Classic Eventing Nation

Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen. Photo by Jenni Autry.

It’s hot hot hot here at the Land Rover Great Meadow International, and U.S. Olympic team members Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen are on fire, jumping a super clear round over Marc Donovan’s show jumping course to hold the lead in the inaugural U.S. Nations Cup leg on their dressage score of 36.3.

Clark said earlier in the day that he is definitely feeling pressure to deliver a top performance, and he echoed that same sentiment in the press conference following show jumping. But if he can deliver two top phases despite battling nerves, we say bring on the pressure! It’s definitely good practice ahead of Rio.

“I’ve been feeling more nervous about riding at this event in front of you guys than about any of my past ones, but he went in and jumped great,” Clark said. “It helps to have an arena like this and footing like this. It’s just amazing, especially coming from England, where we’re always on grass and terrain, which can be fun sometimes, but if you get weather it can be quite difficult. I couldn’t be happier to be where I am right now.”

Maya Black and Doesn’t Play Fair. Photo by Jenni Autry.

The top seven combinations after dressage retained their positions on the leaderboard thanks to jumping clear rounds inside the time. Eighteen of the 40 pairs in the competition went double clear, which is 45 percent of the field.

Maya Black and Jon and Dawn Dofelmier’s Doesn’t Play Fair, the traveling reserve combination for the U.S. Olympic team, remained in second on 41.4 with a lovely clear round. Lauren Kieffer and her U.S. Olympic team mount Team Rebecca’s Veronica jumped their sixth consecutive clear FEI show jumping round to hold third place on 43.7.

Lauren Kieffer and Veronica. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Marilyn Little and RF Demeter, owned by Jacqueline Mars, Raylyn Farms and Patrick Witte, are hot on Lauren’s heels, with a clear show jumping round keeping them in fourth place and just 0.1 penalties out of the top three. Jessica Phoenix and Don Good’s Bentley’s Best maintained their spot as the top Canadian pair on the leaderboard with a clear round to hold fifth on 44.1.

Phillip Dutton had one rail down on his Olympic mount Fernhill Cubalawn but jumped clear rounds with Tom Tierney and Annie Jones’ Fernhill Fugitive and HND Group’s Mighty Nice to keep two rides in the top 10. Fernhill Fugitive, who is competing on the U.S. Nations Cup team, sits in equal sixth on 47.2, with Mighty Nice in ninth on 47.9.

Marilyn Little and RF Demeter. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Holly Payne Caravella and Beth Groblewski’s Santino continue to lead the off-track Thoroughbred charge at Great Meadow, jumping a cracking clear to remain tied for sixth place on 47.2. The 13-year-old gelding is competing in his first major competition since the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in April, where he completed his first CCI4*.

Boyd Martin and his Olympic mount, the Blackfoot Mystery Syndicate’s Blackfoot Mystery, delivered yet another strong phase today, jumping clear and moving up to eighth on their dressage score of  47.7. His reserve horse for Rio and Nations Cup mount, Craig and Gloria Callen’s Welcome Shadow, also jumped clear and inside the time and moved into the top 10 on her dressage score of 48.8.

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Time penalties definitely proved costly, with just a handful of penalties knocking some riders well down the leaderboard. Emily Beshear and Deep Purple Eventing’s Shame on the Moon jumped a fluid clear round, but 2 time penalties bumped them down five spots on the leaderboard to 13th. Eight riders in all exceeded the optimum time of 90 seconds.

After two phases, Team USA still leads the Nations Cup standings on 132.3. Three of the four team riders jumped clear show jumping rounds, with just Lauren Kieffer and Marie le Menestrel’s Meadowbrook’s Scarlett pulling a rail. Canada’s team pulled five rails and sits in second on 157.2, and Great Britain’s team pulled five rails to sit in third on 171.7.

Holly Payne Caravella and Santino. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Phillip Dutton, Waylon Roberts and Jodie Amos spoke in the press conference following show jumping as representatives of their respective Nations Cup teams, and they said what we’ve ball been thinking: Great Meadow has truly rolled out the red carpet for a world class competition. Even with high temperatures making for a sweltering afternoon, a huge numbers of spectators packed the grounds to enjoy the day.

“You all can see what a great thing it is with the great location, and hats off to everybody who’s put this together in such a short time,” Phillip said. “It’s exciting for us to have some visitors come this way. Usually we have to go over to Europe to compete and ride, so thanks to the British for coming over and supporting this. I think it can only bigger and better, and it’s great for the sport. I think we should all get behind this event and encourage them to keep going.”

