Iman du Golfe update: The FEI has released yet another update on Iman du Golfe which explains that the horse received sutures at Rood & Riddle for a deep laceration around the elbow and that x-rays showed a small bone chip but no major damage. The vets are optimistic that the horse will recover fully. This second release does not make any mention of the rider, which you can interpret as you like.
There are so many incredible things to write about after cross-country at the WEGs that I can’t possibly know what to include and what to leave out, but I know exactly where to start. The big news of the day is the US and Canada’s incredible XC performance to jump into the silver and bronze medal positions respectively.
(1) The US team was selected to take control of the cross-country and they did just that. They jumped 5 places to 2nd in the overall standings and are poised to take an individual medal as well–Becky and Comet answered a lot of their critics with a super ride. That said, I would imagine that Becky is a little frustrated at herself for having 3.2 time penalties when a clean round would have put her into 2nd, although Comet did reportedly pull a shoe early on the course.
(2) Germany may have dominated the dressage, but Canada dominated the cross-country. Canada incredibly had all 6 riders finish with clear rides, they had 3 double clears, and the Canadians added a grand total of 7.2 cross-country penalties over 6 riders. Canada jumped up six spots from 9th after the dressage to 3rd going into the show jumping. We have been shouting from the rooftops about how much talent this Canadian team has for so long that it is hard to realize what an incredible achievement Saturday’s cross-country was for Canada. The Canadian horses, riders, support staff, coach, and fans have all played a part in making team Canada an official eventing powerhouse.
(3) Karen O’Connor came through in the clutch when the US desperately needed a great performance. Everyone expected a great performance from Boyd, which he delivered. And everyone expected Buck to do the same, which would have taken some of the pressure off of Karen knowing that Phillip would follow her. Unfortunately, Buck had problems and so all of the pressure for team USA’s medal hopes were put onto Karen’s shoulders. At perhaps the most important moment of Karen’s team career, she stepped up and delivered the greatest ride I have every seen from her. Those 11 minutes of cross-country today vindicates all of Mandiba’s supporters who believed he deserved another chance to represent the US internationally. I expected the US team to have a great day of XC, but I did not expect them to need a clutch performance from Karen to make that happen.
(4) Buck’s ride started off bad and got worse, and it’s hard to know exactly why. They have been very solid on the XC, including a clear ride at Burghley ’09, but Reggie can get be sensitive and spooky. It looked like Buck never clicked with Reggie and after a few uncharacteristic early misses and sketchy jumps, Reggie finally picked up a stop.
(5) Phillip and Woodburn made the course look almost shockingly easy. Phillip never asked Woodburn to gallop flat out and the only criticism I would have of their ride is that Woodburn resisted Phillip’s half-halts slightly. Andrew Nicholson and Nereo perhaps had an even better ride. Andrew rode Nereo with incredible softness–letting the horse gallop and jump galloping fences on a loose rein and only taking contact when he needed to.
(6) With all of the love we are showing the US and Canadian teams, the British fans would probably respond by saying just one word: “scoreboard.” Nicola Wilson and Opposition Buzz started the morning off with a brilliant double-clear for Great Britain and William followed that up with another double clear. They jumped the Germans to take the team competition lead and William is in silver medal position. Great Britain is about to do well at another international championship? Shocker.
(7) The German team collapsed on Saturday and fell from a 14 point lead to a 23 point deficit. Michael Jung and Ingrid Klimke had excellent rounds, but the four other German riders had at least a stop on course. Although Michael Jung might say “scoreboard” (or the German equivalent) as well because he extended his individual lead from 2.5 to 9 points with a double clear and has a strangle hold on the individual competition. Michael Jung is respected as one of the best riders in the world by European insiders and he would be a worthy WEG champion.
(8 ) Our sport dodged several major bullets today. There were multiple very hard falls that could have resulted in serious injuries if the horse or rider hand landed differently. Katrin Norling and Pandora of Sweden had one of the hardest falls when Pandora jumped the front wall of the stone corner (two stone walls at 90 degree angle) and then landed in between the walls and slammed into the back wall. There were 6 rider falls and 4 horse falls today, but, unlike Rolex, none of the falls were rotational. I think course designer Mike ES and lady luck each deserve some credit for this.
Now for below the fold…
(9) Badminton champions Paul Tapner and Inonothing pulled up at the quarry and Inonothing appeared slightly off at the walk. The horse received attention from the vets and Paul’s Facebook page says that Inonothing fractured his stifle and is comfortably recovering in his stall. I give Paul credit of sensing something was wrong with his horse and calling it a day before the problem became more serious. Eventing Nation wishes Inonothing a speedy recovery. Link courtesy of critter.
(10) Point Two Airjackets were worn by almost all of the riders at the competition today and protected them in multiple falls. Heidi Wood of South Africa forgot to disconnect her airjacket at the finish line and received quite the surprise upon hopping off.
(11) Despite all of the changes to the placings, the course rode easier than many expected. There were 12 double clears and 39 clear rides, with 21 starters not completing the course. The time was set very reasonably, and Tina Cook even made the time with a runout.
(12) Universal sports offered free replay of the Rolex XC, but unfortunately it looks like they are charging $12 for the WEG replay. The two full replay options seem to be for a fee FEI TV and Universal Sports. We will upload the best Youtube videos as we find them, and please link to any good videos in the comment section.
(13) Correction: The jog starts a 9:00am and show jumping starts at 1:00PM Sunday morning.
(14) Patricia Ryan and Fernhill Clover Mist had one of strangest moments I have ever seen on cross-country. Around fence 20, Fern Hill Clover Mist pinned his ears and ran at a flat out dead gallop in a straight line–I mean FLAT OUT. Patricia was hauling on his mouth with all her weight, which did absolutely nothing. They ran by fence #21 and the last water complex like this and, presumably, pulled up. I haven’t heard an explanation for why the horse ran off with Patricia but he was kicking out occasionally and my first reaction on the live blog was that he might have been stung by an insect.
Thank you to Leslie for taking so many wonderful photos for us this weekend:
(15) The cross-country penalties were focused on several key elements. The first water walked easy but rode hard and caused a fall for South Africa’s Paul Hart and Ireland’s Camilla Spears as well as multiple refusals. The coffin caused 18 refusals and one rider fall. The aforementioned stone corner at #8 caused two falls and multiple horses slid over fence or put a stride in on top. The Head of the Lake only caused one rider fall–Atsushi Negishi of Japan–and one refusal. It is harder to analyze the difficulty of later fences by looking at refusal/fall numbers because the less experienced pairs have often already been eliminated at earlier questions. The final two tables cause one fall each and the lead-off rider for Germany, Dirk Schrade, had a shocking fall at the second to last jump.
(16) Pater Atkins was wearing his helmet cam and the footage of this course should be especially exciting as Henny nearly jumped through the brush fence at #26A. Henny displayed once again what an amzing horse he is throughout the course and, as Erin pointed out in the comments, they moved up 48 places. Kyle Carter of Canada also had a huge move up the leader board by adding just 4.4 time penalties to his dressage score.
(17) I have heard from several sources, including Visionaire and LisaB, that an outrider’s horse was transported from the event in a horse ambulance. By outrider, I mean the riders who are dressed formally and serve at the event to direct the crowd and catch loose horses. Similar to Iman du Golfe apparently the tarps were put around the horse and then the horse walked onto the ambulance.
(18) The rides themselves were so exciting on Saturday that it has taken me 17 points to remember my manners. Thank you to all of the volunteers who have worked so hard to make the WEGs a wonderful experience. Saturday was especially wonderful because the competition was tough but very safe–two qualities that our sport has struggled to balance over the past few years. The course designer and course builders should have our thanks for giving us an absolutely perfect WEG course. Finally, thanks to all of you who have joined Eventing Nation for a wonderful day of cross-country.
On that positive note, I’ll stop writing and go grab dinner. We have been posting well past midnight over the past few days and, for my sake, I hope that doesn’t continue tonight but it probably will. I would imagine that Chelan has taken one or two toasts to her country’s heroic day already tonight, but that hasn’t stopped her from writing for us in the past so I imagine we will hear from her later.
Go eventing.
