Musical Freestyle: Peters and Aragon Top Americans at Sixth Place
But the big news of the day was the result in the dressage musical freestyle where the top 15 international dressage stars thrilled the crowds, regardless of the chill in the air and the ever lingering threat of rain.
Anky Van Grunsven and her mount, Keltec Salinero, won the Gold with an astonishing score of 86.100%. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause as it stood to salute her efforts. Van Grunsven won the 2006 Dressage World Cup earlier in the year in Amsterdam aboard Keltec Salinero, posting a score of 87.750%
Andreas Helgstrand of Denmark took home the Silver medal aboard his impressive young mare Blue Hors Matine, a clear crowd favorite, ending their week of dressage on a score of 81.500%. Host country, Germany, took home the Bronze medal thanks to the score of 80.750% put in by Isabell Werth and Satchmo, yesterday’s champion in the Grand Prix Special.
Two Americans, Guenter Seidel and Aragon, and Steffen Peters and Floriano represented the Team USA. Peters finished fourth yesterday in the grand prix special with a 75.200%, just out of the medals. They finished sixth tonight in the musical freestyle on a score of 78.600%.
Peters and Floriano, the 16-year-old Westphalian gelding, owned by Stephen and Laurelyn Browning, were the last to compete in the night in front of a sold out crowd and performed to a medley including “Don’t Stop Believing” by Fleetwood Mac and “Imagine” by John Lennon.
“Tonight, I had to ride a little bit more carefully,” Peters said. “Floriano was on the edge the whole time coming in there, so I took it a little bit easy in the trot extensions. Then, in the canter pirouettes I couldn’t quite ride them as much as I’d like to. I had to be very diplomatic and a little bit careful, but he still did a wonderful job. I am very, very happy with a 78. That’s still one of his best freestyle scores, and as I said yesterday, what he did for the team and what he did for the special last night, that was his job. We came in tonight, tried our very best and had a lot of fun.”
Seidel and the 14-year-old Bavarian Warmblood gelding, Aragon, owned by Richard and Jane Brown, put down a 72.500% and finished their week at the WEG in 13th place.
“When we were going in, I thought he was going to explode,” said Seidel of his mount. “When we were coming in, I thought, “Oh, we are going to be in trouble.” Aragon was on edge the whole time according to the rider. “It was very electric. There were a few mistakes. But, when do you get a chance to practice in an atmosphere like this?”
He couldn’t have been happier with his mount’s performance, however. “A lot of people who haven’t seen him in a while, say that he looks like a different horse,” he said. “Klaus [Balkenhol, dressage team chef d’equipe] and I have been working very hard on him.”
In the end, Seidel said he was thrilled with his week in Aachen, and looks forward to the next World Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Eventing: American Amy Tryon Leads Team USA’s Medal Bid
It was cross-country day for the eventers and the threat of rain held off to ease up on the tensions of the demanding, and nerve-wracking, course designed by Britain’s Mike Etherington-Smith. Practically from start to finish, there was a tension in the air that was palpable – and not just for the crowds. Many riders saw their scores plummet as a group of very troublesome fences presented tricky angles, tough questions to be answered and penalty points added quicker than you could keep track. To say the least, it was a course that required courage and skill. Over the day, seven horses were retired; 10 were eliminated; and two were withdrawn.
Run without the steeplechase and the roads & tracks sections (a first for the World Championships), the course proved to be relentless in several spots, namely the “Seaside Resort, a complex containing five elements. The spot was the downfall of many horse-and-rider combinations.
After the challenge, it was Great Britain’s Zara Phillips (daughter of U.S. Chef d’Equipe Captain Mark Phillips) aboard Toy Town to sit in the lead with a clear cross-country round. They go into the final phase of eventing (show jumping) on an impressive score of 41.7. Germany’s Bettina Hoy and Ringwood Cockatoo sit at second with 43.7, having added 7.2 time penalties to their carry-over score from dressage. At third are another German, Frank Ostholt, and his mount, Air Jordan 2, on a no-time-penalties-added score of 46.9.
Riders competing for Team USA are Will Faudree, Kim Severson, Amy Tryon and Heidi White. Both Jan Byyny and Karen O’Connor are classified as individuals and their scores will not affect team results.
First up for Team USA, and the top American finishers of the day, were Washington’s Amy Tryon and her 14-year-old Thoroughbred, Poggio II. It seemed as if the course had been built for the pairing as they finished without penalty points to end cross-country on 50.7, and a spot at 7th headed into Sunday.
