This has been a tough and maybe even heartbreaking WEG for Team USA in many disciplines. I think some are wondering if we perform better when we're not on home turf. The reining team was victorious (as they have been since reining’s debut at WEG in 2002). We didn’t have enough endurance riders finish (due to one thing or another—all normal occurrences in endurance) to have a team standing, the dressage team finished fourth, just out of the medals, as did the eventing team. Last night’s jumping team finals were tough for our team as well. We unfortunately slipped from third to tenth overall. Chef d’equipe George Morris came to talk to a few members of the press when it was over since we wouldn’t be seeing the team in the press conference. George was so wonderful about the whole thing. So many would have been angry at the loss and put out that journalists wanted to stick microphones and recorders in their face and ask what happened. George is obviously a seasoned professional. One reporter asked “Isn’t it sad that now you have to worry about qualifying for the Olympics?” (Sidenote: I think the top five teams are automatically qualified for the next Olympic Games). George’s response was no, that it wasn’t sad. It was horse-showing. He also reiterated what a wonderful year the team had elsewhere and that tonight simply wasn’t their night. This show just wasn’t meant to be their victory.

If anyone knows that horses will be horses, it is George. All the riders expressed the same thing. Lauren’s horse shyed away from the warm-up fence twice in a row and almost took Beezie out one time as she was standing next to the fence. It is unexplainable. Mario’s horse is still young and had trouble with a very imposing triple bar that replaced the water, which ironically also caused a lot of problems. McLain had a rail at the same jump where he had a rail yesterday which he said wasn’t even a jump he was worried about. Laura and Cedric finally had the perfect round they were looking for, and Cedric was back on board for these Games—albeit a little too late. Laura and McLain will go forward to the finals in 19th and 26th place. The top 30 riders will battle it out tomorrow evening. Our fingers are crossed for a strong U.S. team that definitely knows how to proudly handle this sport and whatever placing it gives you.

For those of you who know dressage you know that The Netherlands’ Edward Gal and Totilas are a phenom right now. Totilas is like some freak super horse. He's the dressage version of Secretariat. Not only is he strikingly gorgeous, but he seems to be able to do things a normal horse should not be able to do. The way he extends, the way his movements come out of his joints is ridiculous. Videos of his tests started exploding on YouTube this year as he began winning everywhere with scores in the 90s—almost unheard of in dressage. Edward talked with some of the media after sweeping all three dressage medals at this WEG—something that has never been done, and he also expressed the bottom line was we are dealing with horses and they are sometimes unpredictable. He told us he didn’t want perfection and that he never expected to see a 100% score in dressage with this horse or any other. He said it wouldn’t be a horse if it could get 100%--that it would be a machine and who would want that. We’re all in this sport because we love the horse. Anyone could ride a robot covered in hair. That would completely take the fun out of it.

Note: To the USHJA's complete coverage from the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, visit their site: http://www.ushja.org/blog/WEG.aspx