Boyd Martin and Blackfoot Mystery. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Waylon agreed: “It’s a real privilege, and I think it’s a world-class event. It’s a beautiful venue, and they’re really putting the effort in to bringing North American eventing up to an international standard. I know that me and my fellow Canadians are really pleased to be here and looking forward to riding round Mike’s course tomorrow. I think it’s going to be something special for the future.”

Jodie Amos and Nicola Coates’ Wise Crack are sitting in 11th place as the highest placed British pair on their dressage score of 49.0 after jumping a classy clear round, and she said it’s an honor for their team to be competing in the U.S.

Jodie Amos and Wise Crack. Photo by Jenni Autry.

“I’m really, really excited to be here,” Jodie said. “It’s an incredible opportunity, and I think all of us competing here are very grateful for the opportunity. It all happened in the last couple of weeks and it’s been incredible. We couldn’t have been more welcome. The facilities are second to none. The arena obviously is absolutely incredible. The footing is brilliant. The cross country course for tomorrow looks fantastic.”

Cross country starts at 9:30 a.m. EST tomorrow and is scheduled to run through noon. You can watch live on USEF Network, and we’ll also be running live updates here on EN for those of you who can’t watch the live stream. Be sure to check EN’s Instagram for loads of photos from today, and click here to catch up on all of EN’s #GMI2016 coverage.

#GMI2016: Website, Schedule, Ride Times, Live Scores, Live Stream, Twitter, Instagram, EN’s Coverage, @samanthalclark

Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen. Photo by Jenni Autry.

U.S. Olympic team members Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen came into the Land Rover Great Meadow International, presented by Adequan®, as the heavy favorites to take the Nations Cup win, and they beat the heat today to lead the inaugural U.S. Nations Cup leg after dressage on 36.3, the only score in the 30s.

That mark has Clark and Glen easily holding a five-point lead over Rio traveling reserves Maya Black and Doesn’t Play Fair, and they would have widened that margin even more had it not been for two bobbles: one in the first halt when Glen nearly stopped at X and one in the second flying change when they lost a bit of rhythm.

“We started off with a mistake, which was really annoying. That’s the one move I forgot to practice in the warm-up because we kept the warm up quite short because of the heat. For Rio, he will not be trying to halt early! I just relaxed at X thinking everything was good, and he went to stop,” Clark said.

“Everything else felt quite good except for the second change. I turned across the short diagonal, and he felt good and I relaxed and he lost his balance. It’s such a short diagonal, and I didn’t have have time to fix it before the change. The change was clean, but it certainly wasn’t as good.”

Vivian Montgomery is very proud of her dad! Clark and Loughan Glen lead #GMI2016 after dressage

A photo posted by Eventing Nation (@goeventing) on Jul 9, 2016 at 1:00pm PDT

Still, the fact that Clark and Glen can make mistakes and still score a 36 is a prime example of why they’re such an asset to Team USA. Clark and the 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Jess Montgomery, Kathryn Kraft and Holly and Bill Becker are the only active U.S. combination that averages in the 30s in dressage — and they can finish on that score.

“There’s the expectation to perform in front of the home crowd that hasn’t seen me in a long time,” Clark said. “That’s a funny feeling; I didn’t expect that. At the same time, it’s good because everyone is going to expect me to perform well at Rio, so it’s good to deal with those nerves on a smaller scale.”

Now Clark looks ahead to tonight’s show jumping, when Glen will tackle Marc Donovan’s course in very warm temperatures. The good news is Glen seems to be handling the heat well. “I was proud of him this afternoon,” Clark said. “He was really bright and strong even in the arena at times, so that was nice to feel that the heat hadn’t taken it all out of him. We’ll know more when he jumps, but so far he’s doing well.”

As for how Clark, a native Texan who has spent the last three years based in England, is handing the heat: “I’m hot as hell. … I was looking forward to getting in the sun, but this is a little extreme!” We have to agree. It’s currently 89 degrees with the humidity pushing the real-feel temperature up to 93 degrees — Chinch is melting!

Maya Black and Doesn’t Play Fair. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Maya Black and Doesn’t Play Fair delivered a personal best score of 41.4 to sit in second place after dressage. The 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by Dawn and Jon Dofelmier can be a handful in the sandbox, but “Cody” and Maya continue to dial in their performance in this phase and did not disappoint today.

“Overall I was happy; he seemed settled in there, and that’s something that we’ve worked towards over the years. I know that he has a lot more experience now and I understand that, but it’s still nice to go to a new venue and be able to keep him under wraps because historically that used to be something we needed to practice,” Maya said.

