I’ve already gone on enough about the appalling lack of traffic planning at the Haras du Pin on Saturday, so now I will turn my attention to the actual sport, which was not Eventing’s finest hour. Because of the footing (which one FEI media representative assured me was ‘perfect’ when I had the audacity to ask if the going was holding), the TD and course designer removed one loop with three fences late on the course. As Jessie Phoenix told me after her clear round with Pavarotti (Canada’s only one of the day), the team’s biggest concern with the course was not any of the obstacles, but the very hilly terrain, course length and sticky footing. Because it WAS sticky. No one made the time, and Jessie said that she believed if that loop had not been removed the finish line would not have been achievable – as it was, many who made it were very, very tired.
Jessie and Pavarotti, splendid at #9
And that’s the thing that bothered me the most. There were too many too-tired horses. Buck Davidson was the first one on course, and by the time his day ended with a retirement at the water near the end that claimed many casualties (including Hawley and Ginny), his horse looked like it could not have jumped another fence. I had an argument with a colleague who pointed out how well the German horses (not all but most) finished, as well as a few of the other really fit ones. That is true, but as anyone who has tried to get a horse running fit can attest, there are some horses that are just naturally fitter than others. I don’t believe Eventing, even at the world championship level, should be attainable for a handful of the competitors. Yes, 63 horses finished, but one collapsed and died afterward. Riders were referring to the course as a four and a half/five star. Many finished with large numbers of time penalties and still looked utterly spent as they crossed the finish line. For the same reason that I don’t like Endurance, I don’t like a cross country day that looks like it took everything out of the horses.
There were some very nasty looking falls on Saturday, and of course the organizing committee isn’t going to issue announcements about their injuries; but I don’t doubt that there were some horses and riders a-hurtin’ come Sunday morning. As for the ‘perfect’ footing, I walked onto the track near the media centre at fence six (photo above) at the end of the day.The several inches-deep holes everywhere are all the proof I need that it was a heavy go for the horses. The organizers couldn’t possibly have anticipated the unseasonably heavy and prolonged wet spell during what is normally a parched time of year here. But perhaps they should have shortened the course still more. I also question some of the designer’s decisions. There were some very upright fences that rode badly enough for some that there were falls – several of them riders being knocked out of the tack when their horses hit the fence and either stumbled or performed extreme pilates to stay on their feet.
There were of course some splendid displays of sporting excellence on Saturday. As usual, the top Germans (namely Sandra and Michael) made the course look like a gymnastics exercise performed at high speed. They deserved to win again. Also very impressive was Selena and Foxwood High, who were just brilliant at many of the tough questions on course. Their one stop came at the fence that caused the most trouble of the day: fence 30, a jump up a bank out of water and then a bounce over a skinny-skinny-skinny brush fence. This was to me one of the most unfair demands on the course. By this point near the end, horses were tired. There were four retirements at 30/31, as well as two rider falls (this is where Mark Todd ended his day in a nasty looking tumble) and two horse falls. Jumping up a bank out of water and having not even a stride to recover and jump again requires great strength and agility on the part of the horses. The designer, Pierre Michelet, could easily have placed the skinny a stride or two farther on. It would still have tested accuracy while not requiring a gargantuan effort.
Selena and Foxwood High in fine form (photo credit: Jan Craven)
Foxwood High’s stop was a bit reminiscent of the stop he had in Guadalajara three years ago at a similarly positioned jump at the top of a rise – surprise seemed to be the main cause. It was a shame because the pair looked really fabulous otherwise. Peter and Kilrodan Abbott, trailblazers for Canada, had a glance off at an accuracy question early on course, but then went clear. They also went a bit slow because their marching orders had been to finish no matter what, so that the rest of the team had some assurance. Peter was clearly delighted to cross the finish line for his team. All Peter’s jumper showing earlier this year clearly paid off in the stadium jumping too, as he was one of only 13 clear rounds on Sunday out of the 60 horses that made it that far (the original starting field was 90 horses).
Peter and Kilrodan Abbott tearing up the turf (photo credit Jan Craven)
The most disappointed Canadian rider would have to have been Hawley, who had a day that we’ve never seen from Ginny. If any of you are puzzled by the presence of four refusals beside their names in the cross country results, here is what I think is probably the reason: At fence nine, a big drop to a skinny, Ginny skittered around at the drop, taking a few seconds to jump off. As she did so I wondered what the jump judge would do with it, but it did look to me like a refusal as per the current rules. She then didn’t make it over the skinny at the bottom so Hawley had to turn and jump the option. It may have been a lack of communication (there was a lot of evidence of that with other horses – Peter’s score, for example, was incorrectly listed as having had two stops with 40 jumping penalties until Saturday evening when it was corrected to one stop) or an indecisive jump judge, but after Ginny subsequently stopped at 16 Hawley wasn’t pulled up as she should have been. Hawley would have assumed she had not been given a stop at 9a and done what anyone else in her boots would do: keep going. She then had a stop at the nasty number 30, and since that was a third refusal for sure, even without the stop at 9a that later got posted, that is where it ended for Hawley and Ginny.
I can’t recall whether it was in Lexington or London, but I established a healthy dislike for Paul Tapner at a past championship for showing a clear lack of empathy for his horse. He really sealed the deal for me on Saturday by riding the last three fences like a racing jockey – throwing the reins at his horse every stride and giving it many more than the rule-stated three taps with the whip. It wouldn’t be out of place to say he flogged his way across the finish. The horse was clearly exhausted, but as he approached the last fence Paul made no effort to help the horse re-balance. He chased it right to the base and on to the finish. And I did not see him pat the horse as he disappeared over a little knoll after the finish line. It is beyond me why he didn’t receive a yellow card.
Another rider who garnered my disregard was one of the French riders, I believe it was Rodolphe Scherer. When the home crowd is cheering you on with great enthusiasm, of course it’s awesome if you can give them a little wave of recognition as you gallop past. But this Gallic fiend blew kisses at the spectators, not once but many, many times. Meanwhile he was leaving his horse to its own devices as he approached the third to last fence. If there is ever a time the horse needs its rider, it’s when it’s tiring at the end. The French may have loved all those blown kisses, but I did not. I thought it was tacky and insensitive to the horse.
I know I’m going to turn a few Eventer readers into K-Rob haters by saying this, but I believe this WEG three day event was a nail in Eventing’s coffin in the Olympics. And the sport is rapidly losing a fan in me. There were too many times that I wanted to look away on Saturday because what should have been exciting to watch was instead excruciating. I am not saying Eventing should become a namby pamby sport, with all the emphasis on dressage and show jumping. All I know is I didn’t like most of what I saw here, and I don’t know what the solution is.
As thousands of people made their trepidatious way back to their cars to rejoin the scrum of traffic that was now departing, a line of splendidly adorned Percherons pulling beautiful carriages, and a full regalia squadron of Cadre Noir horses made their way to the stadium for a demonstration that no one seems to have known was going to happen. It was a great idea to have some after-cross entertainment to keep people there and reduce the traffic jam. But you also have to tell people about it. No one that I know had any idea about the demo until the horses appeared over the hill.
Henry Miller wrote a lovely and little-known travel book about Greece called The Colossus of Marroussi. While observing Greek people going about their daily lives, he noted that they seemed to approach every job as if it was the first time they’d ever done it, even if it was something they had been doing for years. I suspect the organizers here in Normandy have been afflicted by this Greek condition.
Tomorrow I’m having surgery to get a couple more thumbs attached to my hands. I need them so that I can give the French more than two thumbs down for their efforts.
Where were these guys during the opening ceremonies?
