Team dressage was the first scheduled discipline of the 2015 Pan Am Games equestrian competition at the Caledon Equestrian Park, taking place over the first weekend. The Canadian Dressage Team went into this championship with a tall order: to try and win a gold medal that would assure Canada the only remaining chance at an Olympic team berth for Rio 2016. But the US has had a stranglehold on team gold for more than two decades, and with that country also looking for an Olympic qualification, it was a foregone conclusion that the US would send the strongest team it could. Ultimately, the home team advantage and one of the most talented young teams ever fielded by Canada at a major Games would bring Canada tantalizingly close to gold – not only in the team competition, but also in the individual final.

An Untested Format

The Pan Am Games have long been criticized, particularly in the disciplines of dressage and eventing, for being the only Olympic equestrian qualifying event to take place at a level below the Olympics. It’s a valid criticism and one that the FEI has sought to remedy in dressage by introducing a mixed format – a compromise that attempts to find a balance between pushing toward grand prix level without excluding the vast majority of nations in the Americas that can’t include a single grand prix horse on a team. Teams in Toronto were permitted to be entirely small tour level, but they would not be able to qualify for the one Rio team spot. Up to two grand prix horses were permitted on a team, each receiving a 1.5% bonus.

Just four countries had grand prix horses on their teams: the US, Canada, and Argentina had two each, while Mexico had one. The Dominican Republic and Uruguay sent a grand prix individual, bringing the total number of grand prix horses to nine in a field of 44. When the team scores had been tallied following the second day of team competition (intermediate I and grand prix special), it turned out that the 1.5 percent bonus had no impact on the medal distribution.

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