Their first time at the party, better that than live fast die young. And as you say, they have the best mentor possible.
It was great to see them and Fouaad Mirza as representatives of less-established nations who all put forward very credible performances, and I hope that leads to more support to develop equestrian sport in their countries.
I am happy with the performance of the U.S. eventing team. They rode well, the horses went well. All qualified for the individual final. They did what they came to do. Happy with their performance.
Go team USA! Proud of all of you! 
You are welcome to point out all the kinds of catastrophic injuries that happen to all kinds of horses in all disciplines. I get it. I’ve had two close friends whose horses shattered pasterns over the years, seemingly randomly (although we now know that those things build over time and aren’t a random bad step). I had a horse have a freak pasture injury that put him out for 2 years. But you don’t consistently see hunter derby or even GP show jumpers at world events having the kind of severe injuries that we seemingly do at the top levels of eventing on the regular. That’s all I’m saying.
So happy for Julia, especially after the way she lost Chipmunk. A very well deserved win and Its about time we had a woman win individual gold!
You ought to see what passes for a high school diploma these days.
Horses during the medal ceremony: “Can I eat the flowers?”
Congrats to Doug and Quinn for finishing as the highest placed US rider. Even if it wasn’t exactly the results the US hoped for the whole team, at least we all completed.
But wow, talk about an insane competition. The Terminator having a penalty and NOT being at the top, Ollie’s rail and time dropping him out of the medals (you know he’s so upset about that), amazing riding and results by less established nations (I’m so THRILLED for Kazu), and the first ever female gold medalist (with a seriously cool mare, girl power!) Glad I woke up early for that.
Obviously it was the year of navy coats.
I am glad Oli got his Olympic shot and medal.
Austrailia wins the victory gallop award for being able to stand and ride together.
I am glad a woman won gold individually.
Again, glad the US did what they did. I do wonder if Phil’s “guaranteed” place on teams is coming to an end.
Yeah. But usually the injuries are related to falling at a jump. I’m not sure what could actually have been done to prevent this, was the whole point. Besides just getting rid of cross country completely.
What’s the story behind Julia losing the ride on Chipmunk?
Hopefully someone comes along with more inside info … Apparently Michael Jung retired his top 5* eventers and needed one that was more ready than any he has in the pipeline. He bought Chipmunk, already brought by Julia to 5*. Apparently has had him about a year & a half.
Thankfully with Julia as talented as she is, she had another horse at 5*. Two, actually.
Yes, apologies, I replied too soon.
Here are the complete team results. It looks like Thailand withdrew and took the 100 points for each rider in the SJ phase.
i have no inside info, but Lucinda said that MJ’s sponsors purchased Chipmunk for him to ride.
I must say, I find the upper level Eventing horses beautiful. They are not all of one type but there is something about them…
Bless her heart, Julia is verklempt. Congratulations Julia!
Was the horse on the market or was she strong armed into selling it somehow? I’ve never been able to reconcile the tone it’s discussed in since it’s not like the horse was maintained under the same ownership. Seems like there must be more to the story.
I don’t know how true it is, but while watching the highlights on NBC’s network coverage (not the live streaming with Lucinda), Melanie said that the horse had never made the time while under Julia’s riding and that the horse had won his last four events with MJ.
The NBC highlights also didn’t bother to show Phillip’s cross country ride, I thought his brilliant save over that one fence was worth seeing!
A note about this eventing Olympics - might just be trivia and not of significance …
6 out of 15 teams were all male at the finishing score:
Australia, France, United States, Brazil, China, Japan
There were female alternates on some, of course.
Italy had an all female team this time, and one of their strongest-ever teams. Sweden’s final score is given to an all-female team but it didn’t start that way.
I haven’t compared past teams since, say 2000, but this year seemed to have more all-male teams than usual since that time.
I’m not sure there is any significance in this. Might be just the way things fell out this time.
Ironically the two gold medals were won by a woman and a team that included a woman. Just coincidence, I think. But a funny set of stats anyway.
2nd Horse Inspection;
I don’t know. But it would not be the first time a very good 5* horse was sold out from under a 5* rider, with or without their agreement (any nationality). And not the first time it happened in the lead up to an Olympics.
I’ve never heard if Julia had any part in the decision to sell. Or if she had any ownership stake in the horse. I would certainly hope that she did benefit financially from the sale, given that she produced the horse.
Julia did have at the time, and still does, her great 5* horse Samurai du Thot, as well as Amande that she just won with. Samurai is really her first string horse. It’s ironic that she won with Amande rather than her long-time partner Samurai.
Point being that the sale didn’t leave Julia on foot, exactly. Just trimmed her string of a significant performer.
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