Buck Davidson and Absolute Liberty were foot perfect and well inside the time on the cross-country to lead the way for Team USA today at the Pan American Games cross-country. Buck was the second rider out on course and by the time he was half-way around the course the first rider had retired and the third had a stop at fence #4. “Libby” was strong and straight the whole way for Buck. I spoke with Buck briefly after his ride and he said he broke his stirrup three minutes from home. He said that the time was easy to make and he was up at every minute marker. The tight and twisty course must be wheeled generously for the time to be so simple to make. This bodes well for the USA maintaining their top team spot and Jessie to keep her lead in the individual competition.
It is a bit hard to follow what is going on with all of the riders since the announcer is speaking mostly in Spanish, but we will try to keep you posted throughout the day. 18,000 spectators are expected to show up throughout the day. There is very little crowd control and some of the spectator tents are a few feet from the galloping lane. Hopefully there won’t be any crowd related incidents but either way the crowd is going to be a factor throughout the day.
The media center is literally a tent on a dirt mound in the middle of the cross-country, but the Pan Am media team is being incredibly helpful getting us the internet and everything else we need. Without Eduardo and his team we would be completely lost out here, so we are all very thankful.
As with all of the results we post today, they are provisional. Go eventing.
