What a nice duo. When the horse entered the dressage ring I thought to myself “hello, what have we here”. Nice horse.
Anyone know anything about this horse particularly re: breeding?
WERIUSZ: dk. b. g., 14, Polish-bred by Chyszów—Feiertraum mare, owned by Leslaw Spisak.
That is all I could find and it was in the Chronicle
Did you see his XC round yesterday? Gorgeous ride!
Reed
Pawel Spisak
[QUOTE=RAyers;3433381]
Did you see his XC round yesterday? Gorgeous ride!
Reed[/QUOTE]
I’ll 2nd that. I was definitely WOW’d by his XC! I think he was my favorite of the day; 2nd only to all the USA riders. LOL I didn’t see dressage, but I’ll youtube it later. He’s 26 and competing in his 2nd Olympics. My goodness!
I’d be interested to hear/read Mr. Wofford’s critique on him, and on that XC ride.
I PVR’d it but haven’t watched all of Xcountry yet. I just caught the last three rides. Watching the rest is on tonight’s agenda! I just saw the results and saw they had a very respectable one.
Thanks for looking that up!
[QUOTE=Mozart;3433462]
Thanks for looking that up![/QUOTE]
No prob- this is what the official Olympic site says about his breeding: Polish Horse Breeders Association. So who really knows WHAT he is besides Polish?
[QUOTE=Moody Mare;3433449]
I’ll 2nd that. I was definitely WOW’d by his XC! I think he was my favorite of the day; 2nd only to all the USA riders. LOL I didn’t see dressage, but I’ll youtube it later. He’s 26 and competing in his 2nd Olympics. My goodness!
I’d be interested to hear/read Mr. Wofford’s critique on him, and on that XC ride.[/QUOTE]
I could be confusing it with another rider but I could have swore Jimmy mentioned him as rider to watch a year or so back…possibly on his blog re: WEG in Achen
Pawel Spisak
[QUOTE=Regal Grace;3433588]
I could be confusing it with another rider but I could have swore Jimmy mentioned him as rider to watch a year or so back…possibly on his blog re: WEG in Achen[/QUOTE]
You’re right. And from exactly where you said I’d find it. Not sure if I’m allowed to link the source or not, so…
Here’s what he wrote:
“You probably won’t see him again as he comes from Poland, and they don’t have much in the way of owners there or big time eventing, but this kid has the stuff. At the start of World War II, in September of 1939, the Polish Cavalry defending Warsaw charged German Panzer tanks, armed only with lances. I’ll bet his grandfather was involved. Brave kid with a future in the sport if he can seize it. My pick for the “who-dat” award would be Pawel Spisak. Don’t get me wrong, Pawel stunk up the joint today, but that’s what rookies do. He’ll get over it. His horse isn’t worth the powder to blow him up, but I’m just sayin’…” Jimmy Wofford
Jimmy’s wrong on one count though. Spisak’s MARE is worth a lot more than he gives credit for. She’s made it to the Olympics twice now. It looks to me like Spisak loves that mare too! 
J.Wofford’s My pick for the “who-dat” award
[QUOTE=Moody Mare;3433635]
You’re right. And from exactly where you said I’d find it. Not sure if I’m allowed to link the source or not, so…
Here’s what he wrote:
“You probably won’t see him again as he comes from Poland, and they don’t have much in the way of owners there or big time eventing, but this kid has the stuff. At the start of World War II, in September of 1939, the Polish Cavalry defending Warsaw charged German Panzer tanks, armed only with lances. I’ll bet his grandfather was involved. Brave kid with a future in the sport if he can seize it. My pick for the “who-dat” award would be Pawel Spisak. Don’t get me wrong, Pawel stunk up the joint today, but that’s what rookies do. He’ll get over it. His horse isn’t worth the powder to blow him up, but I’m just sayin’…” Jimmy Wofford
Jimmy’s wrong on one count though. Spisak’s MARE is worth a lot more than he gives credit for. She’s made it to the Olympics twice now. It looks to me like Spisak loves that mare too! :-)[/QUOTE]
Yup when JW said “who-dat” it stuck in my mind but he usually gives out that award in his Rolex preview which was why I was not sure if it was the same rider. Glad to see Pawel and his mare prove Jimmy wrong on that count. Which goes to the heart of why I love eventing. A rider building a partnership with his or her horse. Some of my favorite riders have been the ones that have taken horses that nobody wanted or were told they did not have the “right stuff” and prove them wrong.
GO POLAND!!!
He looked really good over cross country and dressage. Unfortunately he is currently 33rd, which leaves him out of the individual medal chance, but it is still very good standings. Especially for a country that is not all that strong economically.
His horse is not a mare, Wierusz is a male name so its a gelding or stallion for sure.
Anyways, its nice to see him be successful. I am fron Poland and have met him on several occassions at a few parties back when he was still a young rider. (haha, my friend had a serious crush on him!)
I think Poland has some really good riders, but sponsors are lacking and so are trainers. But the biggest problem IMO is the attitude. Example:
I was in Poland during the last Olympics in Athens. I was visiting a fairly big event and was talking to some of the big names in Polish eventing (trainers). I said “its really too bad that our boys didn’t do so well in Athens” (the highest placed was I think 45th or 46th)
The “trainer” replied to me “are you crazy??? they made it through cross country!, they did great!”
So expectations are really low - nobody is really shooting for the top. And while I know that you’ve got to be realistic, but it seems like nobody dreams overe there. Everybody likes to complain how poor the quality of horses is and how little money there is and how there are no sponsors, but there aren’t enough people who dream big!
Anyways Go Spisak, hopefully he’ll really make it in the sport some day!
If you go here:
http://www.equestrian-database.com/serve/frontpage
register and go to the eventing database, you can find their records. It’s really quite impressive for a young Polish rider.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM! It’s good to have a hometown hero. I think he was just happy to get through the course with no jumping faults. He went swimming in the last Olympics. :lol:
As for no one dreaming over there, its not that we don’t have the drive for it, it’s just that most of the Polish horse community is engrossed in Arabians and Arabian racing. The Eventing and Show Jumping scene isn’t really big there.
The last time we had a gold medal in the equestrian was sometime in the 60’s.
I really hope to see him in the WEG. he’s a great rider and not to bad to look at either. :winkgrin:
Definitely one of my faves! Thanks for all the info on the duo here.
I really liked them too. He just jumped clean too!
I loved how he jumped off after his round and kissed his horse on the nose – just adorable!
Love him
I finally watched his xcountry ride last night and saw his show jumping this a.m. Wofford nailed it re: this kid. He has feel, focus, good hands and a natural rhythm.
I think he got the assessment of the horse wrong, but I guess JW is entitled to make a mistake or two. 
Okay, so he’s not the scopiest thing out there, but he is clean, careful, obedient and he tried his little heart out. You can’t ask for much more.
Anyway, the world beaters better keep an eye on Pawel. If he can find another good horse I’ll bet he will be tapping them on the shoulder pretty soon. :yes:
Go Pawel ! Looking so good and brave and all!
He is ranked 25 now and in the individual jumping.
Wasn’t he at Athens? Anyone know how he did there?