“The course, I think, actually rode like it walked,” she said. “My horse is a very, very straight horse and what is hard for him in dressage makes him easier to ride cross-country. With him, if you get him on a straight line, he generally stays on a straight line. Having said that, I think there were a couple of times that he didn’t necessarily know where he was going.” She said she decided to ride to the plan they had walked, and I just got lucky in a few places.”
“The course took a lot of concentration. It was one of those courses where you landed from one fence and you said, ‘Okay, now, I have to make this tree and I have to make this fence here.”
South Carolina’s Heidi White, aboard her 13-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding, Northern Spy, was the second American’s to tackle the course. It was the hedges to the corner at elements 24 and 25 where she piled on 20 penalty points to end her effort with 70.4, which seats her at 30th going into show jumping. She added no jumping penalties, but 30.8 time penalties to her score, totaling 81.2.
“I was pretty nervous this morning,” admitted White. “We were kind of waiting for the first horse to go out, and it didn’t go so smoothly, and then fortunately, Amy [Tyron] came along and put in a beautiful round that I watched and I kind of went on that,.”
White continued to say that the going was “slick and heavy…it’s a funny feeling…and the turns are tight. It’s definitely a big course.” She was hard pressed to find a particular area of the course to identify as the trickiest. “It’s the entire course, and we said that when we started.”
At fence 15 (the Normandy Bank), White had incurred a 20 point penalty that was later overturned by the technical delegate, after some conference with chef d’equipe Captain Mark Phillips who approached the judge with a different interpretation of what happened.
“Other than that, it’s been great,” said White. “To be on a team at the World Championships is certainly different than anything we’ve ever done. It’s huge, and I think my horse was fantastic.” She added that there were “hiccups” all over the place, and that Northern Spy got a bit tired at the end of the course, acknowledging that for this big horse that “twisty, turny things aren’t his strongest.” Nonetheless, White was pleased.
Georgia’s Jan Byyny and the 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, Task Force, were third up for Team USA and they ended their day’s work at 45th place with a score of 93.3. Posting 40 penalties total, Byyny’s mount lost a shoe early in the course, said that, “I felt very confident with myself and my horse’s ability…but it’s much harder to ride without a front shoe. He was all over the place.”
“I think I made a little bit of a riding error in the fact that I really punched him at the second element of brush up on that mound,” she said. “And, I think that I should have just let him jump over it rather than for him to punch.” Additionally, Byyny said that, “You always hope you’ve done your homework. The horse felt very, very good.”
“It was a huge learning experience,” said Byyny of her first time at the WEG, and the education certainly wasn’t lost on her. “It’s only made me that much more hungry for it.”
There were lots of places to make small errors according to the rider, who said that taking everything into consideration that the course was very hard, but fair.
Veteran eventer Karen O’Connor from Virginia rode as an individual member of the U.S. contingency and aboard the 15-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding, Upstage. The venerable rider came into the cross-country after a somewhat disappointing day of dressage, and today’s course did nothing to improve the score. In fact, 40 jumping penalties and 20 time penalties left their work with a score of 119.8.
“It is an extraordinarily technical course, but then I have an extraordinarily good horse,” she said just after the run. “It is the first time ever that he has had two refusals. He lost a bit of confidence as a result of the technical difficulties.”
Later in the day, at a press conference, O’Connor continued, saying, “It reminds me of how fragile confidence is. He [Upstage] has confidence that makes 90 percent of the course look like training level, and both of the exercises that were downhill to the narrows weren’t quite right. He’s a great horse, and we’ll be working on that this winter to rectify it.”
She made mention of the team that works so hard behind-the-scenes and thanked them. “It’s a proud achievement for the whole team to get the horses to this place,” she said.
Another new timer to the World Championships was North Carolina’s Will Faudree and his 17-year-old Australian Thoroughbred gelding, Antigua. The pair picked up only time penalties (8.4 seconds) and go into show jumping sitting at 20th place. He chose a longer route at one of the combinations which cost him the time and he candidly shared his disappointment with his performance, but also his affection and gratitude for a horse that has helped his name rise to the top level of his discipline.
“I’ve grown up with that horse [Antigua],” said Faudree, “For me to be here, in this competition, is just part of the fairy tale that I’ve had with that horse. I think you could take anyone off the street…and put them on that horse and he would give them a path to a career. Today is just another example of where he bailed me out.”
Faudree has had a taste of the “big leagues” and he definitely wants more, and with his determination and the knowledge gained at the WEG, he’s certainly equipped to make it happen.
“I was affected by the atmosphere, and hopefully if I get this opportunity and position again, I know I’ve learned from it, I’m hungry for it again, and it’s made me want to go home and get on the youngsters and say ‘Alright, boys, you got big shoes to fill.’”
