Raf Kooremans and Cavalor Telstar of the Netherlands are 12th after the dressage
From European Silver medalist Piggy French in the lead, to 4* champion Clayton Fredericks in second, and WEG champion Michael Jung in 3rd, there are some big names at the top of the Olympic test event leader board. Both Piggy and Clayton hinted after their rides that this might be a practice weekend for their horses for next year. My guess is that Michal Jung has a different horse in mind for London, but it’s nice to have a good backup, so to speak. Here are a few notes from the dressage…
–The actual competition results at the test event are only meaningful when looked at in context of the experience of the horses competing. Piggy French and Topper were 3rd at the Saumur CCI3*, and second placed Clayton Frederics and Bendigo won that event. Michael Jung’s horse was third at the Boekelo CCI3* and has been to 10 CIC3* events and never placed outside of the top 10. On the other hand, 4th placed Mrs. Medicott has never done a CCI2* and is just competing in her third CIC2*. Ruy Fonseca’s horse Idaho D’Argonne competed in the 4* at Pau two years ago.
—Germany and England are running away with the competition. All three German and all three British riders are in the top 10 after the dressage. Belgium also had a strong day, finishing two riders in the top 10. Australia and Sweden have one rider in the top 10.
–As a few notes on the North American pairs, Will Faudree and DHI Colour Candy scored well despite several bobbles in the simple changes. The horse is still a bit green, but otherwise looked quite impressive. Logan Rawlings and Julian Stiller had solid tests and I was very impressed with their riding–this was the first time I have watched either of them compete. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that spending time in the UK makes for good riders. Speaking of which, Waylon Roberts and Blockbuster III moved into 17th with a very businesslike test. Waylon is returning to Canada in August. While we’ll be glad to have him back in North America, Waylon’s riding has really grown during his time in the UK.
–Overall, I think the judging today was pretty fair. I thought Piggy and Pippa got a bit of a leg up, and Will scored well despite a few bobbles. Nina Ligon’s test was a lot better than it scored, but Jazz King likes cross-country a lot more than the dressage. Kathryn Robinson and Let It Be had a very nice test that would have scored extremely well, but Let It Be kept sticking his tongue out. As someone I was sitting with pointed out, it’s a lot easier to get away with one or two bigger bobbles than a consistent nagging problem that causes the judges to deduct from every movement. Let It Be looks like a really lovely horse.
–Greenwich Park is absolutely beautiful. I will get into that more in a later post, but they have done a truly amazing job preparing the venue and course here and Greenwich will definitely do the Olympics proud next year.
–Other than Piggy way out there in the lead, the competition is pretty tight going into the XC, with the second through eleventh placed horses separated by less than 10 points.
–As for the team competition, it looks like we get to do this adding the old fashioned way–with an abacus. My personal and entirely unreliable totals are:
GBR: 125.5
GER: 131.4
BEL: 147.2
NZL: 172.4
USA: 173.6
–Although our team is in last, the US has a very young team of horses here relative to the rest of the field. In general, I think the USEF picked their riders and observers well. Everyone is smart, engaged, humble, and there is no doubt that our country is being represented the way that we would want. Now, if we could just not lose by 25 points to Belgium…
–With sunshine and warmth, the weather today was decidedly abnormal for London. Sun is also predicted for tomorrow, which might make endurance a question over the twisty and hilly Sue Benson course. Rain is predicted for Wednesday.
–As you can tell from some of the videos we will be posting, pop music played loudly during the dressage. At first, it bugged me a bit, but I eventually came to realize that entertainment like that is really the only hope for making eventing bearable for spectators. Music also makes conversation easier for spectators during the dressage.
Go eventing.
