Team US is doing pretty well…half way through Showjumping. Tami was in 2nd after dressage.
Ariel and Will have jumped clear. Tami is next.
God, I love those horses. If I had a type, it’s those two, all the way. If I’m being picky, Timmy could have more blood, and Simon is 100% perfect. I’d love to see both of them at the Badmintons and Burghleys of the world - so exciting for the future.
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Will currently sitting 3rd. Rails all over the place for the showjumping. Lauren had 1 and time and Tami had 2 down but still in 11th.
Going to be exciting for XC, Will is in with a wicked chance!
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Anywhere to watch CC tomorrow?
I had the same thought! So early in the course.
Beautiful course, though.
The whole course is riding much better than I thought. Sydney did an amazing job an a very big eyed horse
Agreed! She was faster than I thought she’d be, too.
Wow for Will!!! That’s absolutely amazing. Kudos to the entire US team as well, as they finished less than a time penalty behind GB!!
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If you missed top ten start about 2:25 on the ClipMyHorse replay. Worth it to watch for sure!
Congratulations to Will Coleman!
It was nice to see five riders from the US there. This is what we need to be doing - getting riders over to europe to compete on the best courses against the best competition.
I was also great to see younger riders over there as well. If you want to beat the best, you have to complete against them on a regular basis.
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Agree. I was disappointed to see that Fair Hill, with all its available land and naturally gorgeous footing, won’t be doing dressage and stadium on grass. I’m not sure what it is with Americans and their obsession with perfectly flat artificial footing, but it would have been nice if the other 5* in the States had done something different, brought a bit of European spirit over here to give our riders some experience in grass rings at that level.
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I think the best competition were at Blenheim. 
FHI is running a 5* event on the east coast during hurricane season. Why wouldn’t the organizers make the plan that provides the greatest likelihood of the event actually running and the lowest chance of entries scratching due to D/SJ footing? Especially when they already have an arena with footing in place?
5* riders routinely have multiple entries at my local “all phases on grass” event, so I’m not buying an obsession with flat or artificial footing. I’m also pretty confident that “dressage is on grass” is not why US riders don’t win Badminton. 
US riders don’t do much winning on footing at Kentucky, either.
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Calm down. I did not say lack of 5* grass is why US riders don’t win Badminton. I did not say no one in US runs those phases on grass. I expressed an opinion that I would have liked to see FHI, a 5*, on grass. You don’t have to agree, but you don’t have to be a jerk and argue with things I didn’t say.
And they aren’t using the existing rings, they built new ones. Finally, I don’t recall torrential weather being a problem at FH in October in the past. I used to live there.
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I think there has been serious rain on at least one day of Fair Hill pretty much every year since the beginning. We’ve definitely had hurricanes here in October, too and unfortunately they are increasingly more likely to occur in the future (not just in MD or just in October obviously).
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Don’t rain on our parade LOL!
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What an amazing result for the US riders!
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Most European events are moving to non grass footing for the future, the riders and owners have had enough I think. No reason to be jumping world class horses on anything but world class footing, save the challenge for the XC.
Some grass rings can be included in that, but most aren’t lol
The FEI is driving a move towards synthetic surfaces, presumably because in many parts of the world grass just isn’t available and synthetic, literally, provides a level playing field. They have to take a global view. However, I suspect both Badminton and Burghley will resist, not least because they are held in ancient parkland with historic significance and tight planning controls. As to grass, the best surface when it is good. Synthetic is better if grass is sub-standard.
As a purist, I do worry that synthetic dressage and synthetic SJ will lead to a push for synthetic track and - oh, excellent idea - xc fences that fall over for safety. It does take training and experience to run on grass.
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