The good news is, weather has been just grand here at Bromont for Cross country and for today’s impending show jumping. The bad news is, June 9, 2012 was not Canada’s finest hour. Another bit of good news: it was a safe day on cross country, with few falls and no injuries of any significance. I saw a lot of great riding and keen, talented horses pointing their ears forward toward the next jump. Should I tell you how Canada did? Well that’s what people expect of me after all these blogging years. And the news is already out there anyway, so here goes.
First, a little note about the Americans. There have been some very Olympic looking performances this weekend, especially from Karen O’Connor and her new partner, Mr. Medicott. Here is how they looked at the big water:
I was also very impressed with Jon Holling, who is in the lead in the CCI3* with his eight year old Downtown Harrison. I must say event horse names are getting stranger and wordier by the minute, a notable exception being Will Coleman’s cutely named Zipp. There WERE some excellent Canuck rides, not least of which was Rebecca Howard and Rupert. Here is how they looked at the same water:
It was a darned good thing she had a good go, too, since Global TV sent a cameraman all the way from Toronto to film her for a pre-Olympic athlete profile. Also impressive on cross country yesterday were Michele Mueller with Amistad and Danica Moore (go BC eventers!) on Utah B. Michele, Rebecca and Danica are 8th, 9th and 10th behind the army of talent the US sent up here.
Ok, now for the not-so-awesome results from yesterday.
Peter: jumped the wrong side of the red flag at the corner coming out of the big water. I was at the ‘little’ water near the end of the course, which Peter rode through very nicely. He was stopped right after exiting the water and that was that for his day. Here he is enjoying the final moments of blissful ignorance at his error:
Hawley: missed fence 9 with Five O’clock Somewhere, and was obviously eliminated. Ginny looked great wherever I saw her, but when I heard her time announced I knew something was up. Turns out Ginny blew past something skinny for 20 penalties. Here is how groovy they looked when I was watching:
Selena: Colombo put the brakes on at number 4, a rail drop with water at the bottom that looked an awful lot like the sunken road that Selena had trouble with at Badminton last year. You could tell by the third presentation he had no intention of jumping it from a few strides out.
Jessica: she should be back riding soon, thank goodness. Karen O’Connor said last night that she was riding within two weeks of breaking her collar bone.
So that’s that. Now the lucky selectors get to name the team and alternates. I’ve been told it is going to happen early next week. The team will get a chance to turn this thing around at a horse trials they will all run in England a couple of weeks before the Olympics. I really do hope that my title of today is prophetic and that the underdog Canadians will pull it together in London. Some of them have had a brilliant spring, so as long as they can put their weekend in Bromont behind them and get back to the good stuff, I think there is still cause for optimism.
By the way, if any of you are shopping for a pocket-sized point and shoot camera, I can highly recommend the new Canon Powershots. All the photos on the blog this week were taken with one that I picked up at Future Shop last week.
