Lots of teams have had less than ideal scores except great britain. Germany has had mistakes in all their tests and scored less than expected. With about 10 points separating 20th and 1st time penalties and clear cross country are going to be huge. I actually thought the scoring was much more generous early on yesterday. Most of the early horses had worse changes than the ones I saw later in the day and today and scored better.
There is always so much negativity surrounding the US’s dressage performance. Honestly, while it would take some massive shake-ups for the US to be in contention for an individual medal, they all put in fairly solid performances … Clark’s wasn’t up to what he and that horse are capable of, but it’s certainly not a bad score. Did we all forget that they all still need to get around cross country and stadium? 
Looking for cross-country ride times, by rider … are those posted anywhere? thx!
[QUOTE=Janet;8783977]
What are the team standings? Where are they posted?[/QUOTE]
https://www.rio2016.com/en/equestrian
No cc times yet - but they will be posted here.
[QUOTE=Crockpot;8783721]
I thought military uniforms were allowed- truppa, balkenhol[/QUOTE]
They definitely are in showjumping. The Italian team wears them, and sometimes members of the Irish team too.
[QUOTE=Sticky Situation;8783987]
There is always so much negativity surrounding the US’s dressage performance. Honestly, while it would take some massive shake-ups for the US to be in contention for an individual medal, they all put in fairly solid performances … Clark’s wasn’t up to what he and that horse are capable of, but it’s certainly not a bad score. Did we all forget that they all still need to get around cross country and stadium? ;)[/QUOTE]
Exactly. And further to that, why throw bricks at first-timers Clark and Lauren? They have very respectable scores, no disasters/tragedies there. PD & Boyd also rode, Boyd’s score was the ‘worst’ of the team … but actually fairly good and expected, considering his horse’s experience.
Tomorrow is a big day for everyone. The only thing I know is that no one knows what the leaderboard will look like, end of day! There are always some gobsmack surprises from a BNR or two that drops them down the board. And some of the ‘glad-to-be-here’s’ have the ride of a lifetime, whatever their score.
It was fun to see some ‘just-to-be-here’ riders end up way up the dressage leaderboard - the Italian gentleman, the Chinese rider, etc. Even though it’s kind of tough on the people they pushed down.
Whatever became of the Mexican rider Danielle, who KOC has been coaching this year? I was looking forward to seeing her ride in the Olympics, but best I can tell she is not riding?
Also worth noting, given the difficulty of the course, is how many riders & horses are said to be at their first 4-star. Doesn’t seem like one would want the Olympics to be the first.
Sydney Olympics had a fair number of horse falls with a big course that was above the level of some competitors. I hope that isn’t what happens tomorrow.
Well the OG is usually less difficult than WG, so this is a bit of a surprise I think. Everyone has gotten used to a bit of a course ‘watered down’ so lesser nations can get around. It will be difficult for 1st time 4****
It was fun to see some ‘just-to-be-here’ riders end up way up the dressage leaderboard - the Italian gentleman, the Chinese rider, etc. Even though it’s kind of tough on the people they pushed down.
The Italians are very competitive riders and the Chinese rider is Alex Hua Tien who is hardly an unknown http://www.alexhuatian.com/
[QUOTE=Larksmom;8784011]
Well the OG is usually less difficult than WG, so this is a bit of a surprise I think. Everyone has gotten used to a bit of a course ‘watered down’ so lesser nations can get around. It will be difficult for 1st time 4****[/QUOTE]
From what I understand…the OG typically is watered down only in the sense that there will be options. The direct routes are typically a true 4*…and given who was picked as the designer…no one was expecting an easy 3* course. This course does have tough straight routes but also many options where a less experienced pair can still have a great round. That has been quite often the case for the OGs for some time.
Some random dressage observations:
No errors of course through the entire competition.
Irish and French - strong performances from all their riders and higher team standings after dressage than might have been predicted.
Of the 65 competitors, I count 42 men and 23 women. (65%, 35%).
Of the 65 competitors, 37 wore helmets, 27 wore top hats, and 1 wore a military cap. (57% helmets, 42% top hats, 1% other).
Of the 27 competitors who wore top hats, 24 were men and 3 were women. All four team members from France, New Zealand, and Australia wore top hats.
I counted seven double bridles.
I counted six horses wearing brown tack.
All numbers as stated above are subject to independent auditing.
Just checking in!
Is this the order of go and does it start streaming at 9 am?
https://www.rio2016.com/en/equestrian-eventing-individual-cross-country
I didn’t get to watch the dressage. Did MJ have any issues or were the other rides just better? Go Ingrid!
MJ had an early change in his counter canter loop tracking left but was able to change back to counter canter and then get the change at the correct location - so it was a fairly serious oops but only the scores for the one movement were affected.
Since no one else seems to have brought it up, can we take a minute to discuss Zimbabwae’s coat? I loved the piping and the green tails. Definitely my favorite of both days.
Somehow I clicked on something and am now following MJ facebook, and his post about the test had the usual curious translation: “we had a ( long German word they (it?) didn’t translate). followed by: and he jumped me in the outside world to gallop”.
[QUOTE=Groom&Taxi;8784064]
MJ had an early change in his counter canter loop tracking left but was able to change back to counter canter and then get the change at the correct location - so it was a fairly serious oops but only the scores for the one movement were affected.[/QUOTE]
Thanks! Top 11 riders in a 5 point spread. Tomorrow will be very interesting!!
Here’s the order of go for xc (same as dressage) - says the riders will start every five minutes.
chrome-extension://mloajfnmjckfjbeeofcdaecbelnblden/https://smsprio2016-a.akamaihd.net/_odf-documents/E/Q/EQX003301_ORDERTOGO_TIMETABLE_2016_08_07.pdf
I love reading the FB translations of MJ’s posts.
Loved the look of many of the ensembles - looked like mostly athletic type fabrics even with the classic, non-athletic look. I thought Canada’s coats looked especially sharp.
I love the German browbands. The Zimbabwe browband also looked great - I personally found the green tails a bit distracting, but hey, it’s a very colorful Olympics so why not?
I’m betting that PD will have among the lowest new penalties in his score after tomorrow.
I read somewhere that rain is forecast for tomorrow.
If the Olympics is decided by the dressage coefficient, I will be so POed.
Very proud of Lauren, very cool and professsional. I thought she would score better as well.
[QUOTE=CaitlinandTheBay;8783795]
I was actually impressed with Boyd’s ride. I was pleasantly shocked when the 47.7 popped up. I am choosing to believe that a 37.7 doesn’t put him totally out of play. I keep seeing this Chronicle article in my FB feed about how the XC is going to be “more difficult than expected”. Hopeful we see a leaderboard shake up (preferably due to tons of time penalties and nothing else).[/QUOTE]
Nothing wrong with a run-out here and there …
