Team USA (and Canada!) and the designated alternates for Tokyo are in The Plains, Va. this week as they make their final preparations for next month’s postponed 2020 Olympics. The Mandatory Outing is being held at Great Meadow International, and though the session was originally slated to run in a traditional format – jog, dressage, cross country, jog, show jumping – due to concerns about forecasted weather, some modifications to the schedule have been made.
The entered horse and rider pairs for this Mandatory Outing are:
Team USA:
- Phillip Dutton and Z
- Liz Halliday-Sharp and Deniro Z
- Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg TSF
- Doug Payne and Vandiver
Alternates (alphabetical order):
- Will Coleman and Off the Record
- Buck Davidson and Carlevo
- Sydney Elliot and QC Diamantaire
- Will Faudree and Mama’s Magic Way
- Boyd Martin and On Cue
- Lauren Nicholson and Vermiculus
- Tamie Smith and Mai Baum
Team Canada:
- Colleen Loach and Qorry Blue d’Argouges
A series of dressage test rides will be performed at Great Meadow this afternoon by the 12 entered combinations. Canada’s Colleen Loach, who has been tapped to take one of the two individual slots allotted to the country, is also participating this weekend. Her fellow Canadian competitor, Jessica Phoenix, is not participating; the test is not a Mandatory Outing for Canada. These tests will be scored, though followers should note that this is not a true competition and at the time of publication there is no confirmation as to the availability of dressage scores. Dressage will be followed by a horse inspection at 5:30 p.m. EST, concluding today’s action.
Tomorrow, the pairs will tackle an Ian Stark-designed cross country test beginning at 10 a.m. EST. A second jog will take place Friday morning at 8 a.m. EST, followed by show jumping over a Chris Barnard-designed track at 10 a.m. EST.
There is unfortunately no live stream of the Mandatory Outing, but we’ll be sharing photos from today’s and Friday’s action and will have Kate Samuels on site reporting tomorrow.
“The basic purpose [of GMI] is that they all needed a run,” USEF Managing Director of Eventing Jenni Autry told EN earlier this month. “They’ll all work on specific goals with [Chef d’Equipe Erik Duvander] during the competition in order to be ready. Ultimately the goal is to be the best prepared they possibly can be during the Olympics. It is set up like a competition and there will be live scoring, but fundamentally it’s technically a mandatory training session.”
Following the outing, the horses will be staged at Gladstone in New Jersey in preparation to fly on July 8. “All fitness work is to be done by the time they leave,” Jenni says. “They’ll have access to gallops but they are not intended for actual galloping. Erik has been very clear that that all needs to get done before they get on the plane.”
From there, the team will travel to a Pre-Export Quarantine in Aachen, Germany. The facility will function as their final training camp where we will be working with dressage judges and as well as Peter Wylde for show jumping.
The first and second alternates, Tamie Smith with Mai Baum and Will Faudree with Mama’s Magic Way, will travel to Aachen with the team and will have the option of staying to contest CHIO Aachen on Sept. 17-18.
Olympic eventing will begin July 30 and continue through August 2, 2021, at the Equestrian Park and Sea Forest Cross-Country Course venues in Tokyo.
Team USA Mandatory Outing: [Order of Go] [Live Scores]