Kim Severson and Winsome Adante picked up 20 penalties and 6.8 time penalties on cross-country and now sit in 16th.
About her effort, Severson said, “I wasn’t totally in gear by the time I got to 4 and 5. I went out there wanting to go quietly, and when I came around the turn for 4, I saw it from quite a ways away and I made a move at it, and Dan never even knew what to look at, and that’s why we ran by it.” The pair picked up 20 points. She admitted that she was somewhat surprised that she had a time with the course; however, as it went by she regrouped and laid down a respectable effort.
Chef d’equipe Captain Mark Phillips commented on the team’s position going into the final phase of show jumping. “I had hoped that we could have been closer, but everybody did their best and rode as good as they could out there and you can’t ask any more than that.” Captain Phillips mentioned that he thought the course was what they imagined it would be like, adding, “We knew it was going to be a huge test of concentration and being in the right place at the right time, and at the right speed.”
He also made some comments on the compact and technical nature of the Aachen course, which he compared to a “postage stamp,” alluding to the state of the modern championship course.
“What you have to understand is that the modern championship course is more-and-more a postage stamp,” he began. “When you go to Kentucky in 2010, it’s going to be something different. You’re back into the big park grounds again. And you better believe that when you are in Greenwich in 2012 [the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics Games in London, England], you’re going to be back on a postage stamp again. Those are the modern courses where you have all this turning and all this twisting…the fences are the same size. As the technical expertise of the horses and riders gets better, you can make them [the courses] more technical with narrows and bending lines. So, that’s the way the sport is going, and if you are going to succeed in this sport, you’ve got to get good at that.”
In the team standings, it’s the homeland Germans who are ruling the eventing roost by a long shot with a score of 143. Great Britain’s eventers are in second with 175, and Team USA is at third place in the team standings for a medal with 190.1, not too far ahead of the Australians who are knocking at the medal door with 193.3.
Vaulting: American Woman in First Place
It was a good day for U.S. vaulters and a great day for Megan Benjamin. Not only did the U.S. F.A.M.E. team receive the highest freestyle score in today’s competition, but team member Benjamin, who is also the only American left in the individual competition, is still in the lead after three days of competition. Today, the individual men and women performed their technical exercise. Benjamin earned an 8.673 today which gave her an 8.409 overall. Just behind her in second place with an 8.294 overall is Sissi Jarz of Austria. For the past 20 years a German woman has always held the title of World Champion, and they’ve also won 23 of the last 30 world championships. Benjamin may just be the one who can interrupt their rein.
“I really didn’t expect to do so well,” said Benjamin. “I just wanted a medal, and even that was maybe a stretch. At this point it’s just incredible…I wasn’t nervous this time. I was a little tired because I had already done the team competition.”
F.A.M.E. had some tough competition among the 14 other countries that brought teams. Their freestyle score of 8.9 was the highest of the competition, giving them a 7.774 when averaged with their compulsory score. This puts them in third place behind Germany with a 7.999 overall and Austria with a 7.818 overall. The top 12 teams will be in the finals on Sunday, and their overall score from the last couple of days will follow them.
Coach and team member Devon Maitozo had many good things to say about their performance, a performance that told a story, where even the transitions such as taking someone’s hand were done as part of a movement, making the routine seamless. Although Maitozo said one of their blocks was only 25% completed, no one in the audience or in the judge’s stands seemed to notice.
In addition to singing, vaulting, coaching and choreography, the multi-talented Maitozo can now also add designer to his resume. He spent almost as much time designing the team’s romantic red and white uniforms as he did choreographing their routine. He picked their music (a Brahms quartet in G) specifically with this team in mind.
“To me, vaulting isn’t just about the score you get. At the end of the day, it’s about what you are feeling while you are doing it…In team vaulting, you look at the relationships between the people and their relationships with the horse…This group of people is phenomenal. I couldn’t be happier with them. We have every type of talent.”
Benjamin was the last of the 15 individual women to vault, a great spot to be in, which only helped her score. She vaulted again aboard the horse she co-owns, Leonardo, with longeur Lasse Kristensen. Benjamin has been the leader through all three days of competition.
The leader in the men’s individual competition after today’s technical exercise was Kai Vorberg of Germany, whose overall score after the technical exercise was 8.339. Vorberg will be hard to beat tomorrow with the next closest score being 8.026 from German Gero Meyer. One competitor, Dimitri Suhner from Switzerland, was eliminated when his horse trotted for the judges and was found to be not sound enough to compete.