Video of the Canadian riders
I have never seen more of a contrast in brilliant riding and terrible riding in one day. On one hand all of the US and Canadians looked great out there. Hawley and Selena picked up stops for Canada, but both of those horses were impressive most of the way around the course and both of the riders dug deep to make up the lost time. Additionally, some of the riders from other nations had great rides including Lauren Billys, right up until her fall and Frederico Danners. On the other hand, some of the South and Central Americans looked dangerous and we were lucky that there were not more problems out there. John Williams’ course was brilliantly forgiving all day.
There’s no other way to describe Saturday than domination by the US squad. Five out of five double-clears and US riders now occupy the 2nd through 6th places. On a day when the US needed a good performance our riders stepped up and delivered big time.
The cross-country proved influential despite the top 5 places being unchanged. Team USA has extended their lead to just over 20 points going into the show jumping tomorrow. Everything points to a gold medal for Team USA tomorrow. In addition to a five rail lead, the US has 5 quality scores (all within 8 points), meaning that if one of our top placed riders slips up and goes bowling there will be two more close behind to pickup the slack. In contrast, there is a 10 point drop from Canada’s 3rd placed score to their 4th placed score. That being said, we all know that absolutely anything can happen on Sunday.
Remember that there are two show jumping phases–one team, one individual–so the show jumping is going to have a big impact on the competition with two rounds counting towards the individual scores.
Jessica Phoenix has a narrow lead but three US riders are within a rail of the lead. My feeling is that Hanni is the best jumping horse out of the top 6, but Pavarotti is fabulous as well.
A selection of other rides throughout the day
We tried to keep track of all of the riders throughout the day, but it was nearly impossible to keep track of everyone especially considering that I was watching most of the pairs for the first time. There were no major holds on the course and as far as I know all of the horses and riders made it back to the barns under their own power. However, a couple of the riders took their horses well past the point of safety and exhaustion.
The spectator situation was a mess. Frederico Danners had one example of the bad luck caused by spectators. His coach Tamra Smith explained to me that someone jumped up right in front of him as he was approaching the trakehner, causing the horse to spook and Frederico couldn’t get to the jump the first time. Apparently Uruguay will be making an inquiry and I would imagine that they won’t be the only nation. Frederico almost had the same thing happen to him on the approach to a jump later on the course but he managed to get through that jump. In fairness, one Venezuelan got revenge for the riders by riding directly into the crowd following a runout, scattering spectators and trampling a couple (all appeared to be fine). Stuff like that might have surprised me two days ago, but it’s par for the course down here.
31 riders completed the course out of 49 starters. 21 pairs came home clear and there were 8 double-clears. 5 of the double-clears were from US pairs, 1 was Jessica Phoenix, 1 was Kyle Carter’s student Elena Ceballo ov Venezuela, and 1 was from Jesper Martendal of Brazil.
Go eventing.
