Well if you were watching yesterday, you will know that the boys; Nick Skelton, Ben Maher, Scott Brash and Peter Charles beat the Dutch to win Team Gold for Great Britain.
It was an amazing jump-off between the boys in orange and the boys in blue but Great Britain had home advantage with a very loud and incredibly supportive crowd. I’ve never heard a stadium sound so tense and hushed as when Peter finished the final jump-off for Great Britain. What do you they say… you could hear a pin drop!!!
The stands were packed with hardly an empty seat in the house. It is so incredible to see such passion and excitement for show jumping. They even had a wave that lasted 5-10 minutes. I mean c’mon a wave, at Olympic show jumping!! It was brilliant!!
I was so happy for the Saudi boys also! Those guys are great and I have them to thank for being able to be in the stands watching. Team Saudi Arabia were the ones who found me my much-desired ticket and it was a great seat. I was sitting super close to Brent and Laura Balisky who are over here to support Tiffany and the rest of the Canadian team. If you don’t know, Laura Balisky is an Olympian herself, she was 20 years old when she first rode for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, USA. Four years later she attended the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. So it was neat to sit and catch up with Laura on such an Olympic backdrop. Marie Fraisse, who works for Eric Lamaze and Stephan Conter of Stephex Stables were also there. It was a great group of people and Brent held the Canadian flag high.
From the start of the class, the Saudi Team looked strong and Davos and Baylard Van de Villa There jumped incredible!! Team Saudi Arabia were in a strong first place position with only 1 fault on the board for time over the previous 2 days. Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands were standing all in the same position with 4 faults on the board from Saturday and Sunday. I was rooting of course for Canada, who managed to qualify for the second and Final round of the Team competition with only 3 horses. My country is amazing and I just have to say that the fact that they got there with only 3 riders is a tribute to the Canadian spirit. I know that Eric, Jill and Ian were disappointed with the scoreboard after yesterday’s Final round but they should hold their heads up high because they brought quite inexperienced horses and they still managed to earn a spot to ride yesterday; yet dominating teams such as USA, Germany and France did not.
I was very proud to be Canadian yesterday and I know that horses such as Derly Chin de Muze will perform very well at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy two years from now because this Olympic experience will have laid quite a foundation for the young mare. She has an incredible spirit, and as Delphine agreed, her ability to step up to this occasion is a tribute to the mare’s character and Eric’s abilities.
It was an incredible competition from start to finish. Portugal’s Luciana Diniz started things off with her gelding Lennox. There were some absolute textbook rounds made by Marcus Ehning and Plot Blue, Nick Skelton and ‘the’ stallion Big Star, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum with her 9 year old mare Bella Donna and Maikel van der Vlueten with his stallion Verdi. Prominent riders, such as Edwina Tops-Alexander and Kevin Staut, suffered some unlucky 4 faults.
Some disappointing developments for my favorite girls; Janne Friederike-Meyer and Reed Kessler. It seemed Labrasco was quite strong through out the course and Janne had to pull out of the last line. She was quoted by World of Show Jumping saying; “I will ride no more championships with Lambrasco. We have given everything over the last three years and held nothing back. It is enough now. Even if I would have qualified, I already knew during the round that I would not start in the individual final.”
Cylana had a surprising fault at the water jump in addition to two others. She was not the only one of the day however, the line leading to the water jump seemed to catch a lot of riders and many top combinations had a fault on the white tape. Simon Delestre’s horse Napoli du Ry seemed to have eased into the atmosphere a bit better but had an unlucky 8 faults.
Australian newbie, Julia Hargreaves has been exceptional over the last 3 days. She only had 4 faults from yesterday’s very difficult course with 1 additional time fault. Her and Vedor had 6c of the triple combination but other than that, jumped a super efficient and confident track. I know Julia has been really happy with her and Vedor’s performance this week.
Yesterday was a tough and technical course with only 6 clear rounds.
The only clear rounds yesterday were posted by…..
- Marc Houtzager and Tamino
- Maikel van der Vlueten and Verdi
- Nick Skelton and Big Star
- Marcus Ehning and Plot Blue
- Pius Schwizer and Carlina IV
- Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos vh Gravenhof
Noelle Floyd.com 