Classic Eventing Nation

2020 Olympic Format, Part 2: Can Figure Skating Show Eventing the Way to Fame & Fortune?

By on Jul 11, 2021 10:30 am -

This year at the postponed 2020 Olympic Games, we’ll see some major format changes at play on the international stage. What lies in store, and what does it mean for our sport? Lynne Kaye discusses the topic in a two-part series that was originally published on EN in 2018. If you missed Part I, read it here. 

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

In 2018, the FEI released and began testing its new competition format for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the midst of preparing for the 2018 World Equestrian Games, the FEI’s activities barely made a blip on the radar screen. Once the Games had concluded, it was full steam ahead to test the new formatting in earnest.

The new format allows more nations to qualify eventing teams through regional championships such as the Pan Am Games as well as through the Nations Cup Final. With Japan, Australia and New Zealand already qualified through WEG, more nations from Asia/Oceania are likely to participate in the Tokyo Olympics which should please the IOC (Editor’s Note: China and Thailand will field eventing teams for the first time this year).

The new format also helps national teams stay in the competition. Unless a team rider is cited for a major violation like dangerous riding, the new format helps teams make it through to show jumping. Hopefully, that will encourage more cross country fans to watch show jumping. Unfortunately, when the FEI went to three-rider teams, they added a format for substitution and scoring that adds a significant amount of complexity to team composition and scoring, making the sport harder to understand. Last, and most importantly, the new format tries to fix dressage through addition by subtraction and does little to make dressage phase more attractive to the audience or broadcasters.

The FEI has quite a bit of time to fix the issues with the new Olympic format, and other Olympic sports can serve as models for broadening equestrian’s appeal. Figure skating provides a particularly apt model. Figure skating changed its format to overcome its reputation as too technical to be interesting to the general public, too confusing to score and too difficult to broadcast. Thanks to its successful format changes, Olympic figure skating is now so popular that during this year’s Winter Olympics it received 12 nights of prime time coverage and its own nightly talk show. Figure skating also had a full complement of online and social media coverage during the 2018 Olympics.

When figure skating was receiving similar criticisms to equestrian, the first phase of Olympic figure skating competitions was quite similar to the dressage phase of eventing. Every skater performed the identical prescribed test, making the phase purely a test of technical skill. The performances were too similar, which made watching them boring. Even avid fans came and went to catch their favorite skaters just as eventing dressage fans do today.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

The characteristics that made one figure skating performance better than another were often difficult for the casual audience to discern, especially if they were spectators in the arena. The casual TV audience was only a bit better off. Broadcasters were challenged to communicate the differences between competitors without resorting to the sport’s technical jargon which went over the audience’s head. As a result, broadcasters rarely did more than show highlights of the first phase at the beginning of other broadcasts.

Figure skating competitions concluded with the “free skate,” a phase that was much more popular than the opening round(s). In the “free skate” competitors executed a set of required skills within their own choreography and choice of music. Skaters were also permitted to coordinate their wardrobe with their music and performance. The free skate was popular with diehard fans, the casual audience and broadcasters because every performance was different and each competitor had a way to showcase their unique talents and personality.

Figure skating’s scoring issue was the byproduct of lack of interest in the opening phase of the competition. Much of the casual audience joined the competition at some point during the free skate since broadcasters provided minimal to no coverage of the first phase and corporations who wanted to impress their clients brought them to the free skate. That meant the casual audience missed watching the figure skating equivalent of eventing’s dressage divas — skaters that were outstanding at the technical elements of the first phase.

These skaters sometimes entered the free skate with a sizeable cushion over the rest of the field just as eventing dressage divas sometimes enter cross country with a sizeable lead over the rest of the field. With a sizeable lead, the technically proficient skaters sometimes played it safe in their free skates to ensure they would end up on the podium rather than taking the chance of making a major mistake and sliding way down the leaderboard. In other words, they used the same strategy an eventer with a sizeable cushion does if they take a long route to help ensure they complete the cross country. In contrast, skaters with lower placings often went for broke in their programs in the same way a rider down the leaderboard after dressage takes a difficult short route or rides to be inside the time on cross country.

The skaters’ competition strategies confused the casual audience because it meant that best free skate did not win the overall competition. Since the casual audience only saw the free skate they left confused or thinking the judging was bad or that judges were biased in favor of certain countries.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Whether by luck or skill, figure skating responded to the criticisms that it was too technical, too confusing to score and too difficult to broadcast by introducing a new phase — the “short” program — a shorter version of its already popular free skate. The short program tested the sport’s most important technical elements within a competitor’s own choreography and music. Just as in the free skate, competitors selected their own wardrobe to complement the choreography and music.

The short program was a hit with both knowledgeable and casual audiences because every performance was different. The casual audience responded to competitors based on their personality which came through in their choreography, music and wardrobe selection. The variety in performances also kept knowledgeable audiences in their seats. Most importantly, the more diverse format gave broadcasters a way to connect with the general audience while still discussing the fine details that distinguished one world class competitor from another. Combining the short program with the free skate made the sport diverse enough to attract the general audience and broadcasters. It also went a long way toward fixing the confusing scoring by involving the casual audience in the competition prior to the free skate.

