Wednesday Morning at Aachen: Team USA Ready to Go

Lynn Symansky and Donner in their lesson with David O'Connor, with super groom Kendyl Tracy filming in the background! Photo by Jenni Autry. Lynn Symansky and Donner in their lesson with David O'Connor, with super groom Kendyl Tracy filming in the background! Photo by Jenni Autry.

All the horses are officially moved in here at Aachen as we look ahead to this afternoon’s horse inspection for the FEI Eventing Nations Cup. Three of the four U.S. team members had their first rides at the venue this morning in flat schools with Coach David O’Connor. Colleen Rutledge and Covert Rights, who were named to the team about 24 hours ago, arrived in Germany early this morning and will have their first ride during ring familiarization this afternoon.

Phillip Dutton, Lauren Kieffer and Lynn Symansky spent the past two days at Reed Kessler’s facility in Holland before vanning over to Germany yesterday afternoon, and David said the horses did well at the Kesslers’ farm. “It’s a fabulous place, and the Kesslers were very hospitable,” he said. “When you come over in these first couple days, you’re just trying to get the horses to be happy with the travel, so it’s not high pressure yet. The horses have done the trip well.”

Now with the horses settled in, David has turned his attention to fine-tuning things on the flat with Veronica, Donner and Fernhill Cubalawn, who did their lessons in that order this morning, with Donner having a second ride after. “I think the horses feel comfortable and they all look good,” David said. “I think they feel ready for this. The horses aren’t CCI fit, but this is a CIC. We jumped them all once (in Holland), and they all jumped well.”

The warm-up rings for dressage have been set up in the same grass field where all the riders were hacking yesterday, with is adjacent to where the new dressage stadium has been erected for the CICO. The U.S. riders don’t get a chance to do dressage on grass very often, so having the dressage for eventing on grass at this year’s CICO is good practice.

Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Cubalawn in their lesson with Coach David O'Connor this morning. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Cubalawn in their lesson with Coach David O’Connor in the covered arena this morning. Photo by Jenni Autry.

“The horses with larger trots that are not really comfortable on the grass will be a little bit more conservative, but the footing here is good,” David said. “Certainly we’re talking about using studs for dressage and things like that. It’s hard to get the horses to let go as much in there on the grass footing as you could on a difference surface.”

Covert Rights — definitely one of those horses with a larger trot who will need to adjust to the different surface — will take his first spin in the grass dressage arena this afternoon in ring familiarization, and Colleen Rutledge will make her U.S. team debut when she makes her way down centerline tomorrow.

It’s been a whirlwind week for Colleen, CR and her groom Alex Ambelang. While CR flew overseas on the same flight as fellow team horses Donner and Fernhill Cubalawn, he then made his way on to England to settle in for Burghley. The USEF only received word around 11 a.m. local time yesterday that there would be room after all to add a fourth squad member, so Alex and Colleen packed up and caught the ferry last night.

“Colleen is a real professional, and the horse has really come into his own in the last year,” David said. “She obviously didn’t have the best preparation for Aachen going to multiple different countries in the last week, but she’s a cool customer. I think mentally it’s not going to affect her at all. She’ll go in and do her best job and a good job.”

Holly Jacks-Smither and More Inspiration in their lesson with Penny Rowland. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Holly Jacks-Smither and More Inspiration in their lesson with Penny Rowland. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Having a drop score now definitely leaves a little more breathing room as the U.S. looks to complete a team for the first time at the Aachen CICO. The U.S. first sent a team in 2013, and only Tiana Coudray and Clark Montgomery completed the event. That was the very first team trip for David, who had been team coach for a little over six months then, and he said he thinks a lot has changed since then.

“We were still developing the program in a lot of ways. It was our first trip, and we had some developing horses, which we likely wouldn’t do again at this event,” David said. “We also made a mistake with the shoeing with running in bar shoes on cross country. We didn’t know the horses as much as we do now, and you didn’t know programs at that point. This is an experienced group, and they’re good cross country horses, so the experience level of the team will make more of a difference than anything else.

The weather is also significantly different this week than in 2013 when the wheels fell off the cart for Team USA. It was pouring rain and freezing cold for cross country — conditions we’re all glad not to be reliving. This week it’s pleasant and warm, and tomorrow will be quite hot for dressage and show jumping. Friday’s forecast for cross country is currently predicting mostly dry conditions.

Niklas Bschorer and Tom Tom Go 3. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Niklas Bschorer and Tom Tom Go 3. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Getting teams to Nations Cup events like Aachen continues to be a big priority for David, who made the very good point that you’re unlikely to find an atmosphere like this anywhere else in the world. With the CICO running alongside the European Championships for dressage, show jumping, vaulting, reining and driving, the event feels more like a big rock concert than a horse show.

“It feels like a major games, and we don’t get to come to shows like this very often. How we approach the technical side of the competition — what you’re going to do in the ring and what you’re going to do out on the cross country — all stays the same. But the different feel here with all of the disciplines makes it feel like a games,” David said.

“It has a lot of atmosphere, and you feel like you’re in Europe. Aachen is one of the best horse shows in the world. So to be able to come here; you feel like you’re part of the big wheel. It feels very international here. It goes back to the fact that we need to get off our island; we have to keep coming back here to get used to events like this.”

Michael Jung (in a Hollister T-shirt, ya'll) and fischerTakinou FST. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Michael Jung (in a Hollister T-shirt, ya’ll) and fischerTakinou FST. Photo by Jenni Autry.

In addition to Team USA taking advantage of the morning for lessons and hacks, I also saw members of the Canadian, Kiwi, German and British teams out and about. Holly Jacks-Smither and More Inspiration had another dressage lesson with Penny Rowland this morning, in which they kept nailing their flying changes. Clean changes haven’t come easy to Morris, Holly said, so to have those come together just in time for Aachen is pretty fantastic.

Check out a photo gallery below of everyone who was out hacking late this morning: Michael Jung, Tim and Jonelle Price, Mark Todd, Niklas Bschorer, and Gemma Tattersall. The chef d’equipes just wrapped up their meeting, so Rüdiger Schwarz’s cross country course is now open to walking.

I’m off to go check out the course and snap photos ahead of the 5 p.m. horse inspection (noon EST), which is expected to last about one hour. Stay tuned for a full report from the horse inspection, and don’t forget to keep checking Instagram for photos and follow @eventingnation on Twitter for by-the-minute updates from #Aachen2015.

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