“Otherwise he was really quite rideable. I was happy with the canter work. I felt like still at the beginning in the trot I could have had him a little bit more open in front in his neck, and that’s just something that’s going to come with me trusting him more over the years, but he just felt like maybe I could have him a little bit more lifted in his shoulders in the trot work. His canter work has come along a lot this spring so I was happy with that.”

Is Maya feeling more pressure this weekend as the traveling reserve member of the U.S. Olympic squad? “I feel like there are a few more opinions, maybe there are a few more people putting their two cents in, but otherwise no. I always just go in and try to do my best. It’s been a work in progress, but I feel like it’s going in the right direction now.”

Lauren Kieffer and Veronica. Photo by Jenni Autry.

U.S. Olympic team members Lauren Kieffer and Team Rebecca’s Veronica scored 43.7 to round out the top three after the first phase, and that would have dipped lower had it not been for a few mistakes, like a break to canter during the medium trot. But Lauren said after the test that part of her strategy this weekend was to push for more with the 13-year-old Dutch mare.

“We were playing around with where we could maybe pick up some points in places or show her off more, and we had a couple of bobbles with that in mind, but that was the point of that: to play with it here, and then hopefully we’ll know what we’ve got when we get to the Games,” Lauren said.

“She feels really well. She just keeps getting stronger and stronger. She knows her job; she loves to compete, and she goes in the ring and gets pretty flippy with her toes. She’s pretty fun to sit on.”

Marilyn Little and RF Demeter. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Looking to the rest of the leaderboard, Marilyn Little and RF Demeter scored 43.8 for fourth place, and Jessica Phoenix and Bentley’s Best scored 44.4 for fifth place, giving us five sub-45 dressage marks on the leaderboard. Phillip Dutton has all three of his rides in the top 11, with Fernhill Fugitive sitting tied for sixth on 47.2, his U.S. Olympic team mount Fernhill Cubalawn tied for eighth on 47.4 and Mighty Nice in 11th on 47.9.

Holly Payne Caravella and Santino scored 47.2 to tie for sixth place with Phillip and Fernhill Fugitive, and Emily Beshear and Shame on the Moon are sitting just behind them tied for eighth on 47.4. Boyd Martin and his Olympic ride Blackfoot Mystery put in what Boyd thought was the best test the horse has ever done, scoring 47.7 to round out the top 10 after dressage. That has the entire U.S. Olympic team sitting in the top 10.

Jessica Phoenix and Bentley’s Best. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Jessica Phoenix and Bentley’s Best are the highest placed Canadian combination after dressage on 44.4 in fifth place, and Jodie Amos and Wise Crack are leading the way for the British team, scoring 49.0 for 13th place. Team USA leads the Nations Cup standings after dressage on 132.3, with Canada in second on 149.2 and Great Britain in third on 53.7.

We’re on a break now, and I think everyone is hoping temperatures cool slightly before show jumping starts at 5 p.m. EST. Despite the heat, the grounds have been packed all day, with spectators enjoying the shops in the Meadow Market, the delicious food vendors and the gorgeous VIP tent. The spectator stands are packed, and there is definitely a lot of atmosphere for this final outing for the U.S. Olympic team.

Be sure to check out EN’s Instagram for more photos from dressage, and scroll down for Samantha Clark’s video interviews with the riders. Remember you can watch show jumping live on USEF Network, and cross country will also stream live tomorrow starting at 9:30 a.m. EST. For inquiring minds, cross country will not run in reverse order tomorrow. Stay tuned for much more from #GMI2016.

#GMI2016: Website, Schedule, Ride Times, Live Scores, Live Stream, Twitter, Instagram, EN’s Coverage, @samanthalclark

Team GB for the Nations Cup at the Land Rover Great Meadow International. Photo by Samantha Clark.

Team GB, with thanks to Great Meadow International sponsor Land Rover, have flown three horses and riders out to Virginia to compete in the first ever Nations Cup to take place outside of Europe. EN decided we’d probably all like to get to know them a bit better, so it’s our mission to stalk them all weekend! U.S.-based Brit Justine Dutton was featured on EN a few days ago, and we will catch up with her again soon. Let’s meet our UK squad.

Ros Canter brings her own and her mother’s Zenshera to the Great Meadow International, a horse she gained most of her experience on and who’s coming back after some time off.

Some good news for Allstar B fans — Ros confirmed that after a heart murmur put paid to their Badminton plans in the spring (they withdrew after the dressage), he is now completely back to normal. They  just finished third at Strzegom in Poland, helping Team GB to a Nations Cup win there, and will be aiming for Burghley in September.

Ben Way was so impressive at Badminton in the spring for a 12th place finish on Galley Light, but he brings a relatively new ride to Virginia.