The other change figure skating made to improve scoring for the casual audience was to make the free skate worth a higher percentage of the total score. That way, the winner of the free skate was more often also the winner of the overall competition.

Photo via Flickr/Queen Yuna.

The larger audience and greater broadcast exposure put figure skating on an upward spiral. Bigger audiences meant more media coverage which meant more corporate sponsors, which in turn gave the sport the resources to attract bigger audiences, media coverage and sponsors. Demand for Olympic figure skating is now so strong that the sport added a team competition for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Based on figure skating’s experience, it seems that the FEI’s format changes would best match its goals if they focused on increasing the popularity of dressage. Figure skating found that making the competition more diverse was the ticket to increased popularity. Once the popularity problem was solved, scoring was a fairly easy fix.

One way to make dressage more diverse would be to allow eventers to create their own dressage pattern covering the key technical elements contained in the current tests. From a Dressage Today interview with FEI judges Axel Steiner and Anne Gribbons: “Musical freestyle has increased the popularity of [dressage], drawing spectators, advertisers and even television broadcasts.  In fact, freestyle is one of the reasons dressage is still in the Olympic Games. To keep the entertainment value high, it is important to allow for creativity among the competitors and keep the freestyle creatively free.  At the same time we must stay true to the technical qualities of dressage.”

Giving event riders the freedom to design their own dressage pattern would mean every dressage ride would be different, and that riders could showcase their horse’s own unique talents (and help hide their flaws). Setting the pattern to music and giving riders the freedom to ride in their personal cross country colors rather than a team uniform that looks like every other country’s team uniform would help even more, although that may be a bit radical for 2020.

——–

About the author: In addition to being a long-time Eventing fan and amateur rider, Lynne is a sustainability consultant with Unison Advisory Group. She helps clients grow credibility and trust with important stakeholders through more thoughtful engagement, stronger environmental stewardship and higher quality business practices. She holds a Master’s in Sustainability from Harvard and an MBA from Duke. She had a brief career as a professional ice skater and is still a fan of the sport.

Sunday Links

By on Jul 11, 2021 12:01 am -

Tracy Bowman, Jolie Wentworth and pony Bella in 2018. Photo by Laura Howland.

As you know, we really like to embrace all sorts of insanity in the middle here at Eventing Nation and we certainly appreciate Eventing’s sister sport, Combined Driving. The hallmark of Combined Driving is its marathon phase — akin to Eventing’s cross country — that has teams weaving their carriages in and out and around solid obstacles at high speeds so it’s no surprise to see an eventer attracted to the sport as well!

Five-star eventer Jolie Wentworth will once again be the navigator for Tracy Bowman and her Welsh Pony Albrecht’s Hoeve’s Lars, who will represent the U.S. at the FEI Para Driving World Championship for Singles in Le Pin au Haras, France this fall. This will be the second World Championship for this pair, who also represented the U.S. in 2018. We’re wishing this team the best of luck!

U.S. Weekend Action:

Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Fairburn, Ga.): [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Huntington Farm H.T. (South Strafford, Vt.): [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

The Maryland Horse Trials at Loch Moy Farm (Adamstown, Md.): [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Round Top H.T. (Castle Rock, Co.): [Omnibus] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Major International Events:

Barbury International Horse Trials: Website, Ride Times and Entries, Live Scores, Live Stream, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Instagram, EN’s Twitter

Sunday Links:

Rule Refresher – Attire and Equipment at the Championship Level

Everyday Habits You May Have That Drastically Affect Your Riding

Competition Dressage: Is Your Mindset Holding You Back?

Best of Blogs: Balancing Your Passions

Bad Ideas: Woman who took horse bute for back pain ended up in hospital – case report

Sunday Video: Here’s Tracy and her pony, Albrecht’s Hoeve’s Lars, in action with Jodie last spring. Hang on tight!

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again: Andrew Nicholson Takes Barbury Title (Tell a Friend)

By on Jul 10, 2021 5:56 pm -

Barbury coverage is brought to you by Trefonas Law, an immigration law firm located in Jackson, WY. 

Trefonas Law features experienced U.S. visa and immigration law practitioners working with the equestrian industry. We can provide advice and assistance with P1 and 01 athlete visas, short-term work visas, as well as general immigration services. Contact us to see how we can find the right visa for you!

Andrew Nicholson and Swallow Springs showcase the unique camber of the Barbury course en route to a second consecutive win. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There’s an ancient bit of Wiltshire folklore that says that once you’ve seen 100 white horses in the area (the real ones, not the ones carved into the chalky hills of the Downs), the next man you shake hands with will become your husband. I’ve been to many a Barbury, and I’ve certainly not been counting – so for once, I was quietly grateful for a bit of enforced social distancing. After all, Andrew Nicholson‘s string of entries alone over the past half a decade must push the tally up quite considerably, and one must remain vigilant in matters of the heart.

If you were to pin all your hopes on white horses, though, you might take it as something of a good omen that Andrew’s top horse, the 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Swallow Springs (Chillout x Kilila, by Cult Hero xx), clocked up the fastest round of the day, adding 7.6 time penalties to take his second Barbury title in today’s competition.

