competition was only 5 minutes up the road and then came back later to find out how he got on. I was met with a nice 71% and 1st rosette. I was thrilled as there had been 11 in the class and though I think it was very generously marked I think it bodes well for the future.

Its coming slowly, need more stretch and my reins need to be longer to allow that.

 

Relaxation over the back coming but more stretch needed in the neck rather than curl. Longer reins needed!

 

Also, Arthur has started jumping! We borrowed a friend’s arena and started him off over trotting poles before progressing to a small jump. He was confident about it and was if anything slightly lazy since he is 17.1hh and cannot be bothered to make an effort over 2ft. I moved the fence to gradually to about 2’6 and the result was better. At home he has been progressing well. He is still really green so I have to be careful not to be tempted by putting the fences up and instead I make them wider to get a better shape over them. Over grids he is just beginning to give me the feeling like he will be quite athletic. Over uprights he is quite lazy until they get to 2’9 where he then actually makes an effort to jump out of trot. Until the canter can be shortened and lengthened he will stay doing all his work out of trot. The plan is to take him cross country schooling in the next two weeks as I think he needs more to make him think and make an effort while keeping it really small. I am also debating about taking him autumn hunting and depending on how the cross country schooling goes a small hunter trial following a more experienced horse as a pair. I also have my riding club camp to look forward to which is 3 days of horsey fun and a lot of wine! I am very lucky as live in a very equine area with 5 large show centres within 45 minutes drive so I have my pick about what to do.

More traditional way of going! Naughty rider using outside rein to balance and turn!

 

Finally my greatest frustration has been my farrier. Arthur lost a shoe last week and the farrier keeps re-arranging his schedule which is driving me crazy, so Arthur has had an impromptu holiday for a week. I am lucky that I am not eventing this season or else I would be fuming at so much lost time. Sadly I think its time to find another farrier which upsets me greatly as this one is fab but long term I cannot deal with his unreliability. I am absolutely anal about horses feet so the long quest will begin to find another one who I trust and does a good reliable job.