P-Dutty after a lovely test on Mystery Whisper (photo by Erin Gilmore)
Well, after two days of waking at 5am to watch six straight hours of dressage, I can freely admit that my brain is a touch “dressage fried”. Not only were the scores, shall we say, interesting, but the rides that I saw on both days were a true testament to the increased quality of dressage riding in eventing as a whole. Watching tests from Coleman and P-Dutty, as well as seeing the professional performance of Tina Cook in the pouring rain, it was really difficult to tell what exactly the judges were looking for. There are many tears being shed over the injustice of Boyd’s mark early yesterday in comparison to similar tests today. All I can say is there is no use crying over spilt milk, and Boyd is super proud of his horse, and you all know Otis will tear it up in the next two days (have you seen that horse jump?!).
What exactly separates a score of 42 and a score of 45? It was hard to tell, but it was easy to see that the top three belonged exactly there. I only wish that there had been a betting pool on the final three after dressage, because the odds on Japanese and Italian would have been off the charts! Yoshiaki Oiwa and Stefano Brecciaroli certainly took some by surprise (including me) but there is no doubt in my mind that their scores were justified. Mark Todd saved the best for last and totally kicked butt, leading some to say that he now “beats Slash for ‘most awesome rock star in a tall hat‘”.
Team USA, don’t take this the wrong way, because I think that every member did a phenomenal job this weekend, but I also think that this provides an opportunity for us to see where we need to improve. Yes, the US has improved greatly in the past few years, but the other teams have improved more. The advantage of competing every weekend against the best of the best in Europe is clear, and our first two days didn’t turn out as spectacular as we would have hoped. That being said, we are in 7th place but only 19.7 points out of the lead, and the competition is far from over. Course designer Sue Benson predicts that only two riders will make it inside of the optimum time of 10:03, so that will shake things up quite a bit! Onwards and upwards!
[Full List of Start Times for XC]
Links galore:
Overview of Day 2 from Horse & Hound
Chronicle dressage photos, recap
London 2012: The Fabulous Quiet of the Eventing Arena
London recognizes Boyd as the bad*ss that he is
Day Two So Far: The BE Blog —> Round Up Day 2 (updated)
Tina Cook stays philosophical about her ride in the downpour
Zara speaks about her confident test on High Kingdom
Daily Mail covers Zara’s Olympic debut, takes semi-non-flattering horse action photos
WFP is excited for the next two days on Lionheart
Get excited about XC with this photo course-walk [via COTH]
An interview with Sue Benson, course designer for XC in Greenwich
Dressage Proves No Draw: Just a Bore [via HN]
Wonderful Q & A with Mary King
2nd Generation Olympians! Boyd!
IOC Imposes Absurd Social Media Laws…..SOCIAL MEDIA LAWS??? (opinion: No laws for social media!!)
I would like to insert my own personal plea here, that Team USA get their pretty little butts on the Social Media Bandwagon already, because I’m starting to feel bad about the amount of Team GB updates/blogs/links that I have to post because minus Boyd, I’m lost out here. AHEM. Thank you.
Yoshiaki Oiwa & Noonday de Conde in 2011 at the World Cup 3* at Strzegom