“It should be easy for him – he’s been [in the top five at] Badminton and Burghley, and he knows his job. And he felt beautiful on the cross-country,” says Andrew, who sat second after the first phase on a 27.7 – one of just three sub-30 marks. But even with Swallow Springs’ experience, he was still slightly awed by the crowds that gathered around Barbury’s atmospheric showjumping arena, which feels almost like a natural amphitheatre and adds a not inconsiderable atmosphere to the testing track in the ring. That resulted in a knocked pole for the pair, which pushed them down the leaderboard ahead of their cross-country round.

“He didn’t quite jump high enough over it, because he was looking at the people on the hill – but he’s done Bicton, Aston le Walls and Weston Park, and while Bicton had some crowds, but not loads,” he says. “But it’s so nice to back out with people.”

To assume that a dropped rail in close company would rule the pair out, though, would be to wildly underestimate the influence of Barbury’s cross-country challenge. It’s not necessarily that it’s a technically difficult track; in fact, just shy of 75% of the 55 starters crossed the finish line without jumping penalties. Instead, it’s a question of time: the course is designed as a series of hairpin turns and loops across the face of an enormous hill, which means that horses are almost always running across a camber and readjusting for the next up- or downhill stretch. There are few places to make up any lost time, and even Andrew – the ‘King of Barbury’ and a man as knowledgable about Barbury’s secrets as course designer Alec Lochore – couldn’t come close to the 6:17 optimum. With his finishing score of 39.3 logged, and after the withdrawal of Tokyo-bound dressage leaders Tim Price and Vitali, there were seven or eight riders ahead of him who could take away the top spot – but even with fifteen or sixteen seconds in hand, as several of them had, there was no usurping the king.

Andrew Nicholson accepts yet another jewel in his crown as unofficial King of Barbury. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s fitting that Barbury should be such a happy hunting ground for the gelding, whose rider has won a record seven CCI4*-S titles at this event and lives nearly within hacking distance. After all, he’s named for Swallowhead Spring, the enigmatic sacred crook in the river Kennet, tucked away in the nearby village of Avebury. The area is renowned for its ancient links to Anglo-Saxon paganism, scattered with neolithic standing stones and – serendipitously – marked with those thirteen colossal white horses, each carved into the chalky hills to undertake a centuries-long watch over Wiltshire.

By the time Swallow Springs turned eleven, as he was in 2019 when he recorded his first international win when taking the four-star here, he was something fo a child prodigy: he’d been runner up at Bramham, third at Burghley, and fifth at Badminton. Since then, he’s gone from being the young, preternaturally clever and endearingly complicated child star of the circuit to sitting on the shelf to wait out the pandemic, and though his first two international runs back haven’t necessarily yielded wildly inspiring results – he was 30th in a CCI4*-S at Aston le Walls and 14th at the same level at Bicton last month – his performance this weekend proved that he hasn’t forgotten the job. Though his rider has plenty on his plate over the next few months in his role as coach of the Swiss eventing team, it’s not hard to imagine that another big result could be on the cards later in the season. Apparently if you stand in the eye of the nearby Uffington chalk horse and spin around three times while making a wish, it’ll come true – we reckon in the interest of ancient monument management, Andrew could probably get away with just rubbing his own white horse’s nose.

Wills Oakden’s MacGregor’s Cooley impresses in his CCI4*-S debut. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

While Swallow Springs came to Barbury as arguably the most experienced horse in the field, second-placed MacGregor’s Cooley, ridden by Scotland’s Wills Oakden, sits firmly at the other end of the spectrum. Just nine years old, the flashy Irish Sport Horse gelding has contested just six FEI events prior to his CCI4*-S debut here this week. His results along the way have been exciting, with a top ten finish in his first CCI3*-L at Houghton in May and top tens in short-format two and three-stars, too, but even Wills wasn’t sure how he’d handle the big move up.

A solid first-phase score of 32.9 – just marred slightly by a difference of opinion in the first flying change – put the pair outside the top ten, though close enough to remain in the hunt coming into today’s competition.

“I said to the owner, ‘let’s just get through the showjumping and make a plan after that,'” he says. “He’s an incredible jumper and in there, he was outstanding – and the  ground is absolutely perfect so we thought we’d give it a go and see what happened.”

Despite his inexperience, the eye-catching gelding tackled the track with aplomb, notching up the second-fastest round of the day with 8.4 time penalties.

“He was unbelievable and really gave it his all. He just felt the pinch a little bit towards the end; he’s never been that fast before, so it just caught up with us slightly. But I’m super proud of him,” says Wills, who has produced him from a four-year-old and knows his strengths – and his quirks – all too well.

“He’s a serious character; two years ago, he had me on the floor thirteen times in one year. He’s lethal! But he’s settling now, we’ve found the key to him, and his results are coming together. I always produce mine a little bit slower than most people, but they always seem to end up in the same place in the long run.”

Fiona Kashel rounds off a successful day in the office with third place aboard Drumhowan Black Magic. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It was a busy day in the office for Fiona Kashel, but an extraordinarily rewarding one: on a day that yielded just a 50% showjumping clear rate, she piloted all three of her rides to faultless finishes in this phase, before going on to deliver three impressive cross-country performances and wind up in third, ninth, and twelfth places overall. Even more impressive? Each of her horses is completely different, requiring a new set of tactics every time she left the start box.

“They couldn’t be more different,” she says with a laugh. “[Drumhowan Black Magic, who finished third] is a super horse, but he’s small and probably shouldn’t be able to do what he does because he’s really lazy and really spooky — he should be in a riding school! But he’s great, because he comes out of the start box and I just kick him the whole way around. It’s like riding in the Shetland Grand National; he never takes a hold and he’s in a snaffle like, ‘okay, let’s do it!’ But at home he can’t even be bothered to pick his feet up to walk around the yard, so his back feet are always scuffed.” She pauses, smiling fondly. “He’s my favourite – I love him.”

Though the gelding isn’t a particularly big-moving horse, which sometimes costs him marks in more extravagant company, he’s consistent and technically correct on the flat: “the more ‘tricks’ he has to do, the better – he almost needs tempi changes down the centreline or something,” laughs Fiona. The pair scored 32.5 in the first phase, though quickly climbed well into contention after lodging a polished clear over the poles. Then, they traversed Alec Lochore’s cross-country track in 6:39, adding 8.8 time penalties to finish on the same final score as Wills Oakden. But their proximity to the top spot doesn’t come without some understandable frustration.

“I cut the corner at the water complex in the main arena on my first two rides, but with him, I managed to drop my reins and so I had to go long,” she says ruefully. “We  were five seconds off winning, and I think that’s where all five of those seconds went.”

Meanwhile, ninth-placed WSF Carthago, owned by Fiona’s father, is the yin to Drumhowan Black Diamond’s yang.

“He’s younger, and much less experienced, but he’s big, and powerful, and super talented,” explains Fiona. “With him, it’s mostly about managing his brain – before the dressage, I have to work him quite hard ahead of his tests, and then out there, he got quite strong and I had to passenger him around a bit at the end.”

Tom Rowland and Quintilus navigate through Barbury’s famous Woodhenge combination. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Fourth place went the way of Tom Rowland and nine-year-old German Sport Horse Quintilius, who was contesting his third four-star run after making the step up in Burnham Market’s eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S last autumn, which acted as a replacement for Blenheim. The pair stayed well in contention from day one, sitting ninth after dressage on a respectable 30.9 and adding 11.2 time penalties to it in today’s cross-country.

“His owner actually has dressage horses with [Grand Prix rider] Dan Greenwood, so he helps us a lot – so I don’t have any excuses,” laughs Tom. “,He’s never going to be the biggest trotter in the world but he’s actually got good mediums and his changes are good. I was pleased to be in the top ten after dressage but to be honest, I think it can be five marks better.”

The cross-country course offered the gelding a chance to step up in maturity – and despite his natural tendency to be a bit of a ‘joker’, he did just that.

“He jumped really well through the skinnies at five and then I felt like, ‘yeah, he’s on it.’ It can take him a couple of fences to get going, and I felt that that question did come quite quickly,” says Tom, who noted that the course offered plenty of opportunities for an inexperienced horse to lose focus. “They’ve not seen crowds like this for a while – it’s busy, but it’s nice. Everyone’s out. But especially going into the water in the main arena – it’s bright, you’ve got the Barbury blue dye, and you’ve got a lot of people. He had a look there; he hesitated and went in quite slowly and wobbled a bit. Obviously I’m really pleased with fourth, but then I look at the scores and second place was two seconds quicker – and I probably wasted a bit of time there because he got a bit slow. I think in a year or two more, he’ll have learnt to gallop more and travel more so he can be quicker.”

Tom found the gelding as a four-year-old in Germany, where he also has a maternal half-sibling at the Luhmühlen base of Anna Siemer.

“I tried to get that one, too, but she got there first,” says Tom with a grin. “And now she won’t sell it!”

Barbury tends to suit a smaller, cattier horse who can make the best of its hairpin turns, and though that isn’t to Tom’s normal taste, he’s seeing the appeal more and more as he moves Quintilius up the levels. Now, it’s also governing his plan for the rest of the year ahead.

“He’s a smaller horse than I’m used to, but he’s mega nippy – he’s like a little go-kart, and he’s not strong. I’m used to riding big Irish horses that you’re having to haul around, whereas he’s right on the string, so that’s perfect because he loves twisty tracks, and I can manoeuvre him really well. So we’ve always had an eye on Boekelo, and hopefully that’s helped my chance of going there – and then we’ll probably do Blenheim eight- and nine-year-olds on our way there.”

Whichever way their season ends up, Quintilius always ensures there’s never a dull moment at home.

“He’s a proper joker, but never in a malicious way,” says Tom. “His attitude carries him through; he’s not every fresh or naughty, it’s more that he’s joking and spooky, and he loves to have a bit of a spin round. It’s never done in a threatening way and I actually think it’s a great character trait of his – you look at him and he’s this kind of pretty, small horse, only about 16.1hh, and it actually makes him quite hard. He’s a lot tougher than you might think. He’s a funny one.”

Aaron Miller wraps up the top five with KEC Deakon, while young riders Heidi Coy and Felicity Collins made bold strides up the leaderboard to feature in the top ten after impressive rides across the country this afternoon.

The final top ten in Barbury’s CCI4*-S.

Barbury: Website, Ride Times and Entries, Live Scores, Live Stream, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Instagram, EN’s Twitter

Your Tokyo Olympics Quick Facts from the FEI

By on Jul 10, 2021 10:30 am -

Baji Koen Equestrian Park which will be home to equestrian sport during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Before the action even begins the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are already unforgettable. Running a year later than scheduled and with multiple challenges along the way, the best of the best are now putting in their final preparations ahead of the Opening Ceremony on July 23, 2021.

It has been a difficult lead-in period, with so many interruptions due to the pandemic that has affected the entire world and the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) impacting Mainland Europe. Then this week’s news that there will be no spectators at any of the venues in order to ensure safe and secure Games. But the statistics for equestrian sport are more impressive than ever, with a record number of countries fielding teams and individuals in the three disciplines of Dressage, Eventing and Jumping.

The Tokyo 2020 sport entries (FEI Definite Entries) reveal that the flags of 50 nations will fly high during two weeks of spectacular sport. A total of 200 athlete-and-horse combinations are listed, along with an additional 48 Alternate/Reserves.

Formats

The new three-member format has changed the dynamic of the team competitions. Not only is the pressure more intense as each individual performance will count for so much, but it has also opened the door for many more countries to take part.

At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games a total of 27 nations lined out in Jumping, with 15 of those sending teams, while this time 20 teams and individuals from a further 15 countries will take part to boost the number of National Olympic Committees (NOC) represented in Tokyo to 35. In Eventing the number of participating countries has increased from 24 to 29, with 15 teams compared to 13 in Rio, and in Dressage the numbers jump from 25 to 30 nations and from 11 teams to 15.

Centered

The equestrian events of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be principally centered at Baji Koen Equestrian Park in Setagaya. This is a public park owned by the Japan Racing Association, which was also the venue for Dressage at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games.

Back then Eventing was staged in Karuizawa and Jumping took place at the National Olympic Stadium. For the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the fully refurbished Baji Koen will host Dressage, Jumping and two of the three phases of Eventing.

Course designer, Derek di Grazia (USA), has spent the last five years creating the Eventing Cross Country course on what was previously a landfill site at the waterfront at Sea Forest with a stunning backdrop of Tokyo Bay and the city. Equestrian shares the venue, which will become a public park after the Games, with Olympic rowing and canoeing.

The Games of the XXXll Olympiad promise to be like nothing that has gone before and equestrian sport is already breaking records.

EQUESTRIAN SPORT IN THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT

  • Equestrian sport has been part of the Olympic Games since 1912.
  • Team and individual medals are awarded in three disciplines – Dressage, Eventing and Jumping.
  • A three-per-team format applies for the equestrian events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
  • In Tokyo 1964 Jumping and Dressage teams consisted of three athlete/horse combinations but there were four on Eventing teams.
  • Canada’s Ian Millar holds the record – 10 – for the most Olympic appearances by any athlete in any sport. He first competed at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and his last Olympic appearance was at London 2012 at the age of 65. He won team silver at the Beijing Games in 2008.
  • German teams claimed gold in both Jumping and Dressage at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964 while Italy clinched the Eventing team title.
  • French star, Pierre Jonqueres d’Oriola, won individual Jumping gold with Lutteur B, Switzerland’s Henri Chammartin and Woerman took the individual Dressage title and Italy’s Mauro Checcoli and Surbean were the individual Eventing gold medallists.
  • At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, France won team gold in both Jumping and Eventing, while Germany took the Dressage team title for the 13th time.
  • Great Britain took individual gold in Jumping – Nick Skelton with Big Star – and in Dressage – Charlotte Dujardin with Valegro.
  • Individual gold in Eventing went to Germany’s Michael Jung with Biosthetique Sam.

Tokyo 2020 equestrian statistics:

  • Jumping: 35 countries, 20 teams, 75 horse/athlete combinations
  • Eventing: 29 countries, 15 teams, 65 horse/athlete combinations
  • Dressage: 30 countries, 15 teams, 60 horse/athlete combinations
  • The Tokyo 2020 sport entries (FEI Definite Entries) also include additional reserve horses and riders.
  • The 50 NOCs represented in equestrian sport at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are:
    • Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Republic of South Africa, ROC, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Taipei, Ukraine and USA.

Saturday Links from Trefonas Law

By on Jul 10, 2021 12:01 am -

The Olympic countdown is in full force now and while many pairs have begun their travels and quarantines, some are still putting the finishing touches on their final prep runs. Take the Olympic-bound pair Tim Price and Vitali for example — they’re contesting the CCI4*-S at Barbury Horse Trails this weekend and, yeah, they’re leading the division! Our own Tilly Berendt is on the grounds at Barbury this weekend and she spoke to Tim about his and Vitali’s performance at Luhmühlen. Get the scoop here and stay tuned for more Barbury coverage all weekend. Plus, if you’re an H&C+ subscriber you can enjoy the livestream!

U.S. Weekend Action:

Chattahoochee Hills H.T. (Fairburn, Ga.): [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Huntington Farm H.T. (South Strafford, Vt.): [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

The Maryland Horse Trials at Loch Moy Farm (Adamstown, Md.): [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Round Top H.T. (Castle Rock, Co.): [Omnibus] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Major International Events:

Barbury International (Wiltshire, United Kingdom): [Event Hub] [Live Stream]

Saturday Links:

Pressure Proof with Daniel Stewart: Going For The Goal

Paulank Brockagh’s filly named with nod to dam’s former rider Aussie Eventer Sam Griffiths

Embracing Telehealth in Equine Medicine

Even With Cardboard Beds And Recycled Medals, Olympics Take Flak Over The Environment

Helgstrand’s Global Equestrian Group, Waterland Private Equity, and Wellington Equestrian Partners Join forces

Saturday Video: Here’s what British soon-to-be Olympian Tom McEwan is up to just before setting of on his road to Tokyo:

Trefonas Law is an immigration law firm located in Jackson, WY. We are able to provide advice and assistance on a variety of immigration issues including employment based visa services, athlete visas, family based immigration, among others.

Friday Video from SmartPak: Team Ireland’s Golden Boy Preps for Tokyo

By on Jul 9, 2021 6:39 pm -

We’d never, ever be so frivolous as to fall in love with a horse just because of its colour – but it’s awfully hard not to spot Sam Watson‘s Tokyo mount Tullabeg Flamenco without noting that creme brûlée coat, those limpid eyes like chocolate truffles, and those Oreo cookie legs. Sorry, we’ve made ourselves hungry now – and okay, okay, we’re totally and utterly in love. But Tullabeg Flamenco has much more going for him than just a unique dun coat; the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding is also a serious competitor, with a European Championships appearance under his belt already and a string of recent top-ten FEI finishes that’ll ensure plenty of eyes are on him as he and Sam make their Olympic debut later this month.

As we head into the quarantine countdown, Tokyo-bound partnerships around the world have headed to their final outings to eke out those marginal gains and put their practice to the test – and for Sam and Tullabeg Flamenco, that outing came at last week’s Kilguilkey House CCI3*-S in Ireland. Our friends at the Irish Eventing Times were on hand to catch their 27.2 test – we dare you not to fall head over heels for this butterscotch beauty.

Beautiful Barbury: Dispatches from England’s Most Picturesque Four-Star

By on Jul 9, 2021 6:04 pm -

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CCI4*-S competitors Kate Rocher-Smith and Call Me Dassett sparkle in front of Barbury’s expansive vistas. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

By the time Wiltshire, England’s Barbury Horse Trials rolls around each July, there’s a definite sense of having truly made it to British summertime, however fickle that concept may be. Set in a natural bowl in the sprawling, patchwork landscape, Barbury doesn’t just become a rare sun trap – it also captures and contains all the area’s folkloric magic and distills it into something you might be able to capture if you gallop fast enough across the country. Oh, and there’s a great gin bar.

This isn’t just one of British eventing’s most beautiful sites, though – it’s also the heart of a national mecca for the sport. Countless household names of the sport live nearby, including many of the country’s bevy of relocated Kiwis. And so it’s only fitting that those Kiwis tend to come here and do rather spectacularly well for themselves: in fact, Barbury’s winningest rider is Andrew Nicholson, who has taken the CCI4*-S title here every year from 2012 to 2016, and remains the reigning champion from the last time the class was run back in 2019. As you venture towards the event, the signs on the road point you in the direction of Avebury, the largest Neolithic stone circle in Europe – and here, you’re in the domain of the horse of the same name, who proved very nearly unbeatable over this course in his heyday with Nicholson.

But while the indefatigable rider finds himself well in contention on his 2019 champion Swallow Springs, posting one of just three sub-30 scores to sit on 27.7 going into tomorrow’s jumping phases, it wasn’t quite enough to earn him the lead. Instead, that goes the way of fellow countryman Tim Price, who rides his Tokyo mount Vitali in a final outing before heading into Olympic quarantine on Sunday. The pair’s partnership is still a new one – they came together at the tail end of 2020, after the 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding was campaigned through to CCI4*-S by New Zealand’s James Avery and subsequently shuffled between riders. But although Vitali hadn’t competed in an FEI event since late 2018 by the time Tim got the ride, he hasn’t wasted any time proving himself in his new partnership: after some early-season showjumping outings in the Spanish sunshine, they headed to Strzegom, Poland, to tackle the gelding’s first CCI4*-L, which they duly won. Then, they headed to Luhmühlen last month to contest the highly coveted CCI4*-S class, where they finished sixth with some considerable first-phase improvements, eking a couple of valuable marks off of their dressage tally. Here, they’ve done the same again, putting a polished and professional 25.6 on the board – enough to momentarily silence those who wondered about this surprise choice of Olympic mount.

Though Tim was busy wrangling some of his Novice horses around Barbury’s formidable hills this afternoon, we spoke to him at length about Vitali at Luhmühlen, where Tim felt that the pieces had all finally slotted into place.

“I just know he’s going to be a horse that challenges those top dressage horses,” he said. “His trot work [has improved]; he has a really great canter with natural activity, but the trot is more of a genuine entity in that it tends to show where we’re at as a partnership. But now, I can ride much better shapes in it, and he has a great medium trot – so it’s fun to do a test where you can show that off three times in the first 45 seconds!”

Laura Schroter and Willem Van Wup. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Overnight third – and the last of those sub-30 scores – goes to Laura Schroter and Willem Van Wup, who are certainly among Britain’s most exciting and undersung up-and-comers at the top level. They put a 28.4 on the board, giving them a four second margin ahead of fourth-placed Ailsa Wates and Woodlands Persuasion, on 30.2.

Laura Schroter and Willem Van Wup. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

But let’s go back to those Barbury vibes for a moment, shall we? It might not be quite back to normal yet – England is eking out its social distancing regulations for another couple of weeks, after all, and so the masses aren’t descending en masse on our horse trials just yet – but everywhere on site there’s a sense of calm that’s hard to put your finger on. It’s not a forced calm, like the kind we’ve endured through spectator-free events, nor is it a calm that suggests any lack of fierce competition at the venue. Instead, it’s a calm a little bit akin to a sigh of relief: it feels like the trepidation is easing, like several hundred jaws are unclenching, like we’re inches away from the finish line and almost within touching distance of everything we’ve loved and missed and worked our way back towards.

Kate Tarrant and the syndicate-owned Novice horse Captain Balu II pop through Stonehenge – erm, make that Woodhenge. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s a little bit like a lazy day at summer camp after a week of climbing mountains and doing giddy trust-falls; this week, it feels remarkably like everyone has silently agreed to do away with any of the extraneous pressure and just take a moment to enjoy the ride. Perhaps these are the moments we’ll remember once we’re out of the metaphorical woods: alongside the tough and barren bits, and the glory days to come, there will be a faint but pervasive memory of these halcyon days in which we knew something wonderful was just around the corner.

Rosie Skinner celebrates as she crosses the finish line with Belmont Proposal. The pair earned themselves a top five finish in one of today’s Novice sections. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There are stories spanning centuries about sightings of phantom horseman in this pocket of Wiltshire. They gallop with abandon on small horses with flowing manes, weaving in and around Avebury Circle. The purpose of their chase is unknown: is it a summoning? Is it a celebration? Or is it all just a trick of the light; a bit of wishful thinking from the esoterically-minded? Whatever it is, their spirit is channeled here in the Barbury bowl – and we look forward to seeing what’s to come over the course of tomorrow’s day of competition. We’ll be bringing you a full report from the CCI4*-S showjumping and cross-country, plus plenty of bonus content as we soak up all the fun in the sun. You can follow along with all the action, too, via Horse&Country TV – they’ll be streaming cross-country from across the levels all day long. Don’t miss it!

The top ten after dressage in the CCI4*-S.

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Olympic Update: French Team Shuffles After Qing du Brio Withdrawal

By on Jul 9, 2021 4:09 pm -

Christopher Six and Totem de Brecey. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The French team will call up its original traveling reserve, Christopher Six and, to join the Tokyo team after Thibaut Vallette’s ride Qing du Brio sustained a bone bruise in one of his feet. The traveling reserve for France will now be Karim Lagouagh and Triton Fontaine.

Thibaut posted the following statement on his social media (please forgive any translation errors, as this text is translated from French):

“Qing has a slight tenderness in one foot. For the team and out of respect for Qing, we cannot take the risk of going to the Games with a horse that is not at 100% of its capacity.

It’s a big disappointment, finishing on this Olympic deadline for our 6th selection would have been a great end of career for this horse with an extraordinary course. We will take care of him.

I leave my place to a great teammate, Christo who deserves to go and defend the colors of France 🇫🇷”

The entry list has not yet been updated with the most recent changes, but you can bookmark this page to see the list of Olympic eventing participants.

Journey to Tokyo: Horses and Riders Begin to Arrive at CHIO Aachen

By on Jul 9, 2021 12:00 pm -

The long trip to Tokyo is well underway for most of the horses and riders competing at the postponed 2020 Olympics, and our North American contingent of horses has safely arrived at CHIO Aachen on the westernmost side of Germany. Here, the horses, grooms and riders will stay in pre-export quarantine before catching one last flight to Tokyo on July 20.

While the riders and support teams aren’t on a full lockdown in Germany, Doug Payne’s groom Courtney Carson tells us that social distancing and Covid protocols are very much in play. The venue itself and the stabling is locked down to public access, granting entry only to credentialed personnel. Covid testing is also being done every two days. Some of the riders have already arrived, with the rest scheduled to trickle in over the coming days (riders like Doug, who is squeezing in some FEI show jumping before he goes, no biggie).

Let’s take a look at some of the arrival social media from Germany! We’ll continue to round up social media posts and other perspectives from the road to Tokyo, so stay tuned right here on EN for all things Olympics.

Breakfast in Aachen

Posted by Jan Henriksen on Friday, July 9, 2021

And lastly, a sighting of fellow Team USA members Adrienne Lyle and Salvino, Tokyo-bound as a part of the dressage squad:

Never Forget the Eventing Bug: Meet Ever So Sweet Scholarship Recipient Helen Casteel

By on Jul 9, 2021 11:30 am -

Photo via Helen Casteel on Instagram.

The eventing bug bit Helen Casteel early.

It’s a story that’s all at once familiar and unique: the one of how we catch that thing often dubbed the “eventing bug”. A story that I, frankly, never tire of hearing. It’s early evening on the East coast, and Helen, who has just been named the first ever recipient of the Strides for Equality/USEA Foundation Ever So Sweet Scholarship, and I have spent the first moments of our phone call making small talk about our shared love of the sport and how we first came to know it.

“Groton House,” she recalls, naming a popular Area I event in Massachusetts as the site of her first eventing experience when she was in high school. “My trainer piled us all in the car and off we went. My first reaction was, ‘whoa, this is insane!’. David O’Connor was just a few years away from winning an Olympic medal, and he happened to be there coaching. That was my first introduction.”

Helen wouldn’t label her upbringing as horse-adjacent – “I was just a random crazy horse kid,” she describes – her parents would humor her budding interest in horses with some riding school lessons, but until she moved to Boston with her mother during high school she didn’t have any consistent saddle time. At school, Helen met a friend who also rode, leading her to a new barn and more time around the horses. And it would be here that Helen would eventually begin to zero in on eventing as her sport of choice.

But though the bug bites us all fairly early on in life, there often comes an intermission full of things like school, finding a job, making money. So it would be several more years before Helen could make some real progress with her riding. It was serendipitous, then, that she found herself moving to Maryland – the most horse-centric locale she’d called home thus far – after finishing college in Washington, DC.

Helen Casteel and Unapproachable at the 2019 American Eventing Championships. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.

“I found Woodland Horse Center, which offered a cool option to come and do a sort of intro lesson,” she explains. “Most of the people who sign up just want to go and get on a horse, but often they will get new regular clients from it.” She began taking lessons and eventually began working at the school as a beginner instructor in exchange for continued coaching.

“It sort of snowballed from there,” she laughs (again, another familiar sentiment shared amongst eventers) “And soon I was buying my first horse. After a few more years, I was ready to be in a more focused barn, so I moved to Waredaca.”

As she stepped into her new barn home at Waredaca as an instructor and barn manager, Helen also spent time working with the pony club based at the facility. It was through this connection that she would meet her next eventing partner, Unapproachable or “Abel”, as he’s known at home. Not much to look at in his post-racing letdown and a green six years old, Helen says she wasn’t blown away by this unassuming gelding, but the chance to ride him was something she jumped at. He was a bit of a “motherless child”, having been given to Waredaca by Dale Proctor at Pleasant Prospect Farm.

Little by little, Helen and Abel began to build a sort of accidental relationship: she needed to get in some practice and work on her training skills, and he needed a job.

“I kept riding Abel for about a year and then it was decision time, and he needed a home,” Helen says now. Those happily accidental past few months, it turned out, would bring Helen and Abel together for good – and they quickly took to eventing together. In 2016, the pair made their eventing debut at the Beginner Novice level and have since moved up to Novice, collecting achievements such as a top 10 finish in the 2018 Waredaca Novice Three-Day and a top 20 in the 2019 USEA American Eventing Championships Novice Rider Championship.

As the inaugural recipient of the Strides for Equality Ever So Sweet Scholarship, Helen will receive training from Sara and Brian Murphy at the Berryville, Va. facility. It’s an opportunity Helen plans to relish as she eyes a move up to Training level and the prospect of gaining valuable horse and barn management experience. Having worked with Stephanie Kohr at Waredaca, as well as many other instructors through the years, Helen is eager to build on the knowledge base she feels lucky to have acquired so far.

“It’s funny, when I got the email about the scholarship, I had to do a double take,” Helen laughs. “I read it and thought, ‘wait, what did that say?’ It’s really exciting and I can’t wait to get started with everything.”

Helen made the move to Virginia recently to begin her scholarship term in earnest. Her work as an insurance agent is something she can do remotely, making this opportunity all the more exciting as she expresses gratitude for the way things have fallen into place.

First Virginia hack: check! Photo courtesy of Helen Casteel.

“When you get exposed to horses and riding early, you never forget it,” she says. “I really came into the sport as a fully fledged adult with just basic riding experience. Now I’m more in a position to be out there doing more, and it’s all just worked out to be just right.”

That exposure and the impact of the mentors Helen’s had throughout her life is something she wants to pay forward. As one of the recipients of Eventing Nation’s $5,000 Diversity Scholarship in 2020, Helen wrote about the impact professional riders can have just by spending some time with outreach to riding schools and access programs. Her story could be one of many examples of riders who’ve caught the bug early on thanks to access provided by a riding school, who have gone on to become accomplished equestrians in their own right. All it takes, she says, is some proactive thinking – and this is something we can all play a role in. Opportunities like the Ever So Sweet Scholarship are just the start, with any hope.

“Kids that don’t have the means to event when they were young would always remember the sport and the people that gave them their time and may come back to it as adults,” Helen wrote in her essay. “Or they may be in a better position as adults so their children will be able to actively participate and be encouraged by a parent that grew up loving the sport.”