Jodie Amos and Wise Crack have perhaps the most experience together on the team, having been highly placed at both Bramham and Blenheim together and completing Burghley, and Jodie is clearly thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to the U.S., a first for them both.

We’ll be keeping tabs on Team GB all weekend and posting more updates, as well as catching up with some of our U.S. competitors and international riders. It’s going to be a long, hot Saturday but an exciting one, and we’ll be bringing you everything you need from the Land Rover Great Meadow International for the next two days.

#GMI2016: Website, Schedule,Ride Times, Live Scores, Live Stream, EN’s Coverage, Twitter, EN’s Instagram, @samanthalclark

The U.S. Olympic Eventing Team answered questions in a press conference this afternoon #TeamUSA #roadtorio #GMI2016

A photo posted by Eventing Nation (@goeventing) on Jul 8, 2016 at 3:51pm PDT

Great Meadow International hosted a press conference with the U.S. Olympic team and Coach David O’Connor this afternoon to introduce members of major media outlets in nearby Washington, D.C. to the sport of eventing.

Team USA — Phillip Dutton, Lauren Kieffer, Boyd Martin and Clark Montgomery — answered the typical questions you’d expect to hear in a general press conference: queries about their horses and what it means to them personally to compete at the Olympic Games.

I was more curious about the strategy of how Team USA is preparing ahead of Rio. For example, Clark Montgomery’s mount Loughan Glen has already logged thousands of miles traveling from his base in England to compete in the mandatory team outing at Great Meadow this weekend, and that number is only going to keep ticking up as the team next heads to Ocala, Florida for training camp before shipping out of Miami at the end of the month.

What is the strategy behind having Clark and Glen come to the U.S.? Why is the final team training camp behind held in Ocala? Why are the horses shipping out of Miami? Coach David O’Connor answered those questions and more for EN following the press conference.

“I’m a team advocate, and from a team standpoint I thought it was very important for Clark to come over (to the U.S.). The other riders (Phillip Dutton, Lauren Kieffer and Boyd Martin) all three compete against each other all the time. They respect each other a lot and like each other a lot, so I thought it was important for Clark to come over and start that process with his teammates,” David said.

“Knowing that we could control the footing at the venue to provide good conditions for (Loughan Glen’s) last run was also important. The horse has traveled really well. He might go down early for the Florida training camp a few days early so we can split the travel up a bit more for him, but so far the horse has traveled quite well and looks quite good. He looks like he’s come through well so far.”

Coach David O’Connor at this afternoon’s press conference. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Hosting the final team training camp in Ocala follows the same strategy the U.S. used prior to competing in the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, where the team won a gold medal and Phillip Dutton took individual silver with TruLuck. The U.S. team horses also flew out of Miami for the 2007 Pan Ams.

“I think going out of Miami is an easier flight for the horses than going from New York. That said, I didn’t want to put them on a truck from Virginia to Miami and then have them fly out right away. We’re splitting up the travel by having them spend six days in Florida for training camp,” David said.

“Though that sounds funny to hold training camp in Florida in the summer, the weather is actually not any different than it is right now in Virginia. The difference is it rains four times a week in the afternoon, which means the footing is great. We used that in our preparation in 2007 (for the Pan Ams), and I think that really worked. We’re replicating that again because I think the horses really liked it.”

As for the strategy of giving the team plenty of time ahead of Rio to build a camaraderie, how is that going? “This is a fun group, and they get along really well. Sometimes personalities don’t mesh as well on a team, but this group gets along,” David said.

“Most importantly, they respect each other. They respect each other for their riding. I think that brings a lot to the table when you have team members who respect each other’s riding, because then conversations are different. They’re truly helping each other, and they respect each other’s cross country riding more than anything else. I think that puts a great dynamic and sense of morale into the team.”

Keep it locked on EN for much more from Team USA, as well as the other riders who have the honor of competing in the inaugural Nations Cup leg on U.S. soil. The good news is conditions are expected to improve a bit tomorrow, with Weather.com forecasting slightly lower temperatures and humidity, but it’s still going to be hot hot hot.

If you’re just tuning in to EN, be sure to check out our full report from the first horse inspection, as well as Samantha Clark’s beautiful photo gallery. Dressage starts at 8 a.m. EST tomorrow, and you can find ride times at this link courtesy of the one and only Steve Symansky. As always, you can see more photos on EN’s Instagram, and don’t forget you can watch live on USEF Network.

#GMI2016: Website, Schedule, Ride Times, Live Scores, Live Stream, EN’s Coverage, Twitter, EN’s Instagram, @samanthalclark