Odds and Ends

After all the excitement and the heat yesterday, I was too pooped to write about it!

Those following the CBC livestreaming at home know that the competition was fierce and the Canadians were outstanding. The audience at home and in here in the packed stands baking in the 33+ heat got to see dramatic sport that was exciting right to the last rider. When you consider the advantages of those placed ahead of us: France’s deep roots in horses, the massive financial support in the US, and the depth of field plus the culture and financial backing in Germany – it’s clear how scrappy our team is.

There are so many little story lines that don’t make it into the usual reports; I thought I would share a few with you today:

1) Appy Cara – Canadians will remember her as Erynn Ballard’s ride until he was sold at the end of last year to Ramiro Quintana of Argentina. The pair had 7 faults the first day after they slipped and crashed into a jump, but were redeemed in the first round of team competition with a clear round and a single time fault. They had eight jumping and two time faults in the final team event and just missed qualifying for the individual final, but they did jog today just in case…
Ramiro’s comments after the first round:
“My horse had a slip the first day and crashed the fence, and that’s never good for your confidence or your horse’s confidence. He’s a tough horse, he came back at the top of his game and jumped beautifully and gave us a clear round.
I’ve been riding him 9 months. I started riding him in Florida this winter in January. I didn’t show him that much, a little in Wellington here and there. I was mostly working on my partnership with him and to get to know him. He’s a bit of a sensitive horse, so I was trying to come up with a program that worked for him and me. He was really successful with Erynn Ballard, the previous rider. I was basically hoping that I could copy that same management. I’m happy to say with her help and with Keean White, we were able to get to this point. [Appy Cara] has a lot of personality. He’s got a lot of energy, he’s an eager horse. He’s a little bit arrogant. He feels he can jump anything and he can and he knows it.”

2) The Screamer – During the first round of team competition a man stood in the arena and started loudly shouting during Luciana Diniz’s round. In the large arena his shouts were muffled but very distinct. It was eventually determined that the man had lost his mother and was using the silence of the moment to shout her name to try and find her. Luckily the distraction didn’t bother Luciana too much, as she’s made it into the individual final.

3) Ukraine – The patron of the Ukrainian jumping team, Alexander Onischenko, is being investigated on corruption charges in his homeland. He sold 44 horses to Paul Schockemohle just a couple of months ago in an attempt to protect the horses from being seized. The team did not have a good showing in Rio and were further hampered by the disqualification of Cassio Rivetti for excessive spurring.

Ukrainian team member Ulrich Kirchhof was a double gold medalist under the German flag at the 1996 games in Atlanta with Jus De Pommes. He started riding for the Ukrainian team in 2013 when he was approached by Onischenko. He lives in Italy now and says he doesn’t plan to give up his Ukrainian passport even if his Olympic horses are seized as part of the investigation.

4) Tic Tac – Ridden at these games by Ben Maher, some Ontarians will remember the bay stallion from when he competed at Angelstone under Leslie Howard and won the $100,000 World Cup Qualifier there in 2013 and 2014. Owner Jane Clarke opted to give the ride to Ben early this year.
Ben briefly trained Canadian reserve rider Kara Chad for a time in Wellington this winter, but Chad now trains with Eric.

5) Sweden – Two of the stars of this show used to have Swedish riders. Malin Baryard used to own Kevin Staut’s horse Reveur de Hurtebise and enjoyed watching the pair earn the gold medal. “I’m so happy. I’ve known him since he was four years old and I’m so happy to see him do well.”
Swedish rider Douglas Lindelow used to have the ride on Casello, now ridden by Ludger Beerbaum. Lindelow got into a dispute with the horse’s co-owner, Maria Bladh, over prize money and the horse was put up for sale.

6) Jeroen Dubbeldam – His horse Zenith, famously owned by the SNF Group, will be put up for auction soon after the Games. The whole scheme almost fell apart when SNF administers were informed by the Dutch securities authority that the rules had been changed and that the groups structure was illegal as of 2013 and would have to be wrapped up by June 2016. The group tried to work something out with the Dutch Equestrian Federation and their Olympic Committee to keep the horses at least until the Olympics, but couldn’t come to an agreement. Luckily, the group was able to work something out with the government to keep the horses through the Olympics. The team will now start SNF 2 under the revised rules.
Looking for a horse? The online auction opens Sept. 14th and will close at 4 pm Sept. 21. Zenith’s opening bid is 500,000 Euros with 50,000 Euro increments.

7) Rogers Yves Bost – In researching various owners, I discovered that Bosty has a Canadian connection. While the French chef d’equipe opted to select Sydney Une Prince for the team, two of Bosty’s best mounts are Pegase du Murier and Qoud’Coeur de la Loge which are owned by Equiblue and Eurl Bosty Jump. Equiblue produces rodeo and country music events with bases in Montreal and France. In 2015, Pegase du Murier was initially registered as Canadian owned by “Equiblue et Eurl Bosty Jump” but that was just changed to France at the beginning of this month. Bosty confirmed that the stallion Pegase du Murier will be competing at the Spruce Meadows Masters.

Individual final starts tomorrow at 10 am with the top 35 starting in the first round and the top 20 advancing to the second. Fine Lady 5, Tripple X III, and First Choice 15 all passed the final jog this afternoon and look in fine form. I’ve always disliked the Olympic format which has all the scores of those qualified start from scratch, but it’s particularly vexing this year as Eric was the leader. Here’s hoping that one of them can keep weaving their magic over the two rounds tomorrow.