Karen's WEG Blog - August 22, 2006

Heike Kemmer (GER) on Bonaparte, leaders after the first day of dressage. Photo © Kit Houghton/FEI

Two Canadians Endured

Weather and footing were pretty lousy for the 159 endurance horses and riders, particularly for those who finished later in the evening when the rain alternated between hard and really hard. Only half the field, including two of the five Canadians, made it to the end. Ruth Hurley and RBF Super Sport were 38th, finishing the 160 km that took them from Germany into Belgium and Holland and back in eleven hours and five minutes. Linda Riley and Sir Century followed by exactly two hours to finish 62nd. Cealy Tetley was at the finish when the winning Spanish rider Miguel Vila Ubach entered the stadium just ahead of the two French riders who helped France to the team gold. She says it was an emotional finish, with many tears and much hugging of the horse by Miguel and his support crew. The United Arab Emirates, usually such a force in the discipline, did not finish with a single horse.

Dressage Day One

The one thread of silver lining in the Canadian cloud is that, thanks to their decent world rankings, Evi Strasser and Ashley Holzer will compete on the second day, both of them just after 11 am.  The stands for the Grand Prix were about two thirds full today. Many people have opted to stand at field level along the rail, because the dressage ring is in the middle of the Grand Prix Jumper stadium, and most of the seats are too far away for easy viewing unless you have binoculars.  Having the dressage in this stadium may have permitted more people to see it, but it deprived everyone of a good view. It’s also heavy coat weather in the mostly covered stands; it continues to feel like winter in Vancouver. If you are watching this at home on CBC, rest assured you are warmer and have a better seat than we do here.

Going first in the German team, Hubertus Schmidt had an uncharacteristically lumpy early test, though it got better as he went along. His teammate Heike Kemmer did much better, bringing the post-lunch (and post-Warsteiner – a major sponsor of WEG) Germans to their feet with a 75.792% ride that put her into first place for the day. The judging, nicely visible movement by movement on displays around the edge of the stadium, yielded its usual crop of questionable scoring. Even the audience knew better when Dutch rider Laurens van Lieren, whose test had some real brilliance, did a very wobbly canter zig zag. There was a collective sigh from the crowd every time the horse lost his balance or swung his quarters. But the judges rewarded him with three sevens and two sixes. It’s a very educated audience here, as can be expected in the heartland of horse sport. And the fans appreciate a good test no matter where the rider is from. Mexican Berna Pujals rode a nearly flawless test on Vincent, and as she exited the ring the stadium vibrated with applause as enthusiastic as any received today. The oldest horse in the dressage competition is Spanish rider Juan Antonio Jimenez’s Lusitano Guizo, who is eighteen.
 
With German, Dutch and Swedish riders filling the top spots at the end of today, tomorrow’s second half and the battle for team gold is sure to be fierce.

Of Eventers and Camels

Here is Canadian Chef de Mission Mike Gallagher’s story of the event horses’ dramatic first hours at the stables yesterday:

The Event horses arrived this morning and shipped well and look good. Unfortunately their stalls are right at the “in/out” gate and they have Dutch doors so they can stick their heads out and watch all of the activities. This can be a bit unsettling for the horses as many strange things are passing their doors including draft horses pulling big wagons decked out in bells, horse vans and horse ambulances, and last but not least, camels. There were two camels that had something to do with the ceremonies for Endurance (I think) and they were being loaded on a truck right at the gate in front of our event horses. The camels were not terribly good loaders and kept “mooing” and trying to lie down as their handlers were “persuading” them with big sticks. There was a real concern that Ian Robert’s horse, Napalm, was about to have a coronary watching these camels. When the team closed his top door so he could not see out and only hear the “production”, he actually seemed worse, so they let him watch.

Okay, gotta go. Where is the nearest Warsteiner tent, please?

!related!Tune in regularly to read Karen's personal reports as she covers the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany