The top 30 riders from the grand prix were showcased, minus Debbie McDonald and Brentina, who had to give up their spot yesterday when they decided Brentina’s minor injury was enough reason to keep her out of the individual competition. This left only the two Americans, Seidel and Peters.
Seidel, dubbed by many as the “piaffe king” aboard Aragon, was the first American to go. Aragon is a 14-year-old Bavarian Warmblood gelding, owned by Richard and Jane Brown. Their ride earned them a 70.560, putting them in 14th place, and earning them a spot in Saturday night’s freestyle competition.
“He taught me that I do have a great horse under my butt,” Seidel said. “He has a lot of potential. Sometimes when things don’t go too well, you stop believing so much in yourself and the horse. There are moments like that. It’s good to have a show like this where you have great highlights, and you really know why you picked the horse in the first place and why you continue to work hard every day.”
Peters and the 16-year-old Westphalian gelding, Floriano, owned by Stephen and Laurelyn Browning, did more than wow the crowd. They put in a brilliant ride and took over the top spot with only seven rides to go. The dynamic duo earned a 75.200 with their relaxed, yet forward, extended walk, elegant transitions and floating extended trot, to name just a few of the high points.
“I didn’t expect it because he came in a little bit nervous,” said Peters. “This arena over here is extremely difficult, and when I came in, the crowd was still pretty excited about Imke’s ride, so I was fairly concerned about that, but as soon as I trotted around and asked for the collected walk, he was relaxed, and that gave me a very good feeling…I heard the noise that was going through the audience so I thought the score for the extended walk was pretty good. Overall, it is just amazing at 16-years-old how much energy this horse has. I am so excited about that.”
When asked what it means to him to do this on a horse that isn’t that famous, Peters quickly replied, “Well, the good thing is now he is famous.”
Peters and Floriano finished in the fourth spot and will be competing in Saturday night’s freestyle. “It’s neat to dream about it, but when your dreams become reality, it’s pretty special,” he commented.
Tonight’s winners of the individual grand prix special were Isabell Werth of Germany on Satchmo with the Gold medal, Anky Van Grunsven of The Netherlands on Keltec Salinero with the Silver medal, and Andreas Helgstrand of Denmark on Blue Hors Matine.
Eventing
Meanwhile, in eventing, the second of two days of the dressage phase is in the history books at the 2006 WEG with all six American riders having posted scores. Virginia’s Kim Severson and her nerves-of-steel partner, Winsome Adante, lead Team U.S.A.’s efforts after posting a team high mark of 40.9, just 3.4 points off the overall international leader, host country’s Bettina Hoy and Ringwood Cockatoo, who sit on top with a dressage mark of 36.5. In fact, it’s a triple top-notch finish for Team Deutschland who have riders sitting at the top three spots (Ingrid Klimke and Sleep Late are at second with 39.1, and Dibowski and FRH Serve Well on a score of 40.9, tied for third with Severson).
Other Americans heading into Saturday’s cross-country include Heidi White and Northern Spy (tied at 21st on 50.4); Amy Tryon and Poggio II (22nd on 50.7); Jan Byyny and Task Force (28th on 53.3); Karen O’Connor and Upstage (in a two-way tie for 42nd on 59.8); and Will Faudree and Antigua (in a three-way tie for 51st on 63.3) joined Severson in today’s posting of scores.
Light rain did nothing to help an already worn grass dressage arena, and the noise created by both excited fans and the concurrent run of dressage grand prix special performances spun many horse’s attention spans, leaving loads of scores much higher than originally hoped.
According to Severson, she had developed a plan of what she wanted to do in her warm-up. “Fortunately, I think it came out really well,” she said. “I was really working on having him up in the bridle, but soft still, and he seemed to stay that way.”
Dan, as he is affectionately known, displayed the true colors of a world champion in his steady and unflinching attention paid to the job at hand.
“You can pretty well count on him, a lot of the times, to go out there and do his job,” Severson continued. “He actually did ‘light up’ just a touch more when I went in the ring than I’m normally used to.” The rider mentioned that she sensed a flashback to the 2002 Jerez, Spain, championships when her test came under the distracting bright lights of a nighttime arena. Thankfully for the pair, then as now, he was able to settle well and remain the professional that he is according to Severson.
As one of the team members competing for a team medal, she was candid in saying that she does feel the pressure of team play, but in the end, all of the teammates know she is going to do the best she can do. “The person you most let down is yourself when you have a bad ride, and so you don’t let that get to you.”
Of course, she did admit that there are always a few things that she would like to change after a test. “I have a hard time feeling his faults, and when he is square and when he is not, so I don’t actually know if he was square or not. I would love to change that,” she said. “You just go and do the best you can, and some of the things he did are probably the best he’s done, and some of the things weren’t.”
Earlier in the day, it was teammate O’Connor who had a few things she would have liked to change about her test aboard Upstage, though she anticipated a different story altogether after her morning workout with her mount.
“I rode at 7 o’clock this morning and he was amazing. It was very quiet, and then as I progressed through my final warm-up, he started to kind of go a little ‘looky’ then,” said O’Connor.
She hoped to ease her horse into the atmosphere of the stadium, but she soon found that her best laid plans were not going to come to fruition.
“I thought he was pretty good, and when I picked up the trot, I was like, ‘Uh, I’m in a little trouble here,’” she admitted. “I thought he was pretty good throughout the trot work, the halt and rein-back were good, the extended walk was good, the departure into canter…although the reason they killed him in all those marks was that his neck was too short. And then his neck really got short in the canter work.”
