So where to start; perhaps with the job in hand. All the U.S. horses looked fit, well and beautifully turned out by the grooms and the horse inspection went without a hitch for the U.S. Running order declared (Boyd, Clark, Lauren & Philip) and the dressage horses having been worked, most of us headed back to the village or hotel. Meanwhile other teams were having to deal with last minute substitutions, which is never fun and never easy. Substitutions (i.e. bringing in the travelling reserve) can be made up to 2 hours before the start of the dressage in eventing but only for equine or human medical reasons. Sweden, Germany, and New Zealand all made substitutions. Being the traveling reserve can be a terrible role to fulfil, for groom and athlete, but a vital one - so close but not quite on the team but having to be a fully participating part of the team. I am sure, that whilst they would not admit it, one is always looking at the selected horses and thinking..was that a lame step? The travelling reserve for the U.S. Eventing Team is Lynn Symansky and her groom Kendyl Tracy: They have been truly superb, always with smiles on their faces and supporting the other riders and grooms at every opportunity. Now the dressage has started, their role will change and they will become a vital part of the support team helping the four athletes perform to their very best.
Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice:
Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen:
Boyd Martin and Blackfoot Mystery:
Lauren Kieffer and Veronica:
Lynn Symansky and Donner:
Eventing dressage is now under way and for that study form and the sport there are perhaps some surprises in the team running orders. It will be very interesting to learn afterwards the reasoning and also see how things pan out and whether there has been some clever gamesmanship going on.
Last night was the Opening Ceremony for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, but I am guessing you knew that: I freely admit that I am not a fan of Opening Ceremonies but also I recognise how important they are for Host Cities and how motivating they are for some athletes. Our dressage athletes, accompanied by Robert Dover, marched with the U.S. delegation but the eventing athletes, with competition starting the next morning gave it a miss. We held a reception at the hotel for all of those not attending and as a thank you to our very generous and supportive owners. Drinks and canapés outside followed by buffet in front of the TV and Opening Ceremony - quite the POSH do. It was therefore a little perturbing to walk around the corner from the room where we would be hosting the aforementioned function to find water pouring through the ceiling outside the lifts / elevators and also running down the emergency exit stairs. This was not a good start to the evening!! Five people were hard at work trying to push the water outside and for safety the lifts / elevators had to be turned off. Knowing we had people on the 15th and 16th floor who would soon be heading down, I hitched my belly up and set off for the long, very long, very very long climb to warn everyone that descent must be via the stairs.
Dressage Team looking sharp in their Ralph Lauren marching kit:
The cause of the flood.... not any architectural or mechanical failure on the part of the hotel but rather the result of some dimwitted hotel guests who decided to hang shirts from the fire sprinkler in their room, thus ripping the sprinkler from the ceiling and initiating an indoor Victoria Falls. Luckily they were on the 1st floor (GBR speak) / 2nd floor (U.S.) speak. When I "took a peak" at their floor during my ascent of Mount Bloodyhellitisalongway the two criminals were standing in the corridor laughing at the mayhem they had caused. After spending at least an hour meeting with the hotel manager later, they were most certainly not laughing. The hotel staff did and an excellent job of clearing up and we all enjoyed a great evening.
All lost luggage has been located and reunited with Debbie McDonald and Thomas Meyers; this did incur two long journeys to the airport and the expert intervention of Patricia and Fabiano (two of our good friends from Rio).
And the exploding wine bottle...well that just might have been totally my fault (I was rumouging around in our store cupboard and there was a load crack) but I can report that Andy Thomas is quite the mopper up. Nia, I hope you put him to work when he gets home.
As I hit "Send" Boyd has done a great job leading out the Team and Clark is just getting ready to dance. We are most definitely under way.