Happy Thanksgiving…Australia…! The rest of us have to wait a few more hours until the celebration of gluttony, Pilgrims, and shopping stampedes can begin. Fun fact–I bet you didn’t know that when the Pilgrims packed for their trip across the Atlantic they loaded the Mayflower with more beer than water. Sounds like my kind of trip.
In other news, on Sunday the USEF released their 2012 training list and last night they released the 2012 developing rider list. Out of habit, I refer to the “high performance lists” as “training lists” and the “developing rider list” as just that. 47 lucky horses and 38 lucky riders made those lists compared to just 23 being named to the 2011 summer training and developing lists. The age old adage “the more the better” doesn’t seem to apply and the 2012 lists have faced a lot of public criticism largely due to the omission of Colleen Rutledge as well as a few other popular riders.
–First things first. I wrote about it last night, but it’s worth saying again. There’s no reason that I can see to leave Colleen and Shiraz off of the training list. I would say the same thing to Colleen that I would have said before Burghley–go out to Badminton and make it impossible for the selectors to leave you off the team. Frankly I would say the same thing to any rider upset on not being put on the lists–the lists that matter come out next year.
–One notable difference from the 2011 and 2012 lists is that the 2012 lists name specific pairs. This is likely due to selection and training of specific top pairs being more of a factor in an Olympic year.
–The focus of this group of training lists appears to be to invest in younger talent. Depending on how you look at it, US high performance is either very youthful or very thin at this point in the process. There are only *9 horses who have competed at four-stars on the USEF training lists–Twizzel, Manoir de Carnville “Tate”, Neville, Ballynoe Castle, Pawlow, Fernhill Gloster Rebel, Ying Yang Yo, Chapel Amble and Mr. Medicott. Two of those have been acquired in the last month, and one was essentially retired at the beginning of the year. The Olympics are technically not a four-star, but I entirely expect that you are going to want a confirmed four-star horse to compete on Sue Benson’s Olympic track. The spring four-stars are going to be incredibly important in picking the US team.
–Generally speaking, we don’t have as much information about individual horses as the selectors. I have seen a few comments questioning why certain horses weren’t added and the simple answer for some of the horses is that they aren’t sound right now.
–The list selections were made by the USEF selectors and the high performance committee. Developing rider nominations were made via application as well as the USEF’s talent spotters.
–It is a sad testament to our program and the challenges of eventing that only two horses who competed for the USA at the WEGs just a year ago are still on the high performance lists.
–Make no mistake: this isn’t a list of the only pairs who will be considered for the Olympics. My feeling is that there are several pairs who will be in top contention come next summer who are not currently on the training lists. Think of an Icarus or a Courageous Comet, depending on how his recovery progresses. A great finish at Rolex or Badminton next year from a veteran pair would instantly jump them into top contention.
—4 of the 6 horses who competed for the USA at Belnheim this summer made the USEF training list (Ringwood Magister, Loughan Glen, Pawlow, Mighty Nice) and 5 of the riders (Tiana, Clark, Phillip, Will, and Julian) made the training list. In contrast, only *one of the US horses who competed at Boekelo made any of the lists (Otis).
—Only 3 of the 5 pairs who won team gold for the USA at the Pan American Games made the training list (Hannah with Harbour Pilot, Shannon Lilley with Mango, and Buck with Absolute Liberty). The other two pairs were named to the developing rider list (Michael with Hanni, and Lynn and Donner). Pan Am alternates Jolie Wentworth and Good Knight had the strange circumstance of having to essentially withdraw from Pan Am consideration due to a self imposed quarantine from a potential illness in their barn, but they have rebounded by making the High Performance B list.
—Sadly, just one rider from the summer developing rider list in 2011 made the step up to the the training list (Tiana). Three riders from the summer training list are now on the developing rider list–Doug, Jennie, and Michael. Shannon, Marilyn, Jolie, Becky, and Jan have jumped onto the training lists after being left completely off of the 2011 summer training and developing lists.
–My top 4 picks for riders who got left off the list are Colleen, Alexandra Slusher, Emily Beshear, and 2* young riders champion Devon Brown. Moving forward, I’d like to see the Young Riders 2* champion get an automatic berth in the developing rider program for the following year.
–Gun to my head right now…I just can’t pick an early Olympic team. Boyd and Sinead are the only two picks who seem obvious. The issue with Sinead is that she only has one, albeit really nice, horse. I really want to put Shannon Lilley and Mango on my very early team picks because I couldn’t have been more impressed with them throughout the entire Pan Am process. I’m concerned that Phillip’s string is still a bit young, but knowing Phillip they will come out next year ready for whatever Sue Benson can throw at them. As a general rule of thumb, my team picks always include Phillip with [insert horse and/or donkey]. Buck and Will are both riders I would want on my team, but there are small question marks with every single one of their horses. Inmidair and Twizzel are two horses I will be really cheering for to come out strong in the spring. And I haven’t even mentioned the two greys–Can’t Fire Me and Ringwood Magister, who might be the two most talented horses of the bunch.
That’s all for now. Pace yourselves Eventing Nation. The London high performance insanity is just officially getting started. Go eventing.
