Olympic XC Monday’s News & Notes from Success Equestrian

It all starts here: Fence 1, the Diamond Jubilee Hedge (Kit Houghton/FEI Photo).

Here’s hoping Boyd, Karen, Tiana, Will and Phillip have seasoned themselves and their horses with salt, and will tackle Sue Benson’s twisty/turny course as safely, soundly, quickly and cleanly as possible. A crowd of 50,000 is expected in Greenwich today, and many thousands more will be cheering along from the office. So let’s get the chant started, EN–IT’S FINALLY OLYMPIC CROSS-COUNTRY DAY: GO EVENTING!

Boyd and Otis will trailblaze at 12:30pm local/7:30am ET, accounting for the five-hour EDT/BST difference. Tune in early and often for live coverage throughout. [London Local Time]

North American Cross-Country Times:

Boyd Martin & Otis Barbotiere (USA) — 12:30pm local/7:30am ET
Michelle Mueller & Amistad (CAN) — 12:50pm local/7:50am ET
Karen O’Connor & Mr. Medicott (USA) — 1:26pm local/8:26am ET
Hawley Bennett-Awad & Gin & Juice (CAN) — 1:46pm local/8:46am ET
Tiana Coudray & Ringwood Magister (USA) — 2:26pm local/9:26am ET
Peter Barry & Kilrodan Abbott (CAN) — 2:46pm local/9:46am ET
Will Coleman & Twizzel (USA) — 3:30pm local/10:30am ET
Jessica Phoenix & Exponential (CAN) — 3:50pm local/10:50am ET
Phillip Dutton & Mystery Whisper (USA) — 4:34pm local/11:34am ET
Rebecca Howard & Riddle Master (CAN) — 4:54pm local/11:54am ET

[Full Cross-Country Ride Times]

How to watch: [NBC Online Stream] [NBC TV Schedule] [Master Broadcast List]

After dressage, the U.S. is in 7th place (138.8) behind Germany (1st, 119.1), Australia (122.10), Great Britain (127), Sweden (128.20), New Zealand (128.20) and Japan (130.70).  Phillip is 19th (44.30), Will is 26th (46.30), Karen is 29th (48.20), Boyd is 36th (50.70) and Tiana is 42nd (52.00). [Team Results] [Individual Results]

Dressage Wrap-Up Recaps: [COTH] [FEI] [USEA] [SmartPak/USEF] [Uptown Eventing Photos]

Get Prepped for Cross-Country: [SmartPak Course Walk] [COTH Course Walk Gallery] [Horse & Hound Gallery] [Course Map JPG] [Weather]

Riders size up the course: Mary King says, “It’s fantastically built with wonderful ground. It’s going to be a great challenge of horsemanship; a test of speed and agility. The fences aren’t hugely built but the time will be difficult – the speed will make the mistakes.” [Horsetalk]

Horse & Country Video: Sharon Hunt and Francis Whittington’s Greenwich commentary. [H&C]

International charity World Horse Welfare will be on-site at Greenwich today, working alongside officials to ensure proper horsecare, observing results to help plan future competitions.  [Fran Jurga’s Olympic Blog]

SmartPak takes us under the Dressage Day 2 stands: “We’re pretty dedicated, but the loud ‘crack’ of lightning was enough to send us into the bowels of the bleachers along with a couple thousand of our closest friends. Well, maybe not ALL friends. Once the torrential rain started to come through the structure one woman was intent on occupying the exact spot I was standing and I was happy to have a number of years of competitive ice hockey experience as I tried to defend my space!” [SmartPak]

An Eventful dressage day, indeed: “Niklas Lindback and Mister Pooh (that’s the name of his horse, by the way, but I have a feeling it might be the way he was feeling after his test) were circling the arena but the Ground Jury decided to halt proceedings while the storm passed. Ten minutes later he recommenced, followed by Andrew Nicholson riding Nereo who obviously had also been delayed and is NOT a happy man. Rumour has it that security has been assigned to the Ground Jury …” [An Eventful Life]

Horse & Hound Eventing Editor Pippa Roome’s Michael Jung surprise: “We knew that being off the pace in the dressage might be Michael’s major concern in his bid to add the Olympic title to his world and European ones… but I certainly never expected him to be fourth out of five Germans in the first phase. But when Michael and Sam made two mistakes in their test and Dirk Schrade excelled himself, that’s what happened. Can he win it from here? Eleventh sounds quite a long way back, but he’s only 2.5pen off the leader and with a tight cross-country time expected and two rounds of showjumping, don’t rule him out.” [Horse & Hound]

The Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon has obviously never seen us on cross-country day: “There is a giant hush in place over the Greenwich Park arena, so that one doesn’t spook the horses. But also, I think, because being quiet is very polite, and the people here are most definitely the polite types. They are gingham of shirt and glossy of mane and at least five of them I stop to talk to had come all the way from Sloane Square, which, as they were keen to point out, is not even on the same tube line as Greenwich. Never mind. At least there are champagne and seafood stalls to reward them for their journey (here at the equestrian venue, there is not a McDonald’s Golden Arch in sight).” [Telegraph]

If you find yourself with some downtime today—and I know, you won’t—I suggest a look at the FEI Olympic Bio database John linked to yesterday, a babelfish-like web-oracle through which not only words, but also ideas and appearances are transmogrified—usually for the better. By this fortuity we learn that William Fox-Pitt’s nickname is “Captain Sensible,” Ingrid Klimke “first had contact with horses in 1973,” Chris Burton “polishes his boots rigorously” when nervous, and Tim Lips and Jock Paget have used the same barber. [FEI Bios]

Found on Facebook: Magical post from Michael Pollard, including raddled critique of ladies’ fashion at London’s Ministry of Sound, forenoon sprint (after the previous night’s “bit too much free champagne” and subsequent “hours of drinking water”) to catch Zara’s test, and examination of US dressage in the context of top German, Aussie and British riders, whose accuracy he terms “surgical.” [Pollard Eventing Facebook]

Best of the Blogs: “You really couldn’t make this stuff up. Day 2 of Dressage for the London 2012 Olympic Games Eventing at Greenwich Park has been nothing short of inspirational, surprising and full of stories that will make this competition the most interesting of recent times.” [Talking Horse]

SmartPak’s Course Walk with Allison Springer:

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