The US entered the jog Sunday morning with Becky in bronze medal position and with our team in silver. 8 hours later, we are left with our team in 4th and the highest placed US rider finishing in 10th. I am really happy for the other teams, but I will not remember these WEGs with fondness.
(1) Let’s try to start on a positive note. Eventers here in the US might not know very much about Michael Jung, but he is extremely well respected in Europe and no one should be surprised at Michael’s victory. Michael was one of just a few riders–including William Fox-Pitt, and Boyd Martin to finish on their dressage score. Michael’s victory gives Germany some consolation after they gave away such a big lead in the team competition after the dressage. Ok, that’s all the positive I can write for now.
(2) For the US eventing team, there’s no way to describe Sunday, and perhaps these World Equestrian Games in general, other than a complete failure. The top three US riders added 17 collective penalties on Sunday. That was on a course where the top four other teams (GBR, CAN, NZL, GER) added a total of 16 penalties. In front of a hometown crowd with one of the best teams on paper in recent memory anything less that a team medal is appalling.
(3) The mess that was team USA contrasted starkly with the mechanical precision of Great Britain throughout the weekend. The British riders looked focused every time I saw them around the Horse Park. When I watched British schoolings and warmups I got the feeling that they were on a mission–it just felt different than the other teams. A lot of people, including me, questioned a couple of the British team selections, but Saturday and Sunday, especially Sunday, vindicated the British selectors.
(4) Alright, I waited as long as I could to talk about Canada. In all honesty, I feel like after months of writing about the talent and potential of the Canadian squad there’s not a great deal to say other than they rose to our expectations and exceeded every one else’s epectations. The media might spin the Canadian team silver as some sort of huge upset, but the reality is that it wasn’t all that much of an upset. Canada brought in one of the best coaches in the world, let him bring one of the best support staffs in the world and pick the people he wanted to be on his team–so a few years later we should not be shocked that Canada has one of the best teams in the world.
(5) Karen didn’t get the job done. You can call it a miss, you can call it spookiness from Mandiba, call it whatever you want but stops in the show jumping should never happen for such a veteran rider. When Mandiba replaced Tipperary Liadhnan on the team, I figured that we had replaced show jumping risk with cross-country risk and it looked as if we were in the clear after Saturday. But the timidness that Mandiba showed at the second cross-country fence at the AECs waited until the show jumping to break our hearts.
(6) Team USA didn’t get the job done either. While we will all remember Karen and Mandiba’s stop as the decisive end of team USA’s medal hopes, it is important to understand that team USA’s final score and placing was very much a team effort. The four US riders collectively scored 160.3 and that was 5.5 points too high for bronze and 20.9 points too high for gold. Buck’s stop on XC is just as big of a mistake as Karen’s in show jumping.
(7) How was the NBC coverage for those of you stuck at home? I heard Jimmy was an excellent addition, but readers of the live blog kept reporting that NBC would go to commercial during important rides.
(8) The only highlight of the weekend for the US was Boyd’s 10th place finish. Boyd had one of his personal best dressage tests to score a 49.5 and is really the only US rider who lived up to expectations by finishing on that dressage score.
(9) We knew New Zealand had great leadership from Andrew Nicholson and Mark Todd, but their younger riders had to step up big and they did. Caroline Powell has had an incredible past month with a win at Burghley and then a team bronze on two different horses. I keep thinking that Mark Todd cannot possibly add to his legend, but at 54 years old and just a few years out of retirement he moved a horse up at the WEGs and finished 11th. Andrew Nicholson has had a pretty bad year until this weekend but he deserves bronze after such a wonderful XC ride yesterday. New Zealand took a big step to reclaiming their historical eventing dominance this weekend.
(10) Canada’s team looks completely different from the US team and the Canadian model was 9 points better this weekend. Advocates of spending more energy producing young talent, picking teams more based on recent performance, and on not giving some horses passes at the final selection trials have never had more evidence to support their arguments. The good news for the US is that after the 2008 Olympics and this weekend, expectations will be easier to live up to at the next international championship.
Other stuff…
(11) Someone close to the Irish team texted me on Sunday afternoon that Fernhill Clover Mist suffered a “slipped hock” which, after calling a vet, I learned that the technical explanation is that one of the branches holding the superficial flexor tendon over the horse’s hock had broken and the tendon slipped off of the hock. This type of injury is generally career ending. I’m glad to have an answer to that question, but I really feel for Patricia and I hope that Fernhill Clover Mist beats the odds and makes a speedy recovery.
Update: This is confirmed by a report from William Micklem, who is quoted as saying “The tendon running over [Fernhill Clover Mist’s] hock had slipped off and was obviously the reason behind his pain and his flight across the horse park” in the COTH.
(12) Word from the Canadians is that Exponential has a swollen ouchy knee and he will be fine in a few days. They took quite a landing into the Head of the Lake yesterday. I’m sad that Jessica did not get to complete the competition but she had a really nice round yesterday and Exponential will be back jumping a mile soon.
Go eventing.
