Brittany Fraser and All In, Canada’s super stars in Toronto
What a day for Brittany and All In! They left it all on the field with one of the most exciting rides we are likely to see in the small tour this week. The horse is so powerful and yet so light at the same time. It takes a lot to raise a goose bump on me after all these years, but I had honest to goodness ‘goosies’ watching the test. Brittany is in an excellent position for an individual medal. A very exciting moment for our team, and an inspiration for the next generation of Canadian dressage riders.
Team Canada on eggshells, watching Brittany knock it out of the park
The Grand Prix horses went at the end of the day, and the lead that Canada had enjoyed after Chris and Brittany quickly evaporated with Steffen and Laura laying down predictably big scores. Brittany still finished the day with the second highest score, though. Only Steffen and Legolas were higher, on 77.240%. Megan and Caravella had a solid performance with one disappointing little mistake right at the end of the one tempis. But clearly performing in front of a home crowd provided a gratification of its own for Megan, and for all the Canadians.
Megan Lane, appreciating the crowd’s response
Last in the ring were Belinda and Anton, who was lit right up on his pass around the ring. I’ve seen him get rather animated before, but today was something else. The test started out a bit tense and Belinda was understandably conservative until she could feel her horse start to relax again toward the end of the trot work. His final passage piaffe on centre line was as good as I’ve ever seen from him. Second goose bumps of the day, thanks Belinda!
I’m totally confused about the 1.5% bonus. The individual results don’t include it because the bonus counts only for the team totals. What isn’t clear is if it was added into the team scores that were announced at the end of the day. The TO2015 results online get half a thumb up for being pretty quick on the individual marks, but two thumbs down for not displaying team results at all. The 1.5 bonus actually doesn’t affect the rankings of the US and Canada. With or without them, they are first and second. Where it’s really tight is between Mexico, which is not much more than an eyelash ahead of Brazil.
Overall I was very impressed with the quality of horses and riding. Since I went to my first Pan Ams in 2007, there has been a clear, steady improvement. What I was thoroughly unimpressed by were the empty stands. And I do mean EMPTY. It would be optimistic to say the stadium was at its busiest (maybe) a quarter full. The Americans certainly didn’t come across the border in droves. And considering we are in the heartland of Canada’s horse sport population, it’s disappointing to see how few locals have bothered to turn up to cheer on our team. Tomorrow, being the team medal day, should be an improvement. It BETTER be an improvement.
No, this was not taken during a break
Results of today here.