Making the horse go forward was a test of patience today, and she said that once you get in that bind, it’s a challenge to get out of it.
“It’s very hard to go forward when you haven’t got a connection, because they run off with you…especially these fit horses,” said O’Connor. “So, if you don’t have engagement into a contact, it’s very hard to go forward on that type of horse, because he says, ‘See ya!’”
Again today, atmosphere in the stadium was the culprit for many. However, this won’t be such a problem now that the dressage scores are in place and the riders face the next test of cross-country. With more to focus on during the expansive and fast-paced course, plus the jumps to cross in Sunday’s show jumping, the riders seem to have put the atmospheric distractions behind them.
Perhaps it was Faudree who experienced the most personally disappointing test of the day for Team U.S.A. He cited, again, noise and distraction as the lead ticks that chipped away at his score.
“I thought I had him at the beginning when I went in there, and he kind of saw the crowd and saw all the different things,” Faudree began. “It surprised him and lit him up a little bit. I thought I got him back, and got him settled for the first part of the test. From the walk, he got aware of the atmosphere and, you know, it’s hard to ride a horse that gets that way. I’m kicking myself now because I’m trying to think of things I could have done differently.”
Antigua, a horse that has finished in first place after dressage at other international events, let the distractions get under his skin. From that point, according to Faudree, he regained his mount’s attention, but the damage was done to the score, specifically due to some counter-canters. The rider tried to get those back right away so he could get the flying changes; instead he ended up throwing movements.
“It’s disappointing to get all the way here; you know you can go in and win,” he said. “But, at the same time, I rode the horse I had, and that’s what I got. I have to look forward to tomorrow and finish on that score.”
Much has been made of the cross-country course, and the riders aren’t short on opinions. Faudree said it seems like a course the riders will really be forced to ride their lines and be very precise in where they choose to go. The abundance of tricky angled fences and their technical nature won’t allow for many “hiccups.”
O’Connor was in agreement. “It’s extremely difficult because there are so many accuracy questions. It’s going to be very mentally tiring for horse-and-rider, so you have to be on your game the whole time. You have to continue to encourage your horse, because the same question is asked over and over again.”
She did add that the organizers and course designer have done an amazing job with the presentation of the jumps, with long options available for those horses that might loose confidence in their accuracy.
“So, having said that, there are going to be some hearts broken [for those] that just zip by a corner, and that will be pretty frustrating,” she said.
But it was Severson who stands at the head of the pack leading into Saturday, and here “two cents” rang true to the comments of her teammates.
“There’s a lot to do, and I’ve just got to go do it,” she said matter-of-factly. “I think the footing will be a real question, and the time, and obviously how jumpable the jumps are.”
She ended by saying that this course is no “one-trick pony.” In fact, its scope is going to test the patience of many.
“This is not going to be a course where there is one problem…it’s going to be spread out, I think, evenly around the course,” she said. “You just have to know your horse and when they are done answering that question.”
Vaulting
The women’s individual vaulters started off the morning with much flashier costumes than yesterday’s compulsories. The individuals again had one minute to wow the panel of six judges vying for one of 15 spots to get them into Sunday’s finals where they will perform their technical exercise as well as freestyle.
U.S. vaulter Mary McCormick was 13th today in the order of go, and was a vision in teal, vaulting again aboard Calisto 4 with owner/longeur Betina Gross. She vaulted to a selection from Kill Bill. McCormick’s performance earned her a 7.693, which averaged out to a 7.145 with yesterday’s score. She just missed the cut of the top 15 and will not be competing in Sunday’s finals.
Elizabeth Osborn was the second woman to perform and vaulted aboard Milan 123, owned and longed by Hannelore Leiser. Milan was again a bit friskier than he should have been, bucking once during her performance, but she kept her composure and finished her routine. Osborn scored a 6.673 today, which earned here a 6.577 overall.
Megan Benjamin was again the last U.S. woman to go and wowed the crowd yet again aboard the horse she co-owns, Leonardo, with longeur Lasse Kristensen. Benjamin had the high score yesterday of 8.015, which, averaged with today’s score of 8.273, earned her an 8.144 overall, keeping her in the top spot.
“Leo was perfect, but I was really nervous, so I didn’t really do all my hardest stuff,” said Benjamin. “I didn’t do three of my hardest things. I just skipped them. I’ll definitely do them Sunday. I guess the pressure got to me a bit, but it won’t next time. As long as the horse goes in a circle, I know I can do my thing.”
The U.S. men were not as fortunate. Todd Griffiths was up first again, putting him at a slight disadvantage. He lunged again aboard Campina 6 with owner/longeur Andrea Weber. Campina was in rare form again and would not settle down long enough for Griffiths to perform the required minimum seven exercises, and he was disqualified.
Christopher Littman again was third in the order and vaulted on Milan. Milan was another horse who felt the need to buck during his vaulter’s performance. The first four horses of the night were full of themselves, making the early scores lower than usual. Littman’s score tonight was 6.180, which gave him a 6.587 score overall, not quite enough to place him in the top 15.
Kenny Geisler, the top-place American man going into tonight’s competition performed his freestyle aboard Campina 6 with owner/longeur Weber. Geisler earned a freestyle score tonight of 7.5, which gave him a 7.434 overall, just out of the top 15 necessary to be called back for Sunday’s final.
The leader in the men’s individual competition is Kai Vorberg of Germany, who scored an 8.747 in his dynamic freestyle, which he performed dressed as Mozart. This gave him an average overall score of 8